Send a hug to a far away family member!

(This post has been a hit on Pinterest. As seen on Roots and Wings Co blog)
Last year, we moved from Arizona to Maryland. That is just about as far as you can go in the same country, don’t you think? My kids miss their cousins and I miss my family a lot. We would love to be able to reach right through the phone or Skype and give them a hug. But as you all know, that just isn’t possible. Instead, we thought we would mail some hugs!
I had this nice roll of paper in the kid’s art stuff. I rolled out some paper and had them lay down on it. With their arms outstretched, I traced around them with a pencil. With little ones you may need to hold their arms and fingers still so they don’t end up with monster limbs.
1 trace with arms stretched out

I went back over it with a Sharpie to kind of *tidy* things up.
2 go over the lines with a sharpie to make them darker and fix any mistakes

Then the kids got to make their hugs.
3 let the kids draw the details and color

They got to add any details they wanted and color however they wanted.
4 color

All colored in.
5 all colored in

Then I carefully cut the hugs out.
6 cut out around sharpie line

We folded the arms in like a hug.
7 fold arms in like a hug
7 fold the arms in like a hug

I wrote out a little note on the arms.
8 write a note

And we packed it in an envelope with some drawings.
9 mail it away
I guess my nephew loved his hug from his cousins. He came out of his room with the hug around him and told everyone he was getting a hug from my kids. Sweet! Years ago (when my son was much smaller and fit on the paper better) I traced up his whole body. He colored it in and we mailed it to my Grandma. She had it on her wall for a long time and thought of my son every time she walked by his outline. I love that. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to let someone faraway know you love them and miss them. Send them a hug!

Wouldn’t you love to get a hug in the mail? I know I would;)

~Anjeanette