Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!  Valentine's Day isn't a holiday we normally go all out for but this year I decided to make it a big deal for everyone in the house.  It all started with Ethan's Valentine's party at school.  This is the only party the students get all year long so the teachers and parents work hard to make it a special day.  Ethan chose Despicable Me cards for his classmates which then led to us making a minion Valentine's box.  Thankfully Pinterest had lots of pictures and inspiration for this project.  We were both really happy with how it turned out!

Next I had to focus on the activities I planned for Ethan's class party.  I decided to make a treat that I saw on Pinterest.  They're fortune cookies made out of fruit roll-ups.  Such a cute idea and really easy to make.  It was, however pretty time consuming.  I had to write "fortunes" to put inside each one and of course I wanted them all to be different.  Even with using Google, finding 21 kid-friendly Valentine slogans wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Writing each one out also took extra time.  I had to use parchment paper (because regular paper would stick to the fruit roll-up) which just soaked up the ink from my Sharpie so I had to go over each word 2-3 times for it show up brightly.  I bagged them separately and tied them with red ribbon.  The picture below is from the SheKnows.

I also came up with a worksheet for the kids to do while they were at the estimation station.  It's funny Valentine's Day riddles with answers that need to be decoded.  Basically just a fun time-filler before the kids move to the next station.  

What did the stamp say to the envelope?

I'm stuck on you!!!!!  

 

Finally, I had to come up with an activity.  I swear, as the kids get older finding activities for them to do seems to get more difficult.  I knew I wanted something that could be messy but not too messy.  I got the idea of searching "Minute to Win It" type games.  I knew I'd find some fun ideas but I also needed the game to be quick as the students only get about 10 minutes at each station.  I came up with the toilet paper game ( I have yet to give this activity a clever, Valentines-y name so just go with it or.....roll with it?!).  I put two rolls of toilet paper on a pole (in this case I'm using an old broom stick) and I had heart cut outs with an action written on them.  Two kids would choose a heart out of a bag, do what it said (crab walk, disco dance, etc.) across the room, race back and compete to see who can unravel all the toilet paper first.  Simple, fun, messy and thanks to The Dollar Tree, inexpensive.  I got 24 rolls of tp for just six bucks!!  Yessssss!!  Along with all the other activities and treats from the other room parents the party was a great success!

 Luckily the school party was on the 13th this year which allowed me to spend all Valentine's Day with my boys. I decided to give Joe and the kids a goody bag with a new movie. Joe had to work of course so I got up extra early (4:30 in the A.M.!!) to make him a special breakfast and give him his gift.  A gazillion years ago when we had our first date we went to the movies to see The Big Hit.  With all the movies in his vast collection that's one movie he didn't own so I thought it would be a cute gift to give him.  It's not the greatest movie of all time (or 1998) but it's sentimental to us and gives us something to chuckle about!!



 

Ethan got The Croods (which is a pretty funny movie) and Eli got a Mighty Machines DVD.  Add that to a breakfast of homemade Belgian waffles and I had some happy kids on Valentine's Day!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

 

Now this mama can sit back and enjoy some of those delish chocolate covered cherries the hubs so thoughtfully surprised her with. 

 

 







I hope your Valentine's Day was as sweet as mine!!