One of the biggest projects that we took on was to make homemade Valentines. We have always used store bought ones in the past and just added some candy to them, but with the wonderful influence of Pinterest, I was inspired for us to make our own!
One thing that is important to me is to find something and use it as inspiration, not a blueprint...I like to put my own special twist on anything I do.
Here is a picture of the Valentine that I found on Pinterest:
What made these Valentines really special was not only that they were homemade, but that the kids and I spent some quality time making them together Needless to say, these Valentines were a HUGE hit with all of their friends and teachers!
I had also signed up to bring a snack for my daughter's daycare classroom party, so she and I created these fun snack creations out of watermelon, strawberry flavored heart marshmallows and regular large marshmallows. I put them on popcicle (or craft) sticks as opposed to skewers so that they were not pointy for the little ones. I found a bag of the sticks at Michaels Craft Store and use them for various projects.
We used a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out the hearts and we preassembled them all the night before and stored them in the fridge on a paper plate in a large zip lock. They kept very well and the marshmallows didn't even get soggy, which is what I was afraid of.
The kids, my daughter included, were REALLY excited to see the treats...I mean, what kid doesn't like marshmallows? ;o)
Some other fun things that I did throughout the week of Valentine's Day to surprise the kids:
Heart shaped blueberry pancakes. TIP: I always use blueberry muffin boxed mix when making blueberry pancakes now (got this tip from my mother-in-law) because they are quick and easy AND my kids love them because of the sweetness! I don't do anything fancy to shape them, I just use the spatula to shape them as they are cooking.
Heart shapped cinnamon rolls. TIP: I used store bought crescent roll sheets, made a cinnamon/sugar mixture (similar to that of a snickerdoodle cookie - 2 parts sugar to 1 part cinnamon); lay sheet flat, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture, roll up, cut into 1 1/2 in (approx) size rolls. undo the rolls to move them into a heart shape as shown below (VERY easy). Bake at 350 degrees for approx 8-10 minutes.
Having two little kids, it's a rare occasion that my husband and I get to go out to a nice Valentine dinner alone, so we decided to round out the week with a "fancy" FAMILY meal at home, consisting of shrimp cocktail, steak, baked potatoes, grilled veggies and homemade chocolate covered strawberries....YUM!
All in all, it was a Valentine's Day filled with fun projects, yummy food, and most importantly...lots of love! :o)
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