House of Estrogen

Valentine's Day by Pinterest

How did people ever survive the holidays before Pinterest? How did they come up with cute, fun, simple crafts for kids, and yummy, beautiful, clever baked goods?  I suppose Family Fun and Good Housekeeping magazines contained a few ideas, and some people are just naturally creative, but really... the holidays before Pinterest? It was much more difficult to be all cutesy and clever "back then."  Of course, the flip side is that without all the cool ideas on Pinterest, I'd probably just go out and buy the super-easy drug store Valentines and a box of pink Lofthouse cookies and call it done... no baking, no cutting, no printing, no gluing. Hmmm... perhaps Pinterest has actually made my life more difficult... hard to say for sure. Regardless, we had a very Pinterest-inspired Valentine's Day this year.

1. Elise's iPhone Valentines, template courtesy Living Locurto

2. My three Valentines

3. Nina's heart braid, instructions courtesy Not So Average Mama

4. Reeses peanut butter cookies, recipe from i heart nap time

5. Nina's "You Rock" Pop Rocks Valentines, template from Living Locurto

Happy Balentine's Day!

I think my favorite part of today was listening to Addie wish everyone a Happy Balentine's Day, talk about her Balentine's Day party at school, and to see how excited she was about all the Balentines she received. I doubt next year will be Balentine's Day, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

The last two years, we have put a lot of time and effort into the girls' Valentines for school. Two years ago, we did the iPod Valentines. Last year, we upped the ante with the iPhone Valentines. This year, I had no time or energy for anything complicated. I needed cheap, easy, and quick. Hello Pinterest! I found these great glow stick valentines on the Teacher Wife Blog complete with a free printable. Bingo!  Glow bracelets are 15 for a dollar in Target's Dollar Spot. For six bucks, I got enough for all three kids classes. 

 

I hope Addison's friends enjoyed their Balentines from Abbison and Appison!

For the first time ever, I decided to attempt heart hairdos. I have always admired these but never actually attempted them.

Elise's hair is short enough that there weren't a lot of options. I went with this little side heart. I think it has potential, but I definitely need more practice. She liked it, but apparently she took it out on the bus on the way to school when Nina told her it looked ugly. Gotta love little sisters.

For Addie, I went with the braided heart. It turned out OK, but her hair wasn't quite long enough to really do it properly.

Nina's hair is the longest, and I think hers definitely turned out the best. Fun, huh?

I hope all of you had a wonderful Balentine's Day!