Cardboard Mom

I'm very excited about today's post because not only do I get to share a wonderful story with you, but I also have an interview with an amazing female in STEM to share as well! Let's check out the book first and then you can meet Ms. Valente!

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Today is the last day of Chinese New Year, the day of the Lantern Festival! We've finished reading "Celebrating Chinese New Year" by Eugenia Chu and Javiera Mac-lean and used it for inspiration to end this 15 day celebration with a bang!

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We made paper bag dragon puppets for the Dragon Dance. The dragon printouts we used came from Pink Stripey Socks.

We also made some paper lanterns to decorate our school area even more. Lil C turned her lantern into a tiger lantern - I think it came out adorable!

After reading the "Around the World" section and finding out they have dragon boat races in Sydney, Australia, we just had to make a dragon boat! The benefit of having a GIANT Lego collection is you can build a dragon boat without needing to buy the set! Thank you Lego for having downloadable building instructions!

I don't know if we have enough specialty pieces to build another one, but we at least got one dragon boat! I love it and think it's so fun and the kids think it's hysterical that there's a croissant as the dragon's nose!

It is VERY cold here today, but if we're brave enough we'll go out on the patio under the full moon tonight and light a couple of sparklers!

I want to send Eugenia Chu another HUGE thank you for sharing her awesome book, "Celebrating Chinese New Year: History, Traditions, and Activities" with us. We loved learning all about the holiday and the different ways people celebrate in China and across the world!

Check out the rest of our Chinese New Year fun!

Chinese New Year Mini Unit Day 1

Chinese New Year Mini Unit Day 2

My kids are super into mysteries and anything involving escape-room like puzzles. So I decided to make them work for their Valentine's treats!

To start, I left a red envelope on the kitchen counter. But instead of finding a Valentine card, they discovered this letter.

Lil C realized right away that some of the letters were underlined so she grabbed a pencil and began writing down everything that was underlined. The underlined letters spell "intheclosete2" or "in the closet e2." The e2 doesn't make much sense now, but it will soon. In hindsight, when 2 letters next to each other were both underlined it was easy to miss a letter. Next time I might capitalize the letters instead of underlining.

Anyway, so they went searching closets. Eventually they found this hanging inside the door of one of the closets.

This is where the "e2" comes in. You have to spin the inner wheel until the 2 lines up with the letter E. Then you can figure out the message below: DUPLOS.

Inside the box of Duplos, the kids found a magnifying glass and a small piece of paper with pictures on it.

After close inspection, Lil C and Squidgy eventually realized that there were pink ovals around all the teddy bears. So they ran off to search through their immense collection of stuffed animals.

There was a piece of paper tucked behind a teddy bear in Squidgy's closet. And if you look closely, you'll see the end of a spy pen sticking out next to the pelican's head. The paper appeared blank, but Lil C quickly caught on that there was probably an invisible message on it! And she was right!

My drawing leaves a little to be desired, but after debating if they were stockings, socks, or boots, they agreed that boots sounded like the most likely option. So off they ran to find some boots.

Near the front door were several pairs of shoes, including a pair of my boots. Inside Lil C found a key with a note attached. Only the note was a little hard to read...

Lil C realized it was backwards and luckily we have mirrored closet doors ALL over the house so she didn't have to go far to find a mirror.

On the kitchen table they found this piece of paper and a bowl of M&Ms. Squidgy tried to eat the M&Ms but Lil C made him stop because she realized the number of M&Ms must be key to cracking this clue. They counted 12 orange M&Ms, 15 yellow M&Ms, and 14 red M&Ms which spelled out "BED." Back upstairs we go! But whose bed is it??

Hmm...there's a suitcase on Mommy and Daddy's bed. And it's locked! Where's that key?

Finally! Success and Valentine treasures!

To set up your own Valentine treasure hunt, grab the printables here:

Valentine Treasure Hunt

In addition to the printables you will need: a magnifying glass, spy pen, white paper with drawing of boots in invisible ink (if you don't have a spy pen you can always use a white crayon and leave some watercolors nearby), colored candies, a small lock with a key, and something to be locked like a suitcase. Happy hunting!

I never made a big deal out of Valentine's Day...until I had kids. Kids seriously bring new meaning to every holiday - even the random silly ones like ice cream for breakfast day and silly sock day! It's become a tradition now that every year I make some fun Valentine-themed meals for everyone.

Above you can see our I<3U breakfasts - sliced strawberries, heart shaped pancakes, and bacon or sausage U's.

This year I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls - Squidgy actually asked me a few days ago if I could make bloody guts again so I figured I'd give the cinnamon rolls a Valentine twist instead. To make the hearts you unroll the bun halfway, then coil the loose end. Try to pinch the bottoms to get a sharp point because the rolls have a habit of curving in while they bake.

I served the heart rolls with bacon (that I attempted to shape into hearts!) and berry sauce. The berry sauce is super easy to make - all recipes are at the end of this post.

If you want something a little more on the healthy side, this pink smoothie bowl is for you! Full of delicious fruits, it's naturally sweet and beautiful! Scroll down for the recipe.

Easy Berry Sauce

Place 3 cups frozen berries* in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and heat 5-10 minutes until the berries are thawed and softened. Mash the berries lightly. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and stir together. Bring to boil, simmer 1 minute, then turn off the heat. Add in a tiny splash of lemon juice and give it a final stir before pouring on top of your cinnamon rolls, pancakes, waffles, or French toast!

*Note: you can use a single type of berry or a mix.

Pretty in Pink Smoothie Bowl

In a food processor, combine the following:

- 2 frozen bananas, broken into chunks (if you want a thinner smoothie base, use 1 1/2 bananas - as is, this recipe has the consistency of ice cream)

- 1 cup raspberries

- 1/3 cup blueberries

- 1/4 cup walnuts

- 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)

- 1/2 cup milk

- topping ideas: chia seeds, shredded coconuts, mini chocolate chips, nut butter

Blend until everything you have a smooth uniform consistency. Top as desired.