Valentine's Day Party

We threw a Valentine's Day party today.... the kids (and moms!) enjoyed a morning devoted to card making, bingo playing, heart hunting and of course chocolate eating.....

Since we're homeschooling this year, I think I've made a point to go the extra mile and celebrate special events (like Valentine's Day) with lots of activity.  The kids invited a few homeschooling friends over and we created Valentine heart cards using everything from stickers and glitter to stencils and stamps to crayons and markers.  They had the freedom to use their creativity....

Of course after fueling creativity, we all need a break..... and sweet goodies are a must for Valentine's Day!  Our Valentine party menu included:

• shortbread heart cookies
• chocolate covered strawberries
• cherry almond bars
• chocolate cake pops
• grapes
• red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
• popcorn
• pretzels
• pineapple and strawberries with strawberry yogurt
• caramelized onion and apple tarts (I also made these here, delicious!)

All the food was placed below the heart wreath on the dining room buffet and on the table....

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After all the eating, the kids played bingo (free printable here) and hunted for hearts (I hid cut-out hearts all around the house and they searched high and low to add hearts to their goodie bag).

Before our friends said good-bye, the kids handed them a gift... a heart crayon wrapped up with a gift tag "you color my world" (free printable here).

 

Great morning, great food, great friends!  And now I'm stuffed, maybe mopping the sprinkles off my floor will burn a few chocolate calories!  Oh, and if you're looking for a last minute Valentine's Day card, here's a few freebies that I made last year!

Valentine Breakfast - Heart Eggs

If you ever stop by my house on a Saturday morning around 10am, most likely you'll find me still in my pajamas (unless it's Little League season or I've already been out garage-saling).  I love slow, lounging, long-breakfast Saturdays and staying in my pajamas gives me that extra relaxing feeling.  And since Valentine's Day is around the corner, I thought it was a good reason to relax all morning and make some heart shaped, sunny-side-up eggs (and toast).

My kids LOVE eggs, but seeing eggs formed into heart shapes sent them into a world of excitement.  Making the eggs took a little longer than usual, but it was well worth the effort to see their happy faces!

To make the heart eggs, I coated heart shaped, metal cookie cutters with butter and then heated 1 tbsp of butter in a pan on the stove until it was bubbling (but not browning).  Once the butter was heated, I placed a cookie cutter in the pan, slowly cracked an egg over the cutter and even more slowly let the egg white drip into the shape (the egg white should almost immediately cook and take shape when it hits the pan).  I let the eggs sit in the pan until the egg whites were cooked all the way thru (no flipping needed).

Once the eggs were cooked, I removed the cookie cutters from the pan with tongs (they're hot!) and then placed the eggs on plates (if part of an egg has seeped thru the cutter, no worries.... take a knife and cut off the excess before removing the cookie cutter).

I sprinkled salt and pepper on the eggs, spread jelly on toast that was cut out using a heart shaped cookie cutter, poured orange juice in a glass and served it to three hungry kids (I bought the napkin from Target and the striped straw from Shop Sweet Lulu)....

Yum.... I'm getting hungry again!

Heart Artwork....

.... just in time for Valentine's Day.  The kids and I had an art day this week and since Valentine's Day is approaching, I thought we'd do some heart artwork.  We cut out hearts using the good ol' 2nd grade method.... fold the paper in half and cut out half of a heart.  We opened the heart, squeezed glue along the fold and stuck the heart to our paper (we used construction paper).  I love how the ends lift up, so 3D!  The heart art is now hanging along the playroom art display string..... it adds a little Valentine's Day love to the room...

After we hung our new art, I realized we also have a lot of other heart art around the house, all created at our kitchen table.  So, maybe one of these will inspire you (and maybe even be your Valentine gift to someone this year?!).

1.  In a hallway leading to bedrooms, I hung a large piece of plywood painted with black chalkboard paint.  I change the chalk-written-words every so often (like here for Thanksgiving).... this month for Valentine's Day, I wrote the words LOVE LOVE LOVE and drew a heart at the bottom...

2.  In my kitchen, I hung a multi-colored painting with pink hearts that my daughter and I worked on together a few years ago.  This was also painted on a piece of scrap plywood.

3.  These simple hand-drawn hearts were made with a fine-tip sharpie marker.  It's hanging on the top part of the gallery wall in the living room, more details about the hearts here.

4.  I have another heart painting that also hangs on the gallery wall in the living room.  I painted a simple, rough heart using acrylic paint and wrote mine and the husbands initials with a gold marker.

5.  And of course I have another pink heart painting.... this one is hung in the dining room.  I used acrylic paint to quickly color in a tiny heart (can you tell my favorite color is pink?) and wrote the date of my wedding anniversary with a black fine tip sharpie marker, more details here.

 

Are you working on any type of heart art?  Do tell....

Valentine Gift Idea

We live far from family, so for some of the holidays the kids and I like to package a few gifts and ship them across country to their cousin's front doors.  And it seems that just about every year, the kids welcome another cousin... we love it!

To send a little love to far-away family on the Valentine's Day, we packaged heart crayons attached to the "you color my world tag" (free printable here) and a few bingo cards with numbers and chips for the game.

We use heart candy sometimes when we play bingo, but I decided to make peices that will last a long time.  I laminated a few sheets of red cardstock and then punched out 3/4" circles.  I am so amazed at how "professional-looking" these chips are.... I think I might be making more games just so I can punch out more tiny chips!

I put the chips in a clear plastic bag (found in the candy section of most craft stores) and sealed both the chip bag and number bag with washi tape (leftover from our gingerbread house making party).

I closed the gift box, wrapped it with Kraft paper and sealed the package with a kiss and a heart... and now a few packages are on the road traveling northeast.

What has been your favorite surprise on Valentine's Day?  I'll share mine next Tuesday!

Free Printable: Valentine Gift Tags

Valentine's Day is about a week away, so the kids and I have been busy making Valentine gifts for their friends.  I saw great ideas on Pinterest using crayons, especially those leftover-dwindled-down-to-nothing-scrap-crayons.  So, we recycled our crayons and formed new heart crayons, then packaged the hearts and now they're ready to be handed out on Valentine's Day...

I was going to write about how we made our heart crayons, but it is NOT worth a post.  I followed  directions using a microwave to melt crayons and it turned out to be way too messy.  I don't usually care about a mess while we're creating, but I would not recommend the microwave method.  Next time we do this project (and there will be a next time), I think I'm going to follow the directions from The Chick n Coop.... she makes it look so easy!  And if I'm in a hurry, it's good to know that handmade heart crayons are available and ready to be shipped to my door from Earth Grown Crayons!

Even though the microwave process was awful, I'm happy with the way the crayons turned out.  So jump ahead with me to after the heart crayons were made....

Once the heart crayons were finished, we packaged them using clear 3x4" bags (usually found in the candy section of craft stores), adhesive dots and a Valentine gift tag I created- "you color my world" (free printable below).

I printed the labels and cut them out...

... then folded each tag in half...

... then placed a heart crayon in a bag and added glue dots to the inside corners of the tag...

... then I positioned the bag inside the tag and pressed the paper down to seal everything.

Now we're ready to share the love.

These Valentine gift tags are available for your personal use for FREE!  So go ahead.... download, print or just pass along the link... enjoy!!!!

Valentine Gift Tag - You Color My World

Click the link above to download and print (there is one page with six tags).  Print on 8.5x11 paper (preferably white/cream colored cardstock), then cut out each tag along the edges, fold the tag in half and attach to a gift bag (note: the width of the tag is 3.25", some 3x4" bags vary just a bit on the width (they're not always exact) so with the extra .25" you can trim the tag to fit your particular bag).

Share the love :)

Ideas for Kraft Letters

Do you get the Land of Nod catalog?  Mine came yesterday..... yay!  And one page is chock full of ideas on how to decorate Kraft letters.

I think I might be headed to Hobby Lobby or Michaels this afternoon to pick up a few letters for the kids to decorate.... so many good ideas- glitter, strips of fabric, pom-pom balls, foil, paint, ribbon, newspaper, crayons, beads, googly eyes, feathers, chalkboard paint, cotton balls, yarn, decorative paper and more (thanks Land of Nod!).

 

My favorites are the two decorated in yarn (maybe it's because I have so much yarn left over from the heart banner)....

Either way, I think we'll be making a few fancy Kraft letters this weekend...

Which one is your favorite?

Valentine's Day Heart Banner

It's February 1st... time for more Valentine heart decorations!  This week we added a little more pink to the mantel with hearts made from yarn.  We made these hearts last year here (after seeing them in Family Fun magazine), but since we're in a new house I thought we'd make a few more and string them across the mantel.

To start, we cut several one foot pieces of yarn...

After the yarn was cut, I mixed one cup of water and a 1/2 cup of cornstarch until the powder was dissolved, then heated the mixture over the stove until it became glue-like.  I let the mixture cool, then scooped it in a bowl.... then began to form hearts!

Next, I placed a heart shaped cookie-cutter on the shiny side of parchment paper, dipped a piece of yarn in the glue mixture, then removed any excess glue from the yarn.  I put the yarn inside the cookie cutter and pushed the yarn toward the edges to form a heart outline.

We used anywhere from five to ten pieces of string per heart.  Once the hearts were formed, we removed the cookie cutter and let the hearts air-dry overnight.  For complete, detailed directions visit Family Fun magazine for instructions.

By the morning, the hearts were hard and ready to be made into a banner.   I cut a piece of yarn that was long enough to string across the width of the mantel above the fireplace, then I weaved the yarn through the hearts to make a banner....

After adding a few hearts, I strung the banner across the fireplace and discreetly taped the yarn to the top of the mantel to keep it in place.....

And, here's a wide view of the fireplace, part of the entry way (and new Valentine's Day banner)!

The heart banner is a fun project, especially with the kids!