Mother's Day Card and Spa Day

A couple days before Mother's Day, my activity day girls made a darling Mother's Day card, which  I was inspired by Craft Ideas and Family Fun.  We also planted some cat grass and talked about gardening too.

Mother's Day Flower Bouquet Card

I got the pattern for the flowers Craft Ideas Flower Bouquet and the flower pot from an unknown site.  I searched and cannot find the template that I used for the pot, DOH.  You can easily draw a flower pot or find another one on the internet!

Supplies:

Scissors, construction paper (purple, blue, pink, orange, yellow, red, and green), templates of flowers and flower pot, popsicle sticks, glue, markers, and card-stock paper for the card.

Instructions:

Trace the flowers/yellow circle pieces on colored construction paper and cut them out.  I only did the pansies and tulips by the way.  I cut the pansies out by following the directions on the template.  Glue the yellow middle on the pansies.  Next, fold the middle of the petals of the pansies to add some nice character to the flower.  You can also fold the middle of the tulips too.  Measure out the stem by placing green construction paper over the popsicle stick.  Glue the green paper on the stick and glue the flowers on the green sticks.  For the flower pot, along the edge of the top I cut a hole in the middle of the pot.  Then gently slid the flowers in the pot.  We cut out some squares and wrote a message on a white piece of card stock.  Fold a piece of white card-stock paper in half and glue just the outer edges of the flower pot.  

The girls each wrote a message inside their cards!   They had a lot of fun making these cards and they were super easy!  It took about one hour to assemble them together.

It was Mother's Day a day after my daughter's baptism.  So she gave Grandmother the home-made card on Saturday, which John, myself, big sister, and little sis signed with a message.  I think it turned out darling if I say so myself!  Granny sure loved it!

Spa Day: Facials and Manicures

For activity day this week, we talked about grooming and self esteem since they go together.     We had the girls pair up and take turns pampering each other.  First they did facials then either painted toes or finger nails.  

Spa Supplies: 

Nail polish, nail stickers, towels, face clothes, oatmeal, Gentle Baby essentail oil, warm water, extra virgin olive oil,  lavender tea for soaking wash clothes/and for drinking.

1.  Wrap towels around neck and front of shirt.  
2.  Apply oatmeal mask.  For our masks, we did the following simple oatmeal recipe:
Oatmeal Mask
3 T. Oatmeal
2-3 drops of Gentle Baby essential oil
warm water 
Mix together the mask ingredients and apply gently all over the face.  Keep it on for a couple minutes. While the masks dried, they painted nails and applied some groovy stickers on their nails while the facials dried.  

3.  We had several rags in a warm pot of lavender tea.  The girls gently wiped off the oatmeal mask with the warm lavender tea.  Then they applied extra virgin olive oil on their face to bring some moisture back. 

My co-leader also made some lavender tea for us to drink.  Since it was a cold rainy day, I enjoyed it, but the girls thought it was gross... Ha ha ha!  I don't blame them.  I am sure when they are older they will appreciate a warm cup of herbal tea!

Little Sis helping another girl in the group and below is her turn getting pampered!

Lastly, I discussed some other recipes and foods that can improve dry or oily skin.  I sent the girls home with the following handout, which I got from Our Best Bites: Spa in Kitchen:
Facial Recipes
Tightening Strawberry-Lemon Mask
1/4 C roughly chopped strawberries
3 T corn starch
1/2 t lemon juice
Use a mini food processor or a fork to mash the strawberries into a pulp. Stir in lemon juice and corn starch. If the mixture is too runny to stay on your face, add more corn starch. Smooth onto skin and let sit for about 20 minutes or until dry. Rinse off with water (and a wash cloth helps) and pat skin dry. Moisturize after.
Honey Yogurt Mask:
1/2 T honey
1 T plain yogurt
1 t cucumber pulp
Warm the honey in the microwave for just a few seconds. Just to make it easier to stir. Add yogurt and combine. Use a microplane or a fine-holed cheese grater to make the cucumber pulp. Add it to the honey-yogurt mix. Chill if you want a cool mask, or just use as is. Apply to your face, pop a couple of cuc slices on your eyes and chill out for about for 3-5 minutes (or longer if desired). Rinse with water and pat face dry. Moisturize after.
Moisturising Avocado Treatment:
1/2 mashed Avocado.
Apply plain avocado to the skin, or use one or more of these add-ins:
Honey- brightens, tightens, and fights wrinkles and acne
Oats- moisturizes and mildly exfoliates
Yogurt- refines pores and sooths irritation
Egg white- great for oily skin
lemon juice- great for oily skin
Egg Yolk- great for dry skin
Olive Oil- extra softening and moisturising