Weekly Blueprint
Wow, what a weekend. Poor Vi has been suffering since Wednesday and we're still not out of the woods. It's been a challenging several days, but also included a major revelation. I'm wishing all of you and your little ones excellent health! Meanwhile, here are some handy/fun ideas to consider in this week's Weekly Blueprint:
February 13: Pack Valentine's for school. If Valentine's prep has fallen off your radar, don't fret! Check out these free, fast, and adorable robot printables. And if you're volunteering in your kid's class for Valentine's, arm yourself with a few of these cute classroom party ideas.
Today, 
Happy February! While I don't pay much attention to Valentine's Day from a commercial standpoint -- Jon and I don't exchange gifts -- the day does offer a fun inspiration point for crafts and food around our house. (Plus, I love the colors red and pink!) As I've mentioned before, I adore 
What a fun episode of Life.Style this week! I chatted about 
In contrast to Jon and my low key approach, Laurel is totally cranked up about celebrating Valentine's Day. If you're in a similar boat, and are looking for a family-friendly Valentine's outing, what about the 
As regular readers know, Laurel adores crafts. She also adores holidays. In fact, one of the unexpectedly excellent qualities of the potted Christmas tree I pushed for this year (we plan on planting the tree come spring) is that once we took down the Christmas decorations, Laurel realized she had a blank canvas for...you guessed it...making it a Valentine's Day tree. (Actually, she first suggested creating a Martin Luther King Day tree except it took us too long to remove the Christmas decorations.)
Today, parent educator 
Though we’re very crafty at home, I love when Laurel comes home with new ideas from her art classes at school. And last week I was blown away by the awesomeness of this rosebud Valentine project. These Valentines are a tad time consuming if you make the hearts as big as Laurel did (about ¾ of a sheet of paper) so she’s just making a few for some special sweethearts. Alternatively, you could make them smaller (perhaps cutting 8.5 x 11” sheets of paper into four equal pieces and cutting hearts from those rectangles). The effect will still be spectacularly heartfelt. Here’s the how-to:
As you may have gathered from 
As a 
