Happy Valentine's Day!

As Valentine's Day approached, I asked my kids if they wanted to make or buy valentines for their classmates/friends. They said they wanted to make them.

I pinned my heart out on Pinterest and found several I thought would be fun. But of course we didn't actually sit down to make them until.... the night before!

"I'm WILD about you Valentine!"

The original idea used little plastic animals, but I couldn't find any at the Dollar Store, so we went with iced animal cookies instead.

"STUCK on you Valentine!"

What kid doesn't like Band-aids? We bought some super hero band-aids for the boys and rainbow colored ones for the girls.

"Valentine you are the BOMB!"

I didn't think this one through, unit AFTER I had sent them to school. I wondered if I would be receiving a phone call from the principal letting me know that our valentines were inappropriate because of the NO tolerance (of weapons) policy at school. --Oops. No phone calls. Whew.

The kids picked what kind they wanted to give to each one of their classmates/friends. Rylee and Taylee even joined us and gave some to their friends too.

I wanted to do something special for Jason, so I came up with the idea to make his Valentine's gift last ALL DAY long. On the hour, he got to open a bag. In the bag were treats and a quality/thing I love about him.

Our kids are quite independent when it comes to getting ready for school and making their own lunches, but I wanted to do something special for them for Valentine's Day. So I made each one of them a lunch, including a treat and note from me wishing them a Happy Valentine's Day.

PS- Abree and Treyson reported that the Band-aid valentines were possibly confusing to their classmates.

Treyson reported that one of the kids said, "Seriously...a Band-aid???"

Abree reported that a girl in her class, wrote in her daily journal, that the worst valentine she got was a Band-aid.

Abree said, "Don't you get it? It says 'I'm STUCK on you Valentine'."

"Ohhhh, I see."

Then the girl quickly took it out of the package and put in on...even though she wasn't hurt.

See? She really did love it... she just didn't know it.

Whooo Loves You?!

Krissi was here this week.

We did nothing too extraordinary, but had FUN doin' a whole lotta nothin'.

When we are together, usually something crafty occurs.

This week; Owl Valentine cookies.

The original idea used OREOs and different kinds of melting chocolates. I have a hard time copying someone's idea verbatim, so mine look a little different.

What I used: vanilla sandwich cookies, wintogreen Lifesavers, mini chocolate chips, cinnamon lips (cut in 1/2), pink colored melting chocolates and orange frosting.

On the site where I found the cookie idea, she also had these cute cards to print off.

I like that mine look like the Valentine card. Sooooo cute!

Heart Break

Taking a little break from all the birthday posts (yes, there are more!), to bring you heart happenings.... Valentine's Day stuff.

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FHE

For FHE we talked about kindness, by word and action. We challenged our family to treat each other with kindness and to notice when others treated us with kindness. --As we did kind things or had kindness given to us, we wrote it down on slips of paper and put it in our "Love Bucket". Our goal was to fill the bucket before the week ended. We reached our goal and the "Love Bucket" overflowed with kindness. The next week, we read all the kind acts and shared a treat too.

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Pre-school Valentine's Day Party

The plan:

Heart worksheet

Lacing hearts

Heart leis

Dancing

"Candyland" game

Cookie decorating

and a Valentine exchange.

Abree concentrates on getting her heart lei just right.

Andi models the finished product.

The girls actually really enjoyed lacing these hearts, but were not that interested in learning how to tie. Too hard and frustrating for right now.

Yum?

Emylie says YES!

The girls decorated these little mailboxes the day before. Toward the end of our party, they delivered their Valentines to each friend's mailbox. They were SO excited! Our mailboxes were so full of LOVE the lids wouldn't fit, so we put them in bags and they took them home to open.

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School Classmate Valentines

Most of my kids are satisfied with store-bought Valentines.......

except for Taylee.

Taylee prefers to make Valentines for her school classmates from scratch. (She's not demanding, just very excited about it each year, so I indulge her and we come up with something original... or more likely, something I've seen in a magazine or blog. )

Here is what we came up with this year.

"Valentine You & I Are A Perfect Match"

And for the teachers, we made bigger ones, with the candy cane hearts I melted a few weeks back.

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Valentine's Day Swap

I participated in another swap. This time with a Valentine's Day theme.

"I'm FORTUNATE to have you Valentine" -Chocolate-dipped and sprinkled fortune cookies

"We make a great PAIR Valentine" -Cute knee-high Valentine socks

"Valentine STICK with me" -Homemade pin cushion with Shrinky Dink pins

"Valentine you're SWEET" -Box of chocolates

"Valentine we're a perfect MATCH" -Homemade match book with candy cane heart

"Valentine you're the BOMB" -Bath bomb

"I hope U-NO how much I like you Valentine" -Mini Uno game cards

I also sent a "Love Pillow". A "Love Pillow" is a simple tradition of family service. When you find the pillow on your bed, a service has been done for you. Next, it's your turn to do a service for a family member. (You have 24 hours or less to do it in.) As the pillow makes it's way from one bed to the next, hopefully love abounds and service is done with a smile. :)

Hope you had a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!