1 4oz bag of Pixie Sticks*
11 sheets of multi colored card stock
Tape
A hole punch
Kids willing to help assemble and address the valentines

Print the pattern, or make your own pattern, and print it out onto card stock. Have the kids cut out the hearts and start labeling them for their class mates. Then hole punch each large heart twice on the “x”. Thread a pixie stick through. Tape a small heart to one end to form an arrow head and a medium heart to the other as the arrow’s tail. They can add another heart to the front of the valentine for emphasis if they want to. Tape the back of the valentine as well to secure the pixie stick arrow.

Enjoy!

*You might note I spelled it many different ways, sorry, that’s to help you find the article. The title has the real spelling, in case you were wondering

If you know of a whoville hairstyle trick, please drop your how-to on this page. And in the meanwhile I’ll be trying to figure something out, and will post what I did if it works out

Another closer pic of the who-hair from last year. Didn't turn out fabulous, but it did work...

Easiest idea, IMHO, came from my friend Jen: wrap the hair up over a pantyhose egg and add a fake-hair clip in a fun color. Easy peasy and there’s no mess of hairspray or hair paint to wash out.

This is what else I noticed:

I would say most of the moms actually put a plastic drinking cup on top of their daughters head, then pulled the hair up and around it. Some of them curled the ends, some fluffed them out, and some braided them with pipe cleaners and ribbons to make funky shapes.

Mary’s hair was a bit too fine and thin for all that, but I did want the grinch-movie type height on her head. So instead of a cup, I used the taller half of a large plastic easter egg, and made a top-of-the-head pontyail just above that. Her hair covered that easily — well, I did have to use lots of thinned-out spiking glue to make it hold up.

I tried, really, to braid a pipe cleaner into her hair because I wanted to make a spiral with it. Alas and alack, my sister is so talented with braiding, I’ve never really learned how to do it well for myself. So I tried curling mary’s ends with my curling iron, and I learned that very fine smooth and shiny hair like mary’s does not cooperate with a curling iron.

Mary with her who-hair being shy for the camera (Shy is OK for the web)

Still, the egg under her hair gave her head sortof a hershy’s kiss shape, and it was cute. A teacher added a bow for her (something I couldn’t find in my craft box at home) and she ended up looking very cute. If only she weren’t so petrified about the performance. Here she is singing her song. hee hee… (too bad my camera’s built-in video left much to be desired!)

How to fold a six sided paper snowflake

Take an 8.5″x11″ piece of light weight paper. Fold it in half the “short” way. Start to fold in half again, but crease just the end of the folded edge to find the center. Then, using that point as a guide, fold the paper into thirds. I find that it helps to almost ‘roll’ the paper and slowly flatten it into thirds. At any rate, once you’ve got the correct angel (roughly 60 degrees) make a crease, and fold both sides in. Fold that V shape in half at the center. Then design your cuts, cut it out, and unfold.

In the picture, I’ve written my own name in a dark marker so it will show up in the photograph. In reality, I would very lightly pencil the design in. When you start to cut, make sure you’re keeping some of the folded edges intact so your paper snowflake will unfold properly and not just fall apart. Intricate designs may need to be done with an exacto blade, so I recommend keeping it simple at first so as to avoid frustration.

Last year’s nameflakes are gone, but we enjoy making these every year and will probably end up doing a few tomorrow. I will post the pictures then

You’ll need -

3 bags of Microwave Popcorn (plain, white butter, or butter flavored is fine)
1 bag of Nestle White Chocolate Morsels (I tried walmart brand once with this, and it was kinda gross)
1 bag of Reeses Pieces Mini (For baking)

Make the popcorn and transfer it from one large bowl, sifting out the unpopped / hard kernels

Put the chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 10-20 seconds, stir, and repeat, until the chocolate is smooth. Don’t leave it in for more than 20 seconds at a time or it might scorch.

Pour the chocolate over the popcorn, stir until the popcorn is pretty well coated. Add the peanut butter pieces and stir again.

Put the popcorn in pans too cool off. If you let it harden in a big pan, it’ll get stuck like that and be harder to share with your friends. Which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

Enjoy – and enjoy your Halloween! (Or Christmas, or Family Home Evening, or Tuesday .. you get the idea!)

Admittedly, it wasn’t always fun trudging through snow for what seemed like hours on end. Sometimes we even wore bags on our feet to keep the snow out of worn shoes… which was more than a little embarrassing. (Between that and the strange but creative variation on rag curlers my mom came up with, “bread bags” was one of my many names at school. Good Times!) But we’d always thaw ourselves afterward over homemade hot cocoa and biscuits, and invariably our hearts were warmed as well by a few people who seemed to need the caroling that year.

Well, this year I’m the one who ‘needs’ to carol. Between stress and mild but annoyingly long-lasting under-the-weatherness (I couldn’t even call it illness so please pardon the invented term), I’ve had a hard time catching the Christmas Spirit. My husband doesn’t sing, but perhaps I can wrangle enough of my family together to do the real thing for a night or two, since I’m sure frozen toes MUST somehow inadvertently contribute to the bliss. Still I’m hoping my little experiment will be fun.

Below are links to two files. If you’re up to it, download the first and add your own voice using Audacity. Send the MP3 back to my gmail address if you would (which you can get by asking on my contact form, or by remembering an old moniker of mine at gmail.com) so I don’t eat up too much bandwidth on my little account here. I’ll mix whatever submissions I get (assuming you remember that I, while I do respect other points of view, will not promote bashing of my own – so please keep it clean and friendly.) Remember you don’t have to be pro or anywhere near it to enjoy a simple carol – and though I’ll post contributors names and a link if they want that, I won’t say who sang what part. So don’t be shy now Have fun. Get your family or friends to sing along too. (I removed the first file, NO ONE tried it, and I don’t like singing solos )

The second file is one of my favorite carols, and I’m singing it to you. Again it’s not pro and the voice leading and timing and breathing could have used a little help in parts — but that’s not the point. The point is that I want to share a carol I love with my friends. This song reminds me that angels sang to celebrate Christ’s birth. I wonder sometimes how many of us were in that choir. And I love to think that despite the craziness we as a society tend to bring upon ourselves in the Christmas season, that if we’ll just relax and remember what it’s about, as well as forgive those around us who seem to make the holidays difficult, that we’ll hear the angles singing still in our hearts.

Stars were Gleaming

Merry Christmas to all (except to those of you prefer Happy Holidays – and to you I heartily wish exactly that), and to all a good night!