February Days

The past few days have been filled with Valentine's prep, a birthday party and fun times at school.  We've been enjoying ourselves around here!

On Tuesday morning I joined Sydney's class to make homemade paper with the kids.  This is a craft that I have long been wanting to do with Syd, but hadn't gotten around to, so it was so neat to be able to do it will the children in Syd's school.

The process was relatively simple, add ripped up bits of scrap paper and some warm water to a blender, blend like crazy and then strain the contents through a mesh strainer to come up with textured homemade paper.

The final result was a little thick and bumpy but very cool never the less.  The kids had great fun adding crushed bits of leaves and glitter to the paper.  Click here for more detailed instructions on how to make your own.

In fact, in the end it turned into a glitter party with the kids gluing glitter onto paper with wild abandon. 

Such fun!  I love spending time in Syd's class!

Last night we celebrated Zach's 28th birthday at a dinner party at his place.  Syd and I wrapped up the giant canvas that we made for him and stuck an enormous green bow to it.

I realized minutes before we were meant to leave that I had forgotten to get him a card.  Sydney threw herself into action without me knowing a thing and came upstairs with this minutes later.

So sweet, she even wrote the entire happy birthday message all by herself and spelled everything right!

We had a lovely dinner and visit with everyone and enjoyed celebrating Zach's day with him!

Zach absolutely loved his new one of a kind painting made by Syd and it is going to look fabulous hanging in his apartment!

I think Syd was feeling inspired by the painting we made for Zach for his birthday. Today at art class she started a new canvas, which is going to be a self portrait, and she chose turquoise as the background colour, same as we'd done for Zach!

Syd brought home her ceramic horse from art class today, I love that it has wings.  Sydney tells me they're actually not wings, it's the cell phone for the horse in case he needs to call someone, so funny!

Yesterday afternoon Sydney and I decided to make a batch of Valentine's cookies for the party that we are having tomorrow at Menchie's.  I used the opportunity to try a recipe from my Butter cookbook at long last.

The cookies turned out great and Syd had such fun decorating them with the giant bottle of cookie toppings that we got last week in the states.

We packaged the treats up in little Valentine's bags ready to give to our guests tomorrow!

Syd got a little early Valentine's present from Zach and Danielle yesterday, a bunch of Kinder Surprises and a Hello Kitty container filled with necklaces and rings and a lipstick!  She was in heaven!

Sydney came home from school today with a piece of paper on which she had written the names of all the children in her class plus her teachers.  I am amazed at how much her writing and reading skills are taking off lately, it's incredible!

Syd also brought home a very special sparkly keychain from school that her friend Jiaqi gave her upon her return from a trip to China.  Every child in the class received one and they were so excited to get such a lovely gift!

We are so looking forward to the next few days where Valentine's celebrations abound!  Hope you're feeling the love on this cool February day!