Valentine Activities

Valentine's Activities 2016 

I tried to do a couple activities each week, and I'm logging this so I can look back to this next year.

Hand Print Hearts:

We painted our hands to make hearts with our hand prints...this was tricky with Rhett so I only did a one hand print for him. We wrote a bible verse on it, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart... Proverbs 5:3" and signed it as our cards from the kids.

Celery Stamps: 

With my friend Katie and her kids, we cut celery stalks and let the kids dip them in paint and stamp them and it looked like little hearts. Sadly, Lucy just wanted to spread the red paint everywhere but when the adults did the stamping it looked pretty cool! 

Salt/Glue Hearts: 

I used elmer's glue to draw a heart and then poured salt over the glue. I then let Lucy put water that had been dyed red on the salt using a paint brush. The idea was to allow the salt to absorb the color...I must have done something wrong because this was a failed attempt. We put googly eyes in the center and a nose with a pom pom, but these didn't turn out as cool as I had hoped. 

Bible Verse Hearts:

I printed these cool bible verses from here on love to review with Lucy, I was hoping to be really creative and make a wreath with all of the hearts or something fun but never got around to it. So maybe next year. 

3 Ingredient Slime:

We made pink slime, and used this recipe and it was super easy and it was hours of entertainment for Lucy! So cool! 

This was as we were still mixing it by hand, the consistency actually got better as we played! 

Jello Playdough: 

We made strawberry/pink play dough using this cool recipe. You just cook it over the stove and it smells wonderful. We've also made orange, and I hope to make green for St. Patricks day. It's super easy and the consistency is SO much better than the no bake play dough. Don't let the fact that you have to "cook" it deter you. It kept my 3 year old and 11 month old busy for over 20+ minutes!!

After you cook it, you get to knead it on the counter while it cools. Please don't let the kids grab it while it's hot. I usually toss it around and am actually quite silly so the kids are entertained while they wait. 

Heart Bird Feeders:

We took bird seed and coconut oil  (using this idea) and scooped it into heart shaped cookie cutters to make heart shaped bird feeders. We gave these to grandparents for Valentine's day - fun and easy! The trick was to scoop the bird seed into the cookie cutters, pat it down, I used a chop stick to make a hole for string, and then I carefully pulled the cookie cutter off the pan before cooling it. Once it cools when I kept the cookie cutters with the bird seed, the hearts would crumble when I tried to get the cookie cutter off. So remove the cookie cutters before cooling or allowing the coconut oil to harden.

This is what happens if you don't remove the cookie cutters before it's cooled, they all break apart! We tried different shapes, and I loved the hearts. We gave these as gifts, AND I forgot to get a picture of the finished product that looked wonderful. 

Heart Shaped Foods: 
One of my friends had the great idea of using a tiny heart cookie cutter (which I later found out is used to decorate the tops of pie crusts) to cut cheese. I attempted to cut mini cucumbers into hearts by cutting a ridge down the spine of a cucumber and then cutting it into slices. Then I attempted cutting a kiwi into hearts, but let me tell you it took some work and they are far from perfect. And the kids, they didn't even seem to care but us adults LOVED it.

If you try this idea, just have fun with it and don't worry about perfection!

Heart Chocolate drizzle:

This idea came from my mom, aunt, and sister. They melted chocolate chips, scooped the melted chocolate into a baggie, cut a tiny hole and then created hearts by drizzling the chocolate on a silpat baking pan liner. Let the hearts or designs cool and then place on cupcakes, cakes, twinkles (see below), or any dessert for your sweethearts. Such an easy idea and wonderful way to bedazzle any treat! 

So fun and easy to drizzle these hearts!

I wish I could take credit for this chocolate drizzle, So fun! 

Heart Marshmallows:

I found these fun heart shaped marshmallows at Aldi, and used them as special treats throughout the weeks leading up to Valentine's day. My daughter also loves hot chocolate so it was a special treat. I was hoping to make a sweet treat candy kabob with the marshmallows and some fruit but never got around to it, but maybe next year. 

I loved that they came in white and pink. Lucy of course only wanted the pink ones.

Heart Twinkie's:

So years ago my mom had pulled out an ad in a magazine that showed Twinkie's cut in half on an angle then arranged to look like a heart, then it said to add fresh raspberries and/or raspberry preserves and voila, you've made a dessert. We took the idea and just added canned cherry pie filling and then added the chocolate drizzle hearts but the hearts were made with white chocolate instead. It looked amazing, if you like Twinkie's you'd love the treat and it was just a simple idea for February. 

Is this not the cutest idea ever?!

Heart Pancakes:

Make your usual pancake recipe, if you need a fantastic recipe try mine! I prefer a thinner batter and we love to add chocolate chips to our pancakes in this house. We made our usual pancakes but added a little red food coloring to make them pink, and then placed a cookie cutter on our griddle (I sprayed our cookie cutters with oil so the batter wouldn't stick) and then poured a little batter into the cookie cutters, lift the cookie cutters when the batter starts to bubble and then flip it. Such a simple idea but the kids loved it and it made our Valentine's morning a little extra special. 

I actually had a pancake "cookie cutter" shape that was given to me, so it was easier to lift because it actually has a handle, but we also used our collection of cookie cutters and it worked well just be careful of the heat.