{Quad Squad} $1 V-Day Finds + Learning Activities

I must tell you something that might be difficult to hear...

I absolutely do not like Valentine's Day.

In fact, I really have never liked Valentine's Day. Pink is one of my least favorite colors (I was shocked when finding out I was going to have three girls!!), and the whole pink, red, white thing kills me. Not to mention the overload of hearts, puckered lips and XOXO's. Gag me with a fork!

There's no ulterior motive behind my dislike of the Cupid-chasing holiday. It's just never appealed to me. Then when the husband and I first started trying for a family, I found out about the first pregnancy on Valentine's Day several years ago. I actually got him a card—not something we normally do for V-Day—and wrote the surprise message in it for him. I miscarried less than two weeks later. Needless to say, the holiday has found even less favor with me since.

Buuuuuuut, then I had four babies. And three of them were girls. So I knew my days of pink-less behavior were going to have to be behind me. Their drawers of clothes have been filled with an impressive array of pink attire ever since. And last year on Valentine's Day, I actually took a photo of them with hearts in it. I know.

So while this year I haven't yet decided if I'll be posing them for a Love Fest photo, I did indulge in a few $1 finds at Target, which reaffirmed my love and devotion to that store. See? There's a little romance involved!

First off, my kids are obsessed with gel clings. They have windows in their play room so these come in handy for entertaining them when I need 20 more minutes of peace to finish dinner or when they're starting to sound off in whines of boredom. The same goes for pipe cleaners—those are a great activity for in their quad table to buy me a few more minutes or to entertain them after a meal. I also give them a stack of colanders from my kitchen sometimes and they practice threading the pipe cleaners through the holes. Most of the time, though, they just spend all their time stacking, unstacking and restacking the colanders and carrying them around the play room. Whatever works!

The frosted animal cookies were $1 for the whole bag and those were a hit as well, they tried the frosted version for the first time today after lunch. I'll sneak a few of them into their snack cups for this afternoon! I also love Target's board books for a buck. They're super cute and are really great for little hands learning to turn the pages. And for a dollar, it doesn't matter if they get beat up or torn apart, even though they've all lasted darn well with my crew. These particular books are all about love and the blue one with the owls on it has lots of animal pictures inside, which the quads really enjoy. The beaded necklaces were the only thing that didn't come out of the $1 bins at Target, those were in the party section but still $1 for four of them. They're super cute and I first spotted them on Megan's blog, Hello Newlywed Wife, for her little tyke so I snatched some up for my girls.



In the meantime, we've started working on colors and shapes with the kids. Lots and lots of repetition. I sound like a broken record 90% of the day! I recently drew shapes with chalk on my DIY magnetic chalkboard fireplace cover in their play room to reinforce them at a glance when we're in there. They've also really been enjoying using their magnets—especially since they don't seem keen on putting everything in their mouths anymore—and I plan to get some colors and shapes magnets as well.

Another way to teach colors has been courtesy of their ball pit. Since the balls are all primary shades and they play with them a lot, we hold one up and say its color and they typically repeat it a few times. Again, using things on hand that are ready at a glance seems to be the way to go for us!

Lastly, Harrison has become a whiz at puzzles. He whips those pieces around and slides them in so quick. I'm beyond impressed and have picked up a few more puzzles at places around town the past few weeks so he has more to practice on and I just keep a couple rotating through the play room. Ross and Once Upon a Child, a kid's resale shop, have had the best deals, but I've also purchased a few from Amazon and Ebay as well. Melissa & Doug are our favorite puzzle brands since they seem to be better quality and I like the chunky pieces. I've noticed Logan has been watching Harrison intently whenever he puts a puzzle together, and she's been improving a lot, too. I usually put a puzzle in with their books and quiet toys at nap time so they can all practice at their leisure.

Happy Valentine's Day and bah-humbug!!


P.S. Don't forget to enter the awesome giveaway I'm hosting to celebrate my blog being viewed more than a million times!!! All you have to do is leave a comment to enter, giveaway ends Monday!

P.P.S. This post was not sponsored by Target or any other brands, it is a production of Texas Tales and all items were purchased myself and all opinions expressed are my own.