Valentine's Projects

We actually celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday.  It was Dada's day off, so we invited Grandma and Grandpa over for supper and had a great meal and celebration.  The boys had been working hard on some special projects and it came right down to the wire to get them finished -- Grandma and Grandpa actually had to stand around in the kitchen for a few minutes while we finished up!  Because things were so rushed in the end, I realized that we did not get pictures of all the finished products, so those will have to come later.

The boys have been finger knitting all week to make Grandma's present.  It had been some time since we had done any finger knitting, so we had to re-teach ourselves, but once we did, off they went.  There was yarn everywhere!  It's a good thing that we don't have a cat, although Laurel made a good substitute.  The final product (which is what was being finished up last minute, despite being worked on all week) was finger knit flowers, and I must say that they turned out pretty good.  I'll have to take a picture the next time that we are visiting Grandma, but here are the boys at work.

And Laurel chasing the yarn around!

Our Grandpa, Grampie, Dada, and "other" project (Aidan insisted that we needed four, but would not tell me who the 4th was for ... hmmmm ... now who could it be?) was a stringed heart.  I cut the wood and wrote the names, but everything else was done by the boys.

Owen drew the hearts on ...

... Aidan hammered all the nails (and painted all the edges red) ...

... and everyone had fun stringing the yarn around and around.  Luckily, one of these projects stayed at our house (two actually ... surprise ... the fourth one was for ME!) or I would have not gotten a picture of this project either.

While setting the table and wondering what to use for a centerpiece, we came up with another project that got the whole family involved -- maybe this is why our planned projects were being finished at the last minute.  Everybody was running around the house looking for things that would fit with the theme.  It even provided some dinner conversation -- not that a table of 8 including 4 kids, needs any prompts.

The yellow dinosaur has a red back, and therefore qualifies, but he didn't want to have his face buried, so he looks a little out of place.  It reminds me of those "I Spy" books.  Can you find 2 trucks, 3 dinosaurs, an apple and a lobster?  We had so much fun with this we may change it every week to a different theme ... all trucks, all blue, all musical instruments ... oh the possibilities are endless.  Suggestions?

Happy Valentine's Day from the Winter's!