Valentine Trees

It's the beginning of Valentine arts & crafts season here :)  I've seen some really cute things around blogland and they inspired me to get my kids involved.  So our first Valentine themed activity was these little Valentine Trees



The little guy painting his "tree"



First we went outside to hunt for the perfect sticks to be our "trees".  Then I stuck the sticks in some styrofoam and let the kids paint them pink & red (outside in the beautiful sunshine we had that day).  While they were drying we came in and made some heart ornaments to hang on our trees - I just cut hearts out of scrapbook paper, and cardstock.  The big girl was able to cut her own, but the little guy obviously couldn't.  I punched a hole in the heart, put some thread through it and tied it (this was the hardest part for me, lol, I kept dropping the thread & couldn't tie a knot for anything!).



Decorating her "tree"



We also took the labels off some glass jars (ours were from premade formula samples way back when the little guy was actually little!) and poured in some red & white beans.  I put ribbon around the jars too, and let the kids decorate with heart stickers.

Then we brought in our pretty painted trees, "planted" them in the jars and hung our ornaments on them.  Ds decided to add the styrofoam bits to the top of his because they looked like snow to him....??



The little guy's Valentine Tree complete with styrofoam snow



The big girl's "Valentine Tree"



I think they turned out pretty cute!  They're now proudly displayed on top of my desk.