valentines themed coop preschool

i hosted co-op preschool today...valentine's day theme...it was so chaotic with six or so crafts (stickers, cutting, painting, sponging, collage-making, pasting...you get the picture...) going at once that i didn't take any photos until almost the end...i should have taken one of the floor covered with confetti, scraps of paper...it covered several rooms...here is the group shot without the cooperation of kids holding up their crafts (oh wait, ensen and calvin look quite cooperative though story didn't even make it in the shot)...
boys playing shy...

good bye hug for ensen...
here is one of the projects...a collage of construction paper, hearts, hole punched confetti, glue, glitter...we then cut hearts out of this...i got this idea and the idea for the sponge hearts from kids craft weekly, a free online newsletter...click here for the valentine issue...
sea being pouty looking at the collage...
close up...it was bright out and actually quite warm...pushing 70 degrees which seems unreal looking at the feet of snow on fellow bloggers posts across the country...
lisa and baby violet cutting out hearts...
baby violet...
story excited to pose with the girls on the porch...

story showing off one of his hearts...
ruhi showing off one of her hearts and sea having a moment...

ruhi and sea (still having a moment)...
group shots are hard...
a little more posing...




we finished a lot of the crafts after everyone left...and hung them up to dry...
sea made this one with sponges cut out in the shape of hearts and acrylic paint...
cut out from the collage...
colored chalk on black paper...
we used many of the hearts on a branch with paper clips...daddy is going to take this to his job...

got this idea out of a recycling into art book...weave colored paper strips through grocery bags cut into hearts...
sea making more crafts...
these are going to be made into cards for all the coop friends...


sea and story still crafting right before dinner...

you can see the valentine garland we made in our dining room window in the background...


i'll leave you with a couple "little things"...this morning story opened the produce drawer in the fridge and said "abble" and promptly pointed to an apple as if he's always known that word...i got all excited and hugged him and then later he kept saying "abble, abble, abble" to get more attention...later i was online and he saw his friend sachi (the 2-year-old sister to ruhi posing in photos with sea towards the end) and pointed and said "awh-chee!"...so he still call his sister sea "ee" and hasn't quite gotten "s's" down...i remember sea did the same...it is so exciting when they learn new words i'm glad i'm blogging every day this month to hopefully catch more of them in the moment...with sea i swore i would write them down and then it somehow felt like she had always been saying each word before i could record it...

i'm at my mom's house (she lives 1.5 hours northeast of us) for a meeting to help plan my 20 year high school reunion...i've been having anxiety dreams or dreams of resolution dealing with my own childhood issues coupled with researching kindergartens for sea...these will be my big issues to blog on this month...oh, and my love for my husband and family and life...if i can get my priorities in the right place!!!