Valentines 2018

Happy Valentines Day! Landon spent some time over with Maga to make a snuggle sack for Sol. Pam took this picture and sent it to me. I waited until after Valentine's Day before I shared it on social media so it wouldn't ruin the surprise.

 I never got around to a Valentine's blog post last year, but here's Colton's cute box. I'd just thought he could take the "garbage can" box we've done in years past, but I guess that was NOT okay with Colton. Unfortunately he didn't really let me know that until the morning before school as he tried to put something together himself. We managed this basketball box. An orange shoe box helped, and the basketball hoop came off his old derby car.  

Valentines 2017

After our last minute box crisis last year After looking at a lot of different ideas, we settled on a Rubix Cube box. Colton even flipped a real cube around and we copied the color placement on it, so it would be "accurate" ... I thought it turned out pretty cute. Last year in elementary. Last box ...

Valentines 2018

Colton's class didn't have a big party this year, just watched a movie. I ended up checking Colton out near the end of the day and running into the orthopedic doctor. His knee/thigh has been bugging him, and we needed to get it checked out. Nothing super serious, but REST was recommended, which is never fun for an active basketball boy on two different teams with lots of games coming up. 

In the days preceding Valentines Day, I did quite a bit of baking. 

Sugar cookie hearts

Cookie press hearts

 (maybe a bit of a stretch to call that shape a heart) 

Homemade Oreos ... some pink!

Valentine Time

February 14 was fast approaching ... it was Landon who actually asked if I'd snap a picture to make our traditional personalized, 3-D Valentine cards. Colton and Cooper were home at the time, and as they would need Valentines for their upcoming class parties at school, I took some pictures of them as well. Then it was time to print, pickup, cut the slits and insert the suckers. My wrist was sore!  Landon did his own~

He wrote the poem, and decided to dress up this year. 

He also bought special "rose" suckers. 

What you don't see, is that he didn't actually have any pants on when I took this picture. He just put on the suit coat and then had on shorts for the bottom half.

I had volunteered to be room mother for Cooper's class at school again this year. One of the responsibilities of the room mom is planning the parties (Halloween and Valentine's Day). I pulled out my supplies, and pretty much did a repeat of last year (see my Valentine's Games post for details on that).  There actually wasn't much time, as it was a short day, and the kids needed to pass out their valentine's as well. Cooper's class had a "best box" contest ... we just did my "Lazy Mom's Valentine Box" again this year.  I'm relieved and glad that it's all over! I don't LOVE Valentine's Day!

Valentine Games

Cup Crash

The elementary has two official class parties each year, for Halloween and for Valentines. For the past several years, I've been a room mom ... thus, in charge of said parties. I'm always keeping an eye out for ideas. Pinterest has been a big help *Ü* I actually had TOO many ideas this year, and had to narrow things down to what the time would allow. 

One of the favorites (very easy to adapt to almost any holiday/theme) is Cup Crash (pictured above). Just build a tower of plastic cups, set a line for the kids to stand, and give them something to throw. The kids LOVE it, it's one of the favorite activities year after year. 

Cupid's Arrow

This was the first year I tried this simple "Cupid's Arrow" game. Just load an "arrow" (q-tip) into a straw, and blow, trying to get it to land in the bowl. You would not believe how FAR some of the kids could shoot these. And yes ... I was hit while trying to gather up missed shots. NOTE:  Straight straws, without the flexible bendy part are best, as the arrows will get stuck in the "bend" part. I know, simple load the other end ... but I chose to cut that part of the straw off to avoid any problems. Also, as a q-tip is reused a few times, the cotton expands and sometimes then gets stuck, so have plenty of q-tips so you can throw them away after a few uses. I was happy to find these cute pink ones for our party.

My other stations were games I purchased from Oriental Trading Co ... between all the kids and the various classes, I know a small investment will get a lot of usage. Our other stations were:

• Twister (we did get a tear in it this year)
• Memory (this is a really nice, sturdy set)
• Connect Four (small, but cute)

Other games I was considering were ...

• Don't Eat Pete (very cute free printable here)
• Candy Stack (see who can stack conversations hearts the highest)
• Chopstix&Hearts (use pencils as chopsticks to move candy hearts, who can get the most?)
• Heart Lava (kids must use two large cut out hearts to race across the room)
• Balloon Paddle: Make paddles with paper plates taped to sticks. Have the kids try to keep a balloon up in the air, don't let it hit the ground. 
• Bingo (I have yet to find a Valentine set I really like)

I always like to have little extras on hand, to fill in if there is extra time (there was NO extra time at this party!)...  a word search, decoder game, or hidden picture (sign up for Highlights free PDFs every month, they are great). 

I happened to hit the store the day after Valentines and I couldn't help it ... I had to pick up some sale stuff for NEXT year (and the years to come). Maybe a puzzle center, who can assemble theirs first? Tiny tops, ... who can spin theirs the longest. Little frogs for a jumping race, stretchy hearts to flip, frisbees to try and land in a bucket or on a heart target. Make a ring toss game with heart bracelets and pencils (and plenty of pencils to use in the heart chopstix game above too).  This might be too much fun to keep in the classroom, maybe we need to host a valentine party at home too!

Be Mine, Valentine

A couple years ago I took snapshots of the kids for their Valentine Day cards (see post HERE).  Landon surprised me this year by asking to do it again. So when he got home from school, I had him pose, I did it up digitally and uploaded it to a 1-hour place (as this was this night before the big day).  I think they turned out cute. 

There was another surprise Valentine's Day morning ... 

at 6:30 am, we had a visitor! Maga!

 We loaned her some of our cute glasses ...

The little boys were still asleep.

I told her she could go wake them up :)

Maga brought over the dipped pretzel sticks. I made homemade oreos, using white cake mix instead of devils food. I added some red food coloring to the dough. Even though it was NOT a strawberry cake mix, or any added flavor ... being pink, they seemed to taste a little fruity.

Gray brought me a box of chocolates ... he knows he can't get any ol' box, as I'm super picky. He has to go to one of the specialty shops and hand pick only the kinds he knows I like. The box is empty. I guess he was successful. Happy Valentine's Day.

V-Day

I didn't get around to making cute valentines like I did last year.  Just had the kids write their name on little FunDip packages to give out. I do go into Cooper's class and help out with their class party, and snagged a picture of their valentine boxes.

I was thinking of making sugar cookies, but then Landon got it in his head to make a big batch of chocolate chip ones. He took them to school for his friends the next day.

Here's my gift from Gray ... it wasn't empty when I got it. In the spirit of the current coin collecting trend, he also gave me some chocolate coins, which I shared with the little boys. They ATE them ... I thought they MIGHT save them with their other special money.

I got Gray a little yellow helicopter ... the one we got at Christmas didn't survive Christmas day. This little guy seems to be lasting a bit better :)  ok... not exactly a romantic present, but it's been fun.

Be My Valentine

Last year I saw this CUTE card idea on a friend's blog ... I thought it was so clever. This year, I saw the idea again and even though I had left it to the last minute, I thought I'd give it a try. I found these funky glasses (with funky fingerprints on the lenses after the first five minutes, and funky glare in the photos, but still ... they are fun ... the boys are fighting over who gets to wear them on the actual holiday). I took pictures of the boys with their arm outstretched (even Landon cooperated! He needed some Valentines for his seminary class). I'm not a big "photoshop" person (I didn't even use photoshop) but I added a border and some text and had them printed up (note to self, do this early and get less expensive mail order rates!). Then we cut a couple slits, insert a sucker, and we're done! The older boys even did the cutting and sucker insertion themselves. Here's a collage of all the cards ... PREsucker ... you have to use your imagination ...

Another note to self ... don't open the bag of suckers too soon... I had a bag of 80 and thought that would be enough ... not so! The kids (and little friends) had helped themselves to the suckers and I had to make another store stop for more. On a side note ... Callahan was eating one on Saturday, he bit into it and ... out came a tooth. On Sunday, he was trying another sucker and ... out came a tooth ... I don't think Callahan should have any more suckers (but I'll keep this in mind next time the dentist says the kids need an extraction and see if we can save ourselves some expense!). OK ... back to VALENTINES ... of course a couple of the kids needed a Valentine box ... here's our quick and easy idea...

Yes ... it's a garbage can (it's new and clean!) So I think we're ready. I'm in charge of the party for Callahan's class tomorrow, but I'm ready for that too ... a gift for Grayson??? Ummmmm ... ok, maybe I'm not quite ready ...

Lazy Mom's Valentine Box

When the kids aren't in school (off-track) for Valentine's Day, it's easy to let the holiday slide. Actually, the kindergarten class had their Valentine party several weeks ago before school let out and the older boys will have theirs Friday the 19th (hey, I should be able to get some good deals on cards and candy!). I was actually under the weather this year, didn't get around to making cookies or anything. So, just so I can have a Valentine's Day post, I thought I'd share the Valentine's Box the kids and I created ... yes, it's a garbage can (it is a new clean one!). Quick and easy! Easy in, easy out. *Ü*