Violet's Last Day as a Ladybug

Today was Violet's last day of her first year of preschool.

It was a great year for Violet.

She learned and grew so much.

We are so proud of you little Violet Mae.

Here are some pics!

at the end of every  year I love to make a homemade gift for all the teachers.
this year it was a wooden letter of the their first initial with a collage of each student in black and white

all bundled up with a little notebook, zippered pouch and some twine

Back to School and all the trimmings...

Last week I was super busy getting the kids ready for back to school.

Now, some of this stuff wasn't exactly "necessary" I know I know, but in true Welsh fashion we like to celebrate even the littlest things (and people) around here.

Pre-K and the first day of preschool are both big milestones so it was fun to start a few "back to school" traditions, and get the kids participation in making teacher gifts.

Now I realize teacher gifts are totally unnecessary, but I LOVE giving gifts and I want to teach my kids that one way to show love is to do nice things for others.

So this curtailed into a fun morning activity with some friends.

Making Magic Cookie Bars

... or "christmas crack" as some affectionately have nicknamed it. ha!

This is one of my "go-to" treats for several reasons...

1. its like 4 steps. so easy=I'm doing it

2. because they're so easy that makes getting the kids involved a little more realistic for me

3. they're highly addictive delicious little magical chocolate buttery graham cracker goodness. 

My kinda "crack"

My recipe?

It's not exactly some super secret, there are many variations out there, but here goes...

melt one stick of butter in a regular sheet cake pan

(I just throw my pan in the oven until its melted)

then spread about 3/4 box of graham cracker crumbs over the bottom of the pan making a crust

spread one bag of chocolate chips evenly over the crust

Here's the kicker: 

now evenly spread one can of sweetened condensed milk (the other "liquid gold") 

over the chocolate chip layer

sprinkle chopped walnuts

Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Let cool and voila!

Anna.... you're welcome.

I have just changed your life.

Now for some kiddie pic(k)s:

these kids have to take ownership over these presents!
now that they're old enough they had better have some kind of participation in this,
 or I'm telling their teachers its just from me! shoot!

and here are the lovelies
It was late when I cut these so yeah the pics aren't the best (no natural light here!)
I have to do things on "mom time" right now
found these adorable printable gift tags here:
thirtyhandmadedays.com/2014/08/teacher-back-to-school-printable/
I always keep an assortment of sizes of brown paper bags on hand
so in this case all I had to do was wrap a few cookies in parchment paper
put them in the bags and attach the printable with a cute mini clothespin...
(which I already had too!)
No trips to Michaels=a happy momma
weeeeeee!

gettin' her hair did, it will be a back to school tradition since we do this like twice a year
gives me the motivation to take her
Violet will start when
a. her hair is long enough
and
 b. she doesn't adamantly say "no" to the idea

Penelope is a girly girl who also loves playing in the dirt and is fascinated with bugs
So she can pretty much make a friend anywhere
She's been begging to get her nails done, but hey these kinds of splurges are for mommas
So I like to wait for a special occasion to treat her so this stays a super fun splurgy kind of thing
I was fully expecting Violet Mae to hop on a chair too and she did... until the lady came over and her "stranger danger" kicked in
She decided to kick it on the couch with me and baby E instead
Good call, saved me like thirty bucks right there

There was also new shoe shopping but that was the craziest mad dash you've ever seen.
Three little kids in a shoe store- or any store for that matter?
Bad bad idea
;)

Valentine's craftiness...

I know I've said this before, but to me VALENTINE'S is so much more than a day for romance.

It's an excuse to show others in your life how much they mean to you.

Even with the smallest of gestures.

This year I was in my crafting glory- with homemade teacher gifts, candy and hostess gifts.

I even like to make sure my lady friends get a little special note.

It was fun to see the girls get in on part of the action too.

I like when they get to take ownership in their own gifts to others.

The girls also went on their first official "daddy date."

It was a daddy-daughter dance that our church Ocean Hills puts on.

They got all dolled up, and had so much fun.

This love day had something for everyone to get excited about!

enjoy the pic(k)s!

sort of chopped James's head here a bit!

first up, my valentine baby shower hostess gifts-
I bought jelly jars and red candles at Michael's

and these adorable heart doilies....

the lighting here is due to the fact that most of my crafting happens around midnight!

and wrapped it all up!

second... personalized aprons

pounce on fabric paint and use the doily as a stencil
I used a spray glue from Michaels to get it to adhere so it wouldn't move around on me
These cute cream aprons came from Michaels too!
they already had the lace detail 

then I used some letter stencils that I already had with some black fabric paint

let dry

and voila! such a cute little personalized apron

teacher/trash guys/postman/cleaning lady/ etc etc gifts...

We made valentine bark and packaged them up in cute little gift bags I found from the dollar bin at Target

this bark is so easy and yummy- its also a great activity for small children 

this bark is simply melted chocolate of your choosing (I chose ghiradelli milk chocolate chips)
then pour melted chocolate into a smooth layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
put in fridge for a half hour to set
next step, melt light pink candy melts from Michael's (I like to use a glass bowl and set in the micro at 20 sec intervals, stirring in between, pretty foolproof)
pour over milk chocolate layer
then BEFORE it sets sprinkle valentine M&Ms, and valentine sprinkles

gently press candy into the chocolate
let it sit in the fridge until it hardens
then you can break it into pieces and package it up!
This is always a hit!

It wouldn't be a holiday without a themed breakfast (at least in my house)
here we have Nutella "heart" french toast, heart bacon and strawberries

I made coffee cozies for teacher gifts
I used a starbucks sleeve as a stencil on a piece of light pink fleece
and sewed a zig zag stitch as a detail
then I cut out a heart in red fleece and sewed it onto my sleeve
Before doing so though I took some embroidery thread and sewed their initial
I left the top open so I could stick a gift card in it.
I mean cause at the end of the day its all about the packaging right? ;)

I used the nice recyclable/resuable cups 

In between the two pieces of felt I placed a hair tie
then I sewed over it with a zigzag stitch
I sewed a button to the other side and now you have a cute little closure

I also made these INCREDIBLY YUMMY sugar scrubs for my baby shower hostess gifts.
You have to understand, my baby shower had so many amazing crafty DIY details I knew I had to go big for these ladies.
This idea I found on Pinterest from Oh So Pretty.
The recipe and printable labels were all there so it made for a super easy and fun project.
Not to mention it smells AMAZING!
The jars are also from Michael's.

ah, homemade gifts are the best!