Our Hearts were Warmed!

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day and the kids had a blast from morning until night sharing Valentines with friends and family. By the end of the day I was ready to collapse ... and by Saturday morning had the stomach flu which I can only attribute to having spent the afternoon at the elementary school helping with Becca's party? So to be very honest ... after preparing for Valentine's Day for days and days and days, I'm so glad to have all the pink and red paper and hearts and glue sticks and candy nearly all eaten, used, or put away for another year!

The kids did an amazing job pulling together their valentines.

For Sam's we used the same clip art pack I purchased from PCcrafter last year - best $5 purchase ever! - and it doesn't seem to be available any more - bummer! Sam isn't my arts and crafts kid ... never has been and probably never will be .. build something, yes, create a cute paper something, NO. So a clip art valentine we can print, sign and add a candy too, exactly what he needs and can enjoy! (I should note that not all of his Valentine's had the horse on them, "I'm not Horse'n Around when I say, Hope Ya Have a happy Valentine's Day!" but it was by far is favorite design and wanted more of those printed than others!) And he got so good at writing his name over and over and over again and would proudly show me when he got his M just right!



Emily opted to use 3x5 cards as her base and then glued lots and lots of heart punches to the bottom of the cards, we stamped them with a Happy Valentine Stamp and then glued a Fruit by the Foot to the top. So cute and she had some wonderful color combinations with all my scrap papers being punched into hearts.



Rebecca didn't want to use a 3x5 card, she wanted to use big hearts. I had to talk her down from cutting out 7" hearts from single sheets of construction paper ... impractical given the size bags the kids were using to collect their valentines, and not enough construction paper. She didn't exactly see it that way, but was pleased with my alternative 4" hearts - pink for the girls, red for the boys, embellished with the same heart punches, stamps and fruit by the foot.



Sam's preschool party was Wednesday, but he and Alex went to the Valentine Card exchange and cookie decorating playgroup activity Thursday morning. It was so cute to watch Alex quickly catch on to passing out his Valentines (mini-fruit roll-ups) and then sit down and start enjoying a few treats from his playgroup friends - note the lollipop in one hand and the Hershey kiss in the mouth - a sweet sticky mess!



After playgroup, Sam joined Grandma and Grandpa for special lunch while Alex took a nap and I quickly frosted cupcakes and got ready for Becca's party that afternoon. Her teacher had a great game for the kids to play ... Heart Twister ... 20 large hearts cut out of construction paper (need two sets so you have two teams) and then coordinating small hearts and body parts. The kids had a blast playing it ... half played while the other half passed out valentines and then they switched.

After school, the kids went through all their Valentine's ... the dining room table looked like we were celebrating the wrong holiday ... Halloween anyone? We finished up the day with heart shaped individual pizzas and just before bed, my parents arrived for a quick weekend visit! What could be better!