love

We made a simple craft inspired by Matt De la Peña and Loren Long’s new book LOVE, a book about everything that can be love.  To make heart-shaped pencil toppers, all you need are pencils and pipe cleaners.

1. Bend a pipe cleaner in half.  Wind it around the top of a pencil a couple of times.  Pull both ends of the pipe cleaner to make sure it’s wrapped around the pencil tightly.  

2. Bend and shape the rest of the pipe cleaner into the shape of a heart.  Twist the ends of the pipe cleaner together to finish off the heart. 

You can watch the book trailer for LOVE here, and find out about Matt and Loren’s upcoming book tour dates here.

XO, OX: A Love Story

Hapless and hopeless romantic Ox writes a series of love letters to gorgeous (and absolutely vain) Gazelle who can't be bothered to give anyone the time of day, much less a "thick and ungrateful and awful and unlovely" ox.  And don't forget unlovable.  An endearing story just in time for Valentine's Day.

XO, OX: A Love Story was written by Adam Rex, illustrated by Scott Campbell and published by Roaring Brook Press.

valentine animal envelopes

We made these Valentine Animal Envelopes recently (idea and original post by Mer Mag).

white roasted chocolate sundaes for valentine's day

We’re gearing up for Valentine’s Day with these roasted white chocolate sundaes on The Land of Nod’s blog today.

heart-shaped pies

Milk chocolate and strawberry jam heart-shaped pies that I made during Super Bowl yesterday.  Thanks to Hello, Wonderful for the inspiration.  During the game, Avery kept referring to each team by their 3-letter abbreviation at the bottom of the screen next to their score.  E.g., “Daddy, how’s DEN doing?”