On Christmas night, my husband and I booked a beach house to spend a week at with his parents for a little family vacation in June!  I'm so excited to have something warm too look forward to because I absolutely cannot stand Ohio in the winter.  It's so cold.   I'd really rather clean the whole house than spend ten minutes outside in the snow.  

However, unlike me, my first graders love the snow so I whipped up this cute little Winter Writing Pack that we can use in January.  In between winter benchmarks and comparing lots of different versions of The Gingerbread Man, my first graders and I will be studying Arctic Animals for science and working on more informational writing, opinion writing, and how-to writing.

This little writing pack is filled with over 20 writing activities for your little Eskimos! It has an opinion piece, How To Make Hot Chocolate - with sequencing picture cards and various templates for differentiation, four adorable Read & Research activities with an Arctic Animal Research Report, and so much more! :)  It's available in my TpT shop by clicking {HERE} or any of the preview pictures below. 

Looking for an easy, fun Valentine’s Party idea?  How about a

Hot Cocoa Bar

I did this last year for a ladies’ church function and it was really fun. Everyone enjoyed getting to make up their hot cocoa just they way they wanted it.  We had fun chatting and drinking our yummy concoctions.  And it was so easy!

I covered the table with my Valentine’s tablecloth and topped it with a wrapping paper runner.

I got these cute cups for the toppings at the dollar store.  I made labels for the fronts of the cups, and glued a paper heart to the serving spoons.  YOU CAN FIND THE LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE LABELS FREE AT THE END OF THE POST!

We had whipped cream to top it off, and cookies to dip in the cocoa!

I got these fun heart shaped marshmallows and put a couple on a swizzle stick.

We had this hot water dispenser and a big can of cocoa mix.

This cute banner was a printable from Kiki and Company.

The toppings and mix ins included:

• peanut butter cups
• Oreo crumbs
• graham cracker crumbs
• chocolate chips
• caramels
• sea salt
• hazelnut creamer
• French vanilla creamer
• peppermint candies
• dark cocoa powder
• whipped cream

I am offering a FREE DOWNLOAD HERE and HERE for the labels I used.

PLEASE SHARE THIS ON PINTEREST OR FACEBOOK IF YOU DOWNLOAD.

THANKS!

Just print them, cut them out, and mount them on a cute cardstock backer.

Enjoy!

I love Valentine’s Day.  It's not a huge holiday, but it is special to me.  I love that I can just do something small to tell all the special people in my life that I love them!  What is better than a day about love?  I used to not like it so much before I was married and didn’t have a boyfriend to celebrate with.  I wish I had the attitude about it then that I do now.  It’s not so much about lovers as about love.  My husband and I usually forgo an alone date in order to stay home and love on our kids.  We exchange Valentines and have a cheese and chocolate fondue dinner together.  It is fun and our kids look forward to it.  We want them to know they are important to us and that we love them dearly.

My mom always did cute things for us on Valentine’s day.  She would make heart shaped pancakes or waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast.  She always gave us some type of cute Valentine that she made that always expressed her love to us, and usually came with something sweet.  For dinner she would often make heart shaped English muffin pizzas.  This was long before the days of oodles of ideas via Pinterest or blogging.  She wasn’t a very craft oriented person, so these little things meant a lot and were out of the norm.  My dad always gave us a store bought card, which I loved because we were not a store bought card kind of family.  He also gives us Dove ice cream bars!  Sometimes he gave us cute stuffed animals, too.

All of us girls (there were 7 of us) exchanged Valentine’s with each other, too.  And we still do.  Cousins make Valentine’s for each other and we sisters often make a treat or something for each other’s families.  This year I made this printable that I am sending to all my sisters for Valentine’s day.  And I wanted to share it here with my readers.  I hope you like it!

Go HERE for your FREE DOWNLOAD! PLEASE share this on Pinterest or Facebook if you download it and leave me a comment telling me that you downloaded it.

Thanks!

Lately everything seemed lack luster. Nothing to take pictures of, nothing of interest, and everyday feeling the same. It wasn't, but just uninspiring. I dislike that. It feels like I have no motivation to even pick up the camera or finish a project, never mind start one. Which tends to lead to a very quiet place here.
Then I start to think of all the fun things coming up. A couple more birthdays to plan, home improvement projects, ideas of stitching colorful threads, and visiting vintage shops for much needed furniture (btw still haven't found a good local thrifting spot). Add in some Mumford & Sons music and a couple lit candles - the inspiration comes back, like finding an old friend.
Rooms here that haven't gotten their fair share behind the lens, start to get their turn. Whole food menus get prepared and planned. Thoughts get scribbled down. Toes get painted. New plants, add new life. All it took was a little coaxing.