Oh, I love good craft ideas.
So I was so happy when I looked over at Finley and Oliver on our EV Mom Bloggers Connect page.
There are not one, but two adorable Valentine’s Day crafts. You have to check them out. Plus, they look super easy.

My kids are at home with daddy this week as I finish writing a few stories.
To keep them busy, and from arguing, I handed them tape, scissors (gasp!), wrapping paper, and the gifts we’ve made for grandparents this morning.
The fun part? They realized they had to work together to wrap the gifts. The not-so-fun-part, my 6-year-old was being hyper critical of the job she was doing.
“It’s not pretty. They’re going to hate it.”
I assured her they wouldn’t. I’ve never had my kids help wrap gifts – mainly because I’m such …

Each year, I try to remember and give my children’s teachers a gift. Most years, it’s a coffeehouse gift card. Sometimes, we make it personal. I try to remember the after-school care instructors and bus driver, too.
But this year, we’re going homemade. Inspired by my middle child’s desire to make holiday goodies, we’ve made more than three dozen chocolate “pops” and chocolate covered preztels. The latter was decided after a friend called Friday exclaiming, “I have chocolate and preztels. Want to get together?” We had eight kids at the house …

Monday night when we arrived home, I pulled out a 9′ inflatable, holiday polar bear – to put up in my living room. Last year we didn’t put it up – I was afraid my then-infant would be smothered by it.
Now she’s the one smothering it! She’s in love, completely! We bought the polar bear several years ago after Christmas. My son loved it. My now-6-year-old, not so much. In fact, it freaked her out so much that we had to take it down.
All this we do for fun in …

Ok, so that’s not entirely true. We had a very eventful Christmas Eve. But in previous years, I’ve had some story to report after Christmas Eve Mass: my daughter falling into the fountain, the kids singing during the homily or shouting “Where’s Baby Jesus?!?” during the children’s presentation.
Nothing happened this year.
The kids were angels. They watched and listened. My daughter sang “Away in the Manager” with the choir at the appropriate time. We even got a nice picture of the grandkids with grandparents (a tradition) in front of the tree.
Then …

My daughter and I wrapped up our holiday baking over the weekend with a gingerbread house. I’ll say “baking” loosely since we didn’t actually bake the house. We just decorated it. We giggled and smiled as we picked out the candies, watched the frosting drip down like snow on the roof and snuck a few pieces of sweets in our mouths.
It goes without saying that we didn’t meet our goal to bake every night. We didn’t even come close. But we did enjoy the times we broke out the “baking …

This morning, dozens of parents and children filled the lobby at one of Maricopa County’s courthouses.
Boys were dressed in ties and sweaters. Girls donned their best sparkly dresses and shoes.
Families and friends awaited their turn to enter the small room with the judge.
It was adoption day for at least half a dozen families.
The Lonkar family of Gilbert arrived a few minutes before their scheduled appointment. They were joined by aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and many friends.
It was my first experience at a hearing to finalize an adoption. I knew from …

Each year it seems my kids’ teachers get more and more creative with winter holiday parties.

What’s a holiday cookie without sprinkles?
My kids attend the same school for the first time, so they had holiday parties the same day last week. I attended my daughter’s in the morning and my son’s in the afternoon. I’ve never done so many crafts in so few hours! Their teachers amazed me with the organization of the stations and variety of projects.
In my daughter’s kindergarten class, the students: decorated cookies, …

My sister in law held her annual cookie day this weekend! I’ll post a few of the recipes we used (as soon as I find them!) but in the meantime, I’ll share her decorating tips.
I love how she organizes this event for the five grandkids old enough to help. She puts tiny bowls of toppings on a turntable in the middle of the kitchen table. This year, we had lots of goodies for the kids to use: licorice; marshmallows; a candy mixture of M&Ms, Skittles, gummy bears and Sweet tarts; red hots; …

During a college speech class, I once presented a talk on my history of cooking disasters. It wasn’t hard. Earlier that year I started a small fire in the dorm kitchen. It resulted in more than 150 coeds evacuating right as many were getting ready for a Friday night out.
So it comes as no surprise that I would have at least ONE dish not turn out while attempting to do more holiday baking than I’ve done in years.
After making fudge from a kit, I broke out my great grandmother’s butter …