I have a post over at Mom Spark today — Valentines for Social Media Lovers.
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A couple years ago David and I made a pig using a 2 litter bottle. I found the craft in Martha Stewart’s Good Things for Kids magazine. (It’s also on Martha’s website here.) I really liked that magazine. Unfortunately I don’t think she publishes it anymore.
Today David asked if we could make another pop bottle pig. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, I thought it would be fun to make a pink pig decorated with hearts. So here’s my variation on Martha’s idea.
Supplies you need:
1 2 Litter Bottle w/ cap
4 additional bottle caps
2 sheets of light pink construction paper
2 sheets of bright pink construction paper
1 black permanent marker
scissors
tape
glue
glue gun
1 white pipe cleaner
pencil
heart shaped cookie cutters in different sizes if you have them
Step 1: Rise out your bottle, pull off the label and dry it off.
Step 2: Wrap the bottle with the light pink construction paper. Use tape to fasten the paper to the bottle. The paper won’t meet. That will be the bottom.
Step 3: On the bright pink paper draw several small hearts freehand or use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to trace them. These will be the pig’s spots.
Step 4: Cut the hearts out.
Step 5: Glue the hearts in a random pattern on to the construction paper wrapped around the bottle.
Step 6: Take the cap off the bottle and trace around it on the bright pink paper.
Step 7: Cut out the circle. Screw the cap back on the bottle. Glue the circle to the cap. Draw two dots on the circle to make the nose.
Step 8: Draw or trace two large hearts on the light pink paper. Draw or trace two smaller hearts on the bright pink paper.
Step 9: Cut out the four hearts. Glue the bright pink hearts onto the center of the light pink hearts.
Step 10: Fold the “ears” in half to make a crease down the middle. Then fold back about a quarter inch of the bottoms of the ears to make a tab. Glue the tabs down to the pink construction paper above the nose.
Then put a piece of tape across each of the tabs. This helps the ears stand up better.
Step 11: Turn the pig over and use the hot glue gun to attach the four extra bottle caps to make the feet.
Step 12: To make the tail wrap the white pipe cleaner around a pencil to curl it.
Tape the tail on the back of the pig. Draw some eyes on with the black permanent marker. Then you have your Valentine’s pig.
Yeah, I know it’s girlie. Come on. I’m surrounded by boys and boy stuff every day. David thinks she’s, “Pretty.” He named her Petunia.
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My son David almost ended up with Cadbury Cream Eggs for Valentine’s Day.
My husband Dave and I were shopping Friday afternoon, after our son left to go to my parent’s for the weekend, when I realized we forgot to get him something for Valentine’s Day. It was kind of a busy, hectic week and it just slipped my mind. (I know. Bad mommy! Bad mommy!) So we headed over to the seasonal aisle to pick up something to give David when he came home on Monday.
We arrived there to find just a few bags of Hershey’s Kisses. Where was everything? Surely they couldn’t have sold out of all the Valentine’s Day stuff?
Then I glanced farther down the aisle. There were stock boys filling empty shelves with chocolate Easter bunnies and egg coloring kits the day BEFORE Valentines’ Day.
The holiday wasn’t even over yet, and they’d already put away the lacy red hearts full of chocolates, and brought out the chick-shaped Peeps!
We weren’t the only people milling around looking dazed and confused, checking the date on our cell phones to make sure it was indeed still February 13th.
I thought it was insane when after trick-or-treating on Hall-O-Ween we went into a store to pick up some milk, and were greeted by a 20 foot fully decorated Christmas tree at the entrance. At least that holiday was in it’s waning hours before they moved on to the next.
I really didn’t know what to do for a moment as I stood pondering if David would think it strange to get a basket full of Robin’s Eggs for Valentine’s Day. Just how much would that confuse a four-year-old? Would it lead to years of therapy discussing issues about Conversation Hearts and Peter Cotton Tail?
We did find something for David at another store. But seriously. The hastiness of the retail sector to finish off one holiday so they can put their fingers in our wallets for the next is getting a little ridiculous.
I’m off now to go buy a chocolate bunny before they replace those with flags and plastic flowers for Memorial Day.
I’m pretty sure getting a wreath of fake red, white and blue carnations that says In Memoriam for Easter would lead to years of adolescent turmoil.
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I’m participating in the Valentine’s S.W.A.K. Carnival over at We Are That Family. Write a post honoring your hubby, and sign the Mr. Linky, sharing you’re story. Oh, and you can enter to win some fabulous prizes too!
I met my husband Dave in college. My first impression of him was that he was really cute, but I wanted nothing to do with him. I was a big time junior and he was just a lowly freshman. I couldn’t be bothered with that.
But our paths kept crossing on the small campus. And as hard as I tried to put him off, for some reason he kept talking to me. I laughed and giggled with my friends about how he just wouldn’t go away.
I remember very clearly the moment I fell for him.
We’d known each other about a year. It was summer, and both of us ended up sticking around campus instead of going home. He came over to my dorm to see one of my roommates. She wasn’t there. As usual he started talking to me.
He talked.
A lot.
As I sat there listening, all of a sudden he looked at me and smiled in this certain way that made my heart feel like it was going to burst out my chest. (I’ve seen that same look and smile many, many other times over the years. It still does the same thing to me.) And I thought to myself, “You know this guy isn’t so bad after all. I might actually like him.”
O.K., so the summer tan and nice legs reveled by a pair of basketball shorts didn’t hurt either.
In any case, I was hooked.
That fall I went out of my way to put myself in his path. I went to soccer and volleyball games because I knew he’d be there. I’d never attended a single one of those sporting events before that. I used my position as a Community Work Day team leader to spend an entire day with him by making sure his name was on my roster.
So maybe I stalked him.
Just a little.
But I think he liked it.
It didn’t take long before I didn’t have to come up with reasons to run into him. We started hanging out together pretty much all the time.
One night we went to a park.
In November.
In the cold.
In the snow.
In the dark.
At 11 o’ clock at night.
(How safe was that?)
We sat in the band shell together. It was still and silent, with snow softly falling. We were sitting close because it was — ahem — so cold. A stoplight illuminated the intersection of the street the park was on. We watched the lights change.
He turned to me and said, “Green light means go.” Then leaned in and kissed me. Probably the worst line anyone ever said to me, but whatever. I sure wasn’t cold anymore after that. In fact, I can’t remember ever being warmer.
I knew after that night he was The One.
We got engaged less than a year later, and married a few months after that. This march we’ll celebrate our 11th anniversary. We have a four year old son, and our second will arrive this June.
My husband is patient when I am not. He is optimistic when I’m all doom and gloom. He is gentle and kind. He is a fantastic father. He always lets me know I am loved. He goes above and beyond to provide and take care of our family. I am so thankful God gave him to me.
I love him so much. He is my best friend. We laugh together a lot. My favorite thing to do still is just hang out with him. With busy schedules and a son, we don’t get to do that very often these days. But this weekend our son is going to my parent’s.
I’m looking forward to some time with just the two of us.
Can’t wait for Friday night!
But I think we’ll skip the park this time and just stay in.
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David helped me put up these Valentine window clings. He insisted that the two Cupids with bows and arrows had to be facing each other. “Yeah, because they are shooting at each other,” he told me. Ah, romance!
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I asked all of you what you were doing for Valentine’s Day, so here’s how we celebrated.
Valentine’s Day turned into a week long celebration in our home. It began the Monday before when one of my gifts from my husband arrived by FedEx, a cutting from a plumeria plant from Hawaii. Hawaii is “our place”, a favorite vacation spot in our life before children. Plumeria is a popular flower there, and often used to make leis. Now I can have my own little piece of Hawaii here in Michigan.

Wednesday night my husband brought home a beautiful bouquet of flowers, each flower hand chosen and arranged by him. He did very well, don’t you think? He gave them to me the night before, he said, so I could enjoy them the entire Valentine’s Day, rather then just few hours in the evening. My gift for him also arrived Wednesday, a new cell phone with a lot more bells and whistles than his old one. Electronics, not food, are the real way to a man’s heart.
Usually one or both or us works, helping with the family business, on Valentine’s Day. I thought that would be the case this year as well, but to our surprise we didn’t have to work this year. I can’t remember the last time that happened. We didn’t find out soon enough to make plans though, so we spent a quiet evening at home with our son and I prepared a nice meal.
Saturday night my son went to stay at my parent’s house, and we finally got to go out on our Valentine’s date. I was very strange to actually be able to sit down in a restaurant and not admonish someone every five minutes to sit still, be quiet and eat. We got to stay at the restaurant until we finished eating instead of running out early before someone had a public melt down. The hours of uninterrupted conversation with each other were priceless. Every time we got in and out of the car we felt like we were forgetting something. No one to get in and out of a car seat. We got home at 9:30, and looked at each other and said,”Now what do we do?” We didn’t have to go through the half an hour bedtime ritual of teeth brushing, PJs, story, prayer and song. Don’t worry though. It didn’t take us long to remember what we used to do in our former life.
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Jennifer S. is the winner of the Valentine’s Day giveaway. Congratulations, your Pure Seduction body care set from Victoria’s Secret will be on its way to you soon. Thanks to everyone who participated.
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