Happy Valentine's Day!

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Wishing everyone a day filled with love, joy, hugs and kisses. James and I went out for a lovely dinner last night and it was great to go out, just the two of us. I took a few quick pics of the kids on the weekend for a quick Valentine's card. I just love these two. I am so blessed.





template for Valentine's card found here

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hugs and kisses cupcakes

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Good ol' Martha strikes again. Doesn't Martha just have the best ideas? I stumbled across these babies on Martha's website and just loved the idea of them (she calls them X's and O's cupcakes). I just made a boxed cupcake mix, used store bought icing and stuck some cinnamon heart candies on top of them in X's and O's. Couldn't be easier. What a cute Valentine's treat.

tic tac toe anyone?



Idea from Martha Stewart

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this week in bento boxes

Pin It This week we made some Valentine-inspired lunches. A little love in the lunch box. Nothing over the top, but just a few cute touches to make my girl smile. Here are this week's lunches:



This was an adorable little bento for her morning nutrition break. Kirsten had some chocolate cheerios, some strawberries cut into hearts, and the cutest little bear muffin. Stay tuned for the full muffin post this week. I made some REALLY cute ones. I made a homemade apple and cinnamon muffin and decorated him with fruit leather ears, icing eyes, a heart sprinkle nose and chocolate sprinkle mouth. Kirsten LOVED him.





Like I said, if you think he's cute, just wait until you see all the other muffins I made this week. I think I'll post them on Wednesday.



This cute bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. She had a circle cut ham and cheese sandwich with some fruit leather LOVE. She also had some craisins in a silicone muffin cup and some cucumbers cut into hearts.



Here's another super easy bento for her morning nutrition break. She had a frozen strawberry smoothie (defrosts my lunch and keeps her lunch cool), some chocolate graham goldfish crackers in a heart-shaped silicone muffin cup and some strawberries cut into hearts.



And here's another morning nutrition break bento. Again, she had a homemade apple and cinnamon muffin (I'll post the recipe Wednesday) with a fruit leather heart on it. Some yogurt with heart sprinkles, and a plastic heart filled with craisins.



And here's a bento in my beloved lock and lock bento box that I made awhile ago but never posted. I figured it fit in this week's theme pretty well. She had a cereal bar with a strip of fruit leather on top. I cut 3 hearts out of the fruit leather and put them on top of a container of yogurt. She also had some granny smith apple slices with a heart cut out of the top one and a red apple heart put inside. Super cute!

Here are some of the supplies (or similar) that I used to make these lunches:






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fun food friday: lovebird the lunch

Pin It Remember the lovebird craft we made last Valentine's day? Well I turned that little lovebird into a lovely little lunch. It was super easy to make and the kiddos thought it was super cute. Making the craft and then making the lunch would be a great afternoon activity for kiddos for Valentine's day.





Here's how I made it:

The lovebird is made using 2 white tortillas with chicken and cheese - I used my comfort grip heart cutter to cut the body out. I used a smaller heart cutter to cut the wing out of fruit leather and the tail feather out of cheese. I used an even smaller heart cutter to cut the head feathers out of cheese, the beak out of fruit leather and the feet out of fruit leather. I used licorice laces for the legs and an icing eye. There was also a silicone muffin cup filled with yogurt with heart sprinkles and one filled with fresh raspberries.

Here's what I used (or similar) to make this lunch:



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i love you beary much - Valentine's plates

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With all the fun the kids and I have had making Valentine's for their friends, I wanted to make them something special for Valentine's day. I had some brown paper plates left over from Camden's 2nd birthday party and then this idea popped into my head. These paper plates made the cutest bear plates ever. Attach a special Valentine's message to them - "we love you beary much!" and your kiddos will get a huge kick out of it. You can serve your kiddo anything on their special Valentine's plate. Maybe even serve all their meals that day on it. I can't wait to give them to the kids on Valentine's Day with a special heart-shaped cookie Valentine treat on them. Want to make your kiddo their very own special Valentine's plate?



Here's how I made them:

What you'll need:

2 brown paper plates
glue
scissors
brown cardstock
beige cardstock
red or pink cardstock
1 inch paper punch
2 inch paper punch
small heart paper punch
3 inch scallop paper punch
black, red/pink sharpie
googly eyes
a Valentine's treat - I used heart shaped sugar cookies with sprinkles



Directions:

1. place some glue on the upper rim of 1 paper plate and press the bottom back rim of the other paper plate on top
2. using your scissors, cut 2 arms and 2 legs out of your brown cardstock. Glue these to the back of the paper plates.
3. using your 2 inch paper punch, punch 2 circles out of your brown cardstock and glue them on your bear for ears.
4. also using your 2 inch paper punch, punch 1 circle out of your beige cardstock and glue on the bear's face.
5. using your 1 inch paper punch and your red or pink paper, punch out 2 rosy cheeks and glue on your bear's face.
6. using your heart paper punch and red or pink paper, punch out 1 heart and glue on for your bear's nose
7. use your black sharpie and draw on a mouth
8. glue on two googly eyes
9. using your beige cardstock and scalloped punch, punch 1 piece out. Write a special Valentine's message on it - We love you beary much! and glue to your bear's hand.
10. serve your kiddo a special Valentine's day treat on their special bear plate.





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fun food friday: butterfly love

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I thought some cute little heart-shaped butterflies would make a cute little Valentine's lunch. This lunch was really simple and the kiddos thought it was really fun. It doesn't have to take a lot of time or effort to make a fun lunch for your kiddos. This lunch took under 5 minutes to make. Here's how I made this lunch:

Larger butterfly is made cutting hearts out of tortillas with ham and cheese in them. I used a cheesestring for the body, with fruit leather hearts on the wings and sprinkles for the eyes and antennae. The smaller butterfly has a carrot body and uses heart-shaped muffin silicone cups for the wings. The cups are filled with sliced apples and crinkle cut cucumbers.

Here are some of the supplies I used to make this lunch:



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tissue paper hearts

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The kids and I made this huge tissue paper heart on the weekend and it looks pretty awesome. I cut squares out of some red, white and pink tissue paper, drew a heart in pencil on a large piece of canvas, covered the heart in glue and the kids scrunched up the tissue paper and placed it inside the heart. They did such a great job. Kirsten especially. She is getting very meticulous to detail and wanted all the tissue paper pieces inside the lines. She would actually get frustrated with Camden if he would scrunch the pieces too small, lol. She's a little anal like her mother! Here's how you can make this super cute Valentine's craft:

What you need:

tissue paper - red, white, 2 shades of pink
scissors
glue
pencil
large canvas

Directions:

1. using your scissors, cut small squares (maybe 2" x 2") out of all of your coloured tissue paper

2. using your pencil, lightly draw a heart shape on your canvas

3. squirt some glue inside the heart and spread it around so it covers all areas of the heart

4. lightly scrunch 1 piece of tissue paper at a time and press it onto the glued part inside the heart. Repeat, alternating the colours.

The 3-D-ness of the tissue paper is really cool.



And this is how my poor little Cam has been spending most of the week. The poor little guy had an ear infection last month, then got strep throat, and is now coming down with something again. I feel soooo bad for him. Feel better soon little guy.





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conversation heart kisses

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These adorable little Hershey Kisses with stickers were very popular on the internet last Valentine's Day. I decided to make some of my own this year for my kiddos to give out for Valentine's Day. I love the look of conversation hearts because they are so darn cute, but don't really love the taste of them. My solution was to add a conversation heart sticker to the bottom of the Hershey's Kiss - and who doesn't love Hershey's kisses?!?! We put 3 of these little kisses in a small bag and the kiddos and I made some tags using their adorable little thumbprints for the hearts. I think their friends are going to love these. Now I made these stickers to fit the bottom of a Hershey's kiss - which is 3/4". Try and get your hands on a 3/4" punch if you can. I couldn't find one and as you can see, they aren't perfect. Not that the kids will care, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.



Here's how we made them:

What you'll need:

Hershey's kisses
my free printable labels
sticker paper
3/4" punch

To make the treat bags and labels:

small plastic baggies
white cardstock
3" scalloped paper punch
red and pink paint
black sharpie
tape

Here is what my free printable stickers look like:



Get your own free labels here

Directions:

1. print out my free printable conversation heart stickers on sticker paper

2. using a 3/4" paper punch, punch out the stickers

3. attach the stickers to the bottom of your Hershey's kisses

4. grab some white cardstock and using your 3" scalloped punch, punch out some scalloped circles

5. have your children stamp their thumbs using the red and pink paint on the scalloped circles turning their thumbs into heart shapes

6. using the black sharpie, write a little Valentine's message on the label and allow the paint to dry



7. put a few kisses in a plastic baggie and tape the label on the top.







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fun food friday - I love you

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I actually made this lunch a really long time ago. Seeing as I hadn't posted it yet, I thought now would be a great time with Valentine's day coming up. I just love my alphabet cutters and my kids always want their toast cut into letters. Here's how I made this simple lunch:

The I and U were made using out of peanut butter toast and my alphbet cutters. I used a heart silicone cup in the middle filled with yogurt and Valentine's sprinkles. Fruit leather hearts all over the plate.



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hershey's kisses

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Nothing says Valentine's day to me like Hershey's kisses. The kids and I didn't have any of the sweet treat, so we decided to make our own, kind of. They thought this craft was super fun. It was really easy to make and it's a great Valentine's craft. Here's how we made them:

What you'll need:

cardstock
tin foil
scissors
glue
googly eyes
marker
glitter glue

Directions:

1. cut a Hershey's kiss shape out of your cardstock
2. cover your Hershey's kiss with a piece of tin foil
3. glue on 2 googly eyes and use a glitter glue pen to draw on a mouth
4. have your child write their name on a rectangular shape of cardstock and glue to the back of your kiss

Kirsten's kiss:



Camden's kiss:





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