VALENTINE'S DAY BOOK + CRAFT

CUTIEPANTS VALENTINE'S DAY BOOK ALERT!! Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! is pretty much everything you ever wanted in a Heart Day picture book: hearts, lots of giggles, sparkle and sweetness galore PLUS dancing mice and casserole! 🤓

Kinley and I both love every book in the Click, Clack, Moo series and we were so excited when this one showed up on our doorstep (Thanks, Simon Kids!!) Do you know these crazy farm animals? The premise of them all is a little like Toy Story on a farm -- what the animals do when the humans aren't paying attention, ya know?

In this one, a cute little yellow duck is rushing around getting everything decorated and ready for a big Valentine's Day dance for all of the animals. She makes everyone a sparkly valentine and a necklace with hearts made of everything she can find. We saw a crafty opportunity the minute we saw those sweet little accessories! Sparkly heart necklaces?! SIGN US UP!

Wanna do a little Valentine's Day bookish play, too? This is the perfect super easy classroom party activity -- super low-mess, quick and easy, and they can wear the finished products for the cookie and candy eating!

A BOOK & A CRAFT: ESCARGOT

Disclaimer: This post was written by a person who unabashedly loves both snails and all things French-y, so she may be a tad bit biased towards books with adorable French snails for main characters. Continue reading the following gushfest at your own risk. You have been warned.

Escargot: the tale of a little French beret-rocking snail in search of the perfect salad.

I mean, you guys, I just can't. This book was made for us.

Sweet little manipulative Escargot is on a mission to both make you love him and to get to the other side of the table where the salad of his dreams is waiting. He tries every method imaginable from showing off to telling sob stories to convince you that he is indeed the best kind of creature on the planet. Let me tell you, his tactics worked on me.

SPLISHY-SPLASHY PUDDLE PAINTING

Are you here for puddle printing instructions? No worries, they've just moved on over to our brand-new website -- you can find them right here.

See you over there, friend!
xo Cara

SPLATTER PAINT STARRY SKY

K and I have been participating in some Instagram art challenges lately and we have been having a creative blast. It's so fun to be given a theme or material to work with and brainstorm together until we have the ultimate idea.

This week's challenge on one of our favorite accounts (@kidartlit) is Night. That's pretty broad, right? I was having such a hard time narrowing all of the fun night things (night sky, skylines at night, nocturnal animals, glow in the dark, all of the nighttime books, etc) down to one to plan an art project around, so I went to Kinley for some help.

I asked her to tell me some things about nighttime that make it different than daytime, and she actually thought up a lot more than I thought she would, and even a lot more than I had thought of.

She said that we wear jammies at nighttime, eat dinner and watch shows at nighttime. It's dark outside at nighttime, and Daddy comes home from work. But, she said her favorite night things were the moon and the stars.

SPOOKY BOOKS WE LOVE

I feel it's my duty to warn you, the holidays are coming and I happen to be a completely insane holiday lover. I actually refer to them as the "HOLLA-days!!" :) So, I hope I don't scare you off with my intense crazy obsession ;)

There, I feel better with that off my chest. I don't know how it works at your library, but at our library you have to reserve holiday books waaaaay ahead of time in order to get your mitts on any at all.  Because of this, I pour over other amazing blogs' booklists ( ahem, Cutting Tiny Bites) get out my phone and reserve away. 

We've discovered a bunch of new favorites this year and we are still a couple of weeks, and a whole bunch more reserves, away from the big spooky, amazing day!