Valentine's Day Cards for the Kiddies

If you've been in any retail store recently, you can't miss all of the Valentine's Day decorations and candies EVERYWHERE! The bright pink and red colored candy bags with red chocolate this and pink candy that. It's pretty hard to avoid.

It got me thinking about what Daniel can give out to his classmates this year when they have their Valentine's Day card exchange.

I knew I wanted to avoid the artificial candies and chocolates, although I would be lying if I said I didn't like the way that they taste on occasion. But the bottom line is that they're not so good for us. They're full of artificial dyes and sugars. And truthfully, my son doesn't even care for them. It's a miracle, I know! I would love to take credit for this one, but he has never had a sweet tooth.

So, candies are out.

This year, stores are full of "non-candy" options for us mommas. I recently walked into a Target and found at least 10 options of Valentine's Day cards and non-candy goodies that were very inexpensive. Some included stickers, tattoos, pencils, erasers, notepads, and stamps. Love that! Most of the boxes were in the range of $2.50. Love that even more!

Not bad, huh?

But before my Target discovery, I had already ventured into our local dollar store and bought several packs of toy mazes (6 in a bag for $1) and made little treat bags for Daniel's class. So if you have some time, and want to make your own, here is what we did.

You will need:
1. small paper or plastic goodie bags
2. small toy mazes
3. fun sticker to seal the bags (we chose Daniel's favorite- Lightning McQueen)
4. gift tags (optional, but cute if you want to include a play on words like "You are an a-MAZE-ing friend.")
5. confetti, to sprinkle in the bags (optional)

 Found these at the Dollar Tree. They also had heart shaped ones (12 for $1), 

but Daniel thought those were too "girlie". I thought they were adorable!

Optional confetti to sprinkle in the bags and Cars stickers to seal the bags. 

My gift tag puncher and red craft paper to make the tags. 

(You can purchase the tag puncher or already pre-made tags at a craft store like Hobby Lobby.)

I used these foam traffic stickers to adhere the tags onto the bags. 

They were left over from Daniel's birthday party. 

Enjoy! xoxo

Make Your Own: Valentine's Day Wreath

Love is in the air.

Something about the middle of January kicks me into full Valentine planning mode. It's the perfect excuse to preoccupy our minds with something positive, as opposed to the dreary, cold weather, right?

There are plenty of fun, inexpensive Valentine's Day decor out in the party stores and dollar stores. We have some of those and happily put them up. But this year, I really wanted to make something that my children could get involved with and was hoping they could learn something along the way.

Last weekend, I took Daniel and Mia outside for some fresh air.  We went to the far end of my yard where there were remnants of trees that had been torn away during Hurricane Sandy. It was a perfect opportunity to teach them about parts of a tree, and very neat for them to see the inside of a tree trunk and the growth rings.

They were especially amazed at the sea of pinecones that had fallen recently and covered the ground nearby. So we got to picking,
and picking,
and picking!

We picked so many that I thought we could turn them into something special for Valentine's Day. Our own little pinecone heart, if you will. Here it is and here is how we made it.

1. Collect lots of small pinecones.
2. Spray paint them red, or your favorite color. I'm sure white would look very lovely too.

3. Next, find a thick piece of card board. I used red craft paper I had left over from Christmas.

4. Fold your paper in half and draw the outer and inner outline of a heart.

5. Cut out your heart.

6. Tie or glue a ribbon to the top of the heart.
7. Using a hot glue gun or strong adhesive, glue on your pinecones.

And that's it! Your kids will enjoy seeing that what they picked turned into something special for the whole family to enjoy.