February tends to take my creative insanity to a whole new level. Not only am I usually preparing for the (wonderfully girly) holiday of hearts and lace and all shades pink, decorating my home and making homemade Valentines with both boys, but I am also usually knee deep in some themed birthday craft for the little one.
I kid you not.
Let’s imagine for just a second that I was already blogging a year ago. This is a tiny glimpse into the craft-mania that overtook my household.
Time-warp to February 2014…
Harry Potter Themed Valentines
Version 1.0 was reading (and loving) Harry Potter. Finally. I had been wanting to share my love of Wizards and Muggles with him since his first ultrasound, and couldn’t let this milestone pass! We had to make Harry Potter chocolate covered pretzel “wands” for his class. If you are familiar with the books, and I hope you are–they are such beautiful stories of friendship and loyalty–you know that when Harry first learns he is a wizard, and goes to purchase his very own wand, Mr. Ollivander tells him, “The wizard does not choose the wand; the wand chooses the wizard”.
I spent a few days finding all of these beautiful illustrations of each character online. This was probably the most fun. Simply Google [character’s name, illustration]. You’ll be amazed with the different perspectives you’ll find. Once we chose the illustrations we liked the most, we printed them on label paper, then cut them to size and stuck them inside the Valentine’s Day Card, which was made from black card stock. We made enough for each of his classmates. The idea behind the Valentine was that as each child chose his wand, he found out which Harry Potter character he was.
I would love to show you how the wands turned out as well, however in the middle of wand-making, I quickly realized that regular chocolate chips DO NOT melt and solidify nicely. We are talking goopy, sloppy mess! Half the wands were dumped, Hubby ran out to Walmart at nine o’clock at night to buy more pretzel rods and whatever colored melting chips they had, and I tried hard not to hyperventilate. I will tell you that choices were limited; apparently chip-melting is very popular the night before Valentine’s Day. In the end, the wands turned out awesome; however in the chaos of chocolate, tears, and sweat, the camera was thrown aside, and no more pictures were taken that night.
However If you’d like to see the inspiration I used when making the wands, you can visit the .
Minion Birthday Party
Now, I know you’re going to have a hard time believing this, but during that same evening of pretzel-rod-dipping and heart-sprinkle-sprinkling, I was also hot glue gunning 20 different minion hats for Version 1.0’s Minion Birthday Party that upcoming weekend. Certifiable, right? But in all honestly, my little one loved, loved, loved minions!!! And not just the cute little yellow ones. He liked the horrible purple ones too. I honestly think he identified with them both somehow (his four year old version of good and evil).
So when this sweet boy asked for a Minion Birthday, Mommy produced, and Mommy produced with heart!
I bought two packages of on Amazon, and spray painted a third of them purple. I found free eye and teeth printouts online (for both the yellow and purple minions) and printed them on full size label paper, then cut out. The black band for the eye wear is actually electric tape. The hardest part of this project was honestly poking the holes through the top of those Minions with black hair (pipe cleaners). The sorest part was gluing on the purple hair (curse you, hot glue gun).
The party hats above were from Target and matched the plates and napkins I had picked up from Party City.
The hats were a huge success! The kids loved them! I was asked repeatedly throughout the party, “Can I keep this? Can I take this home? Is this really mine?” And it was so cute to see a bunch of Minions running around Little Gym.
All in all, we survived February of 2014.
I am trying to remind myself daily to tone it down this year. BUT. IT. IS. HARD. New house? Never before decorated for Valentine’s Day? Those two sentences alone just sent a tiny surge of adrenaline through my excited heart. I have a thousand different ideas racing through my mind…
And one whisper: take it one day at a time.
We shall see.
Kelly
