Hopeful Homemaker

Cupid’s Arrow Game – Valentines Day Party Game

February 21, 2012 jennifer crafts & activities, Valentines Day

Looking for ideas for your Valentines Day class party games? We played the BEST game at my daughter’s 2nd grade Valentines Day Party, and I just have to share it. It’s simple, easy to prep, inexpensive, easy to clean up and lots of fun for both girls and boys.

It’s called Cupid’s Arrow and here’s what you need:

Q-tips and straws. I went to my local dollar store and found q-tips in different colors. Score! We used two boxes, or 800 q-tips for our class (I took twice that many with me, you never know how fast they will shoot their q-tips!). You also need straws, but I found that all the straws for sale at local stores, including the adorable paper straws we all love, were too narrow to fit q-tips inside them. I ended up going to a local fast food chain and buying some milkshake straws for a quarter.

You also need a large bowl and a large blanket or tablecloth that you don’t mind having kids walk on, because they will. Oh, and I recommend a trash bag as well. I’ve learned that taking an extra trash bag to any class party is always helpful, just like bringing your own dish towels to any church kitchen.

To play the game, simply lay the blanket out on the floor and place the bowl on one end. You may need to move desks to make room, or even use the hallway if needed. Line the children up on the other end and give them all a straw and a fistful of q-tips.

When you say “go” they start putting q-tips into one end of the straw and blowing through the straw to “shoot” their arrow. The goal is to get q-tips into the bowl. We had two teams, represented by the two q-tip colors. Stand back and let them shoot. Seriously, you will end up with q-tips all over the place but they will have fun learning how to aim and get them in. I found that the girls enjoyed this activity as much as the boys did.

The blanket on the floor is intended to help the kids stay back an equal distance from the bowl. I found that their excitement caused them to get closer and closer. I let them. The point is to have fun, after all. We didn’t end up counting which team won at the end anyway, because they just wanted to shoot the whole time. At the end of each rotation we collected the q-tips from around the floor and dumped them in the bowl, which I dumped in the trash.

Sometimes planning activities for classroom parties feels intimidating or overwhelming. Playing Cupid’s Arrow reminded me that Valentines Day party games can a lot of fun without being expensive or over-planned.

Before they went to the next station, we also did a quick Jello Slurping contest. They kept their straws, sat on my blanket (to protect the classroom carpet), got a cup of jello and waited for “go”. It was fun to watch them.

My daughter and her cute friend…they make me smile.

Cupid’s Arrow was a really fun Valentines Day party game! I wanted to play it later as a family but the night was just too crazy. Instead, we’re going to have a q-tip war sometime soon. I can just picture it: ten people blowing hundreds of q-tips around my family room. It’s going to be great!

Hopeful Homemaker

27 comments valentine

A Crown and Scalloped Bunting

February 20, 2012 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

I believe I mentioned that my sister and I are taking an online sewing class to learn how to sew curves. Well, it’s underway and has been for two weeks. So far six projects have been taught and I’ve managed to find time for one of them (the fastest, easiest one). Yup, I’m running behind. Again.

Still, this first project was a lot of fun and really easy, and is something I’m sure I’ll make again. One thing I learned that I wouldn’t have thought of in advance is that using a pinking blade on my rotary cutter saves me the need to notch the curved seam before turning it. I like saving time, so I bought a pinking blade and I think I’ll be really glad I have it. Another interesting thing is learning to use my rotary cutter without a ruler. I’m getting the feel of cutting freehand with it.

I used a couple of coordinating fabrics from my stash for these two projects and think they make a cheery bunting. I also added some little pink pom pom trim when I finished it. It adds a touch of whimsy and texture to the bunting.

The second project I made is a fabric crown. I’ve had this pattern sitting on my table for a few months but have been intimidated by it. It just looked tedious, I guess, but while I had these two prints out I decided to make a birthday crown for my niece. (Incidentally, if you’re interested in the pattern, there are a few of them in stock here at a discounted price.)

Honestly, it was simpler than I anticipated and didn’t take me as long as I worried it might. I think it turned out great, especially for my first try! My girls were certainly excited about it. I didn’t have much time for embellishments, so I opted for a simple felt flower. Next time I’ll try something different. There are several options in the pattern and instructions for making them.

Honestly, the crown is bigger than I pictured. Next time I make it I might adjust the size a little. The pattern says it will fit anyone because you use ribbons to adjust the size, but at it’s smallest it was still a bit big on my girls, who are the ones who want crowns anyway. Here is what the crown looks like from the back:

The pattern tells you to sew the ruffle to the front, then later fold the back up over the ruffle, iron the heat’n’bond in place, and use glue to secure any spots that need it. Instead of using glue I opted to carefully go back over my stitch line from the ruffle and sew the back to the front. I like that the whole thing is sewn together, and I think my seam looks fine because I was very careful with it.

The crown was a step out of my comfort zone and I’m so happy to discover that I can do it. I plan to make several of these throughout the year for little girls I know.

Although my silly little model would have liked to keep it, we sent the crown and bunting to Denver for my niece. I hope that she enjoys playing with them. I enjoyed sewing them for her.

My list of sewing goals for 2012 includes sewing smaller items other than quilts. I hope to complete one small project each month. I didn’t get that done in January, but these two projects satisfy February’s goal. Now let’s see if I can find time for some quilting!

Jennifer

One comment sewing

Joy, week 7

February 20, 2012 jennifer JOY in 2012

I feel a little lost tonight, like I’m not sure how to bridge the gap between the busyness of daily life and the direction I want so much to move myself and my family in. January felt SO good, like I was on target and moving consciously in that direction.

February feels like an exercise in detours thus far. Terribly important detours, which are essential to focus on, but which I’m also getting tired of. All of them are just part of being a mother and I understand that. Yet I feel like I’ve got a lot of detours facing me right now, creating a web of sorts that I need to figure out how to navigate while at the same time having no idea where they’ll lead. On the one hand I’m grateful for things like Parent/Teacher conferences, but on the other hand I hate the way they throw off the entire day, and I hate that almost every day this month has presented things like this. I guess what I’m trying to say is not that I resent these things, but that it’s hard to focus on things I feel strongly I should be doing and ALSO respond to what the rest of the world wants me to be doing. It is the tension between those two pulls that drains me.

The sports schedules for my oldest two children have hit us in the face this month, coming about 5 weeks earlier than it typically has in the past. Part of it; indeed, much of it, is simply due to the mild winter we’re experiencing. The rest of it is that they’re just getting older and since they’re my oldest I didn’t know it would hit when it did. I hate subjecting my younger children to so much time in the car, especially around the dinner hour when they all fall asleep and wake up later screaming, but I have no choice. I’m finding that all of them have been behaving a little differently, revealing in their individual ways the strain of adjusting to their Dad’s new work schedule combined with a long commute after having him work from home most of the time for a few years. Everyone misses him, myself included, and I’m finding it difficult to be a one man show AND get the driving done AND get the homework done AND get dinner on the table AND deal with all the surprises of teen-aged behavior AND be pleasant and happy and read bedtime stories and so forth. I feel like I’m feeling drained and I need to adjust faster to it all. Having everyone a little bit edgy hasn’t helped. Oh well. I’m so grateful he has a job again.

One of the goals I set for myself this year was to experiment with my cleaning routines and have a good housekeeping schedule in place by mid-February. Well, I’ve tried to do that, and here’s what I learned: if I spend EVERY MINUTE inside my house on cleaning, the house will look ok after a few days. If I miss even one day of that, the house will look trashed. So pretty much I have a clean house OR I get other things done, not both. I figure it’s mostly an indication of my stage in life combined with the intensity of having a large family and the surprises of a youngest child who is positively adventurous. Honestly, the rest of the school year will likely be wild, so I simply need to do my best.

Although I feel a bit weary I will say that good things happened. Once more, I got a few essentials done on the weekly list, which was no small task. I made HUGE progress yesterday with one of my children, faced a massive personal fear and (hopefully) put it away where it belongs, got my daughter off on a weekend trip for her soccer team, sent my husband and son out the door on a campout, facilitated playtime with friends for multiple children, watched a friend’s children for a little while, tried to offer a listening ear for a friend in need, chatted with an old friend about life in general, spoke to another wise friend, and so forth. It really was a good week. I guess I’m just frightened that I’m not getting enough done.

On the daily list, once again I feel like a lot of things fell apart because of what we have going on. But I’m reading my scriptures and so it’s ok.

As I type this I realize that this week I lost sight of my vision for 2012 as a joyful year. Too many days were spent just getting through instead of seeking things to be happy about. I forgot that my specific lists of things to do aren’t the goal by themselves, but an effort to find more joy in daily living. Remembering this is top priority for my new week.

It’s late and I’m dozing as I type. Can I just tell you how thankful I am that I don’t have to get everyone out the door for school in the morning? I haven’t folded laundry yet and there’s nothing like looking for school uniforms in a haystack like that. Hooray for President’s Day!

Have a joyful week!
Jennifer