Happy Valentine's Day

 Happy Valentine's Day!  We received this adorable little peg doll in the mail we won from Mama West wind's Valentine Giveaway on her blog.    Please head over there today she is hosting another giveaway this time for Margaret Bloom's new book, "Making Peg Dolls", Two of my favorite bloggers and crafters working together!

 I have really enjoyed making peg dolls, they are fun and fairly easy to craft and they make such wonderful additions to stories and nature tables.  If you have not seen Mama Westwind's peg dolls on Etsy, I really encourage you to visit her shop, I am so in love with her Spring Bunnies, wouldn't they just be perfect for telling "The Carrot"? and a perfect addition to a Spring Basket?

We celebrated Valentine's Day today in Playgarden,  And keeping with the peg doll theme, I gifted each of the children with a Valentine Gnomes.  

I didn't really go all out for Valentine's Day this year, as we are preparing for Eoghan's 2nd Birthday on Sunday and his party on Saturday.  But I did cut out some hearts from the littles' watercolor painting and they glued tissue paper on them to make our kitchen feel a little festive.  I also strung some from fishing line to make a little mobile.

Today was bread making day and stone soup day in Playgarden so I created a little Valentine's Day story inspired by Stone Soup:

Two gnomes were wondering how to celebrate Valentine's Day, one gnome thought making soup with their friends would be a great way to celebrate.  The other gnome agreed and went into the Deep Deep Woods to invite all of his woodland friends to join their celebration. 

 First he went to Squirrel's tree to invite Squirrel to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Squirrel was very excited to be invited to the celebration and scurried off to gnome's house to add an acorn to the soup.  The acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and it smelled delicious!

Then Gnome went to Rabbit's house to invite Rabbit to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Rabbit  was very happy to be invited to such a wonderful celebration, and decided he would bring one of  his carrots to add to the soup.  Rabbit scampered off to Gnomes' house to add his carrot to the cooking pot.  The carrot and the acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and it smelled delicious!

Next Gnome then went to Deer's Meadow to invite Deer to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Deer too was excited to be invited to his dear friends' celebration.  Deer decided she would bring Kale to add to the soup and bounded off to Gnome's house to add her kale to the cooking pot.  The kale, the carrot, and the acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and it smelled delicious!

Gnome went to Bear's cave last (as bear was often sleeping) to invite Bear to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Bear thought this special celebration was indeed worth waking up for.  Bear decided to bring honey to sweeten the soup.  Bear lumbered off to Gnomes' house to add the honey to the cooking pot.  The honey, the kale, the carrot and the acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and now that all the friends had gathered, they enjoyed their soup, and it was delicious!

After we baked bread and enjoyed our soup there was free play outside, and some of the children told their own stories.  I didn't take any pictures of our craft or bread but you can see a roll under Eoghan's boot in the picture lol and Lisa is holding the felt wands we crafted today.  The thought was to make heart wands but most of the children asked to have diamonds instead.