5 Simple Ways To Celebrate Valentines Day With Kids

Valentines is such a sweet holiday to celebrate.  We love showing our fondess for friends and family members and we love pink and fuschia so we celebrate in a big way all month long! See here for past Valentine’s parties and treat ideas. This year, we are making 1 new Valentine’s food/dessert each week leading up to Valentine’s for the entire month!  And we are hosting a series of playdates and parties to keep the celebration going!  How are you planning to celebrate this special holiday?  In case you needed ideas, I put together this list of 5 simple ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with Kids.

1. Deck the walls!  With easily, removable stick-on decals like these black hearts, you can easily transform any space into a photo-shoot worthy wall (and then use them again and again)!  Thanks Wall Decor Plus More! I also added banners to the mirror – the heart one was from the Target dollar bin, the pink flags were from a Michaels sale years ago and the other one is a random ribbon I had.  I find that hanging and displaying things in odd numbers like the 3 garlands here, makes for the best presentation. I learned that from a home makeover show on TV.  So it must be right, Right?  Concentrate on making one wall a focal point and you’ll have an Instagram-worthy backdrop in no time!
2. Make your sweetheart a Valentine’s ice cream sandwich!  Take any ice cream sandwich, cut a heart out while frozen, and add pink/red sprinkles to the ice cream sides! (This is easy for kids to do by rotating the ice cream sandwich in a ziploc bag full of sprinkles). Or your child might want to decorate his/her ice cream sandwich by drawing a heart on top with frosting and adding Valentines candies to the side.  
3. Make your own Valentine’s cards for your classmates without dolling out more candy.  Try this easy to create, goldfish cracker Valentine which reads, “Dear Valentine, I’m so glad we’re in the same school.”  And you’ll be a hit with the kids AND parents!  All you need is this printable, a clear baggy (without ziploc seal), and cute washi tape.  Print and cut printable, insert into baggy along with goldfish and tape up!  Kids can sign the bottom and will love being able to craft their own valentines with their own little hands. 
4. Enjoy an UN-romantic mommy and me meal in a pink restaurant!  In NYC, I highly recommend checking out this darling, tiny restaurant so pretty in pink it will have YOU blushing!  Pietro Nolita (click through for full review and all the pics)  Extra points to you if you show up dressed in pink like our little divas did!
5. Play Dress Up!  It’s far too often that moms are behind the camera shooting the kids and not with them in the picture.  Use the holidays as a reminder to track your child’s growth next to you by taking yearly Valentine’s picture with your most favorite Valentine!  Have the little ones choose the color theme.  Pink?  Fuschia? Red this year?  What will it be?  And have fun playing a little dress up together! Click here for more mommy and me Valentine’s outfit inspiration!

Want MORE ideas?  I’m glad you asked!  Click here for a homemade, heart-shaped, pop tart recipe,  here for 5 steps to planning a Galentine’s party for the little girls, here for a Wild Valentine’s party for toddlers, and here for 6 tips on hosting a Valentine’s pancake and pajama playdate!

Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment on which idea you liked best.  Will you be trying any of these this year?

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Valentine’s Pop Tarts That Even a 5 Year Old Can Make

I heart Valentine’s as a mom.  Making memories with my little one is one of my favorite mommy responsibilities.  And I use every holiday season to do just that.  For Valentine’s, we pick out mommy and me matching outfits, we decorate, we host Galentine’s parties, and bake fun treats together.  And every year, I like to mix it up and do something a little different.  This year, our Valentine’s inspired baking session involved heart-shaped, homemade pop tarts.  And they were so easy to make that even my 5 year old could make it!

Here are the 5 easy steps so you can try this at home too:

1.  Prepare the dough (while your oven is preheating at 350 degrees).  We saved time and cheated by buying a frozen pie crust dough.  It had 2 rolls which made us 7 pop tarts.  Tada, that was easy!  Just pop it in the microwave for 40 seconds, unroll and carve your favorite shape or use a cookie cutter like the heart one we used.  Click here to buy a cutter like ours.  It’s great not only for these pop tarts but also heart-shaped sandwiches, pancakes, and cookies too! 
2. Make the filling and swipe it on one side.  Fillings can be pretty much anything you want.  We used a mix of nutella and rasberry jam but any jam, any chocolate filling, a mix of nutella and peanut butter, or brown sugar + cinnamon and flour would be great! Mix in a bowl and spread it on evenly leaving the perimeter clear for sealing. 
3. Place a plain cover on top and fork the edges around a cm in height.  This will seal the two sides together.  Because some of our covers cracked and had filling seap through, my daughter thought up the brilliant idea to add extra dough to the top in the formation of a face.  We had so much fun making and adding silly faces if you can’t tell!
4. Whisk an egg to create a quick egg wash to paint over the cover and allow sprinkles to stick on top.  We added clear/white sugar crystals but you could add any Valentine’s colored sprinkles on top. 
5. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. If you plan to ice the pastries, cool them completely before doing so. Store pastries in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.  Share with a Valentine and enjoy!!  Pictured below is the Valentine’s pop tart we created last year in the traditional rectangular shape with a heart cutout of the top! 

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