Kid-friendly Valentine’s!

Anyone else get their 1st "LIST" this year?

pen and paper

I did. It was back at Christmas time and my 3-year-old came home from Cubbies with a list of classmates on it. I wasn't sure what this mean. I had volunteered to bring cupcakes. Did this list mean I was to put their names on individual cupcakes for them? Nope. Gifts. For Each Child. That's what it meant. It has begun. Gone were the days of nursery kids and workers being pleasantly surprised by my children offering simple gifts to them for the holiday. Now there was a LIST. Crazy! I guess there's no turning back and no more forgetting...

We made simple gifts with printed tags for Christmas and, now anticipating the LIST for the Valentine's Day party, I was Ready! I'd been clicking through Pinterest for ideas. Not wanting to spend too much money on top of the cupcakes for the this party as well, I finally found something we already had enough of at home, created my own tag on Picnik {entire site FREE and Unlimited until April 19, 2012} using combination of things I'd seen before, and spent ~$3.00 more to get this finished product:

Gold fish! The kid-friendly, semi-healthy snack that we had a GIANT SAM's Club size container of already at home. I bought 1 box of Reese's Pieces ($1.00) and the cheapest plastic bags I could find at Wal-Mart (maybe $2.00). I dumped tons of fish into a bowl and gave my girls measuring spoons to scoop them into the bags I'd opened.

{Some where a bit fuller than others so I evened them out later} They of course were allowed to snack on a few while making their friends gifts. I went back later and added the not as healthy chocolate pieces to the bags. You could of course put more than the ~8 pieces than I did but I was trying to keep it healthier and DID NOT add the chocolate Peanut Butter candies to the bags going to the nursery {Doctors do not want babies under 2-years-old to have peanut butter in case of fatal allergic reactions!}. I folded the bags shut, folded the sides in to keep them fresh, and then stapled the tags on top and bottom to each bag. We wrote each child's name in the top corner and "from ___" in the bottom corner. We also have some blank ones for any visitors that may be there that night.

{You could always punch a hole in the tag and tie the bag shut with some ribbon looped through the tag's hole.}

If you're like me and need a quick Valentine for the LIST you were just handed ---> Here is my FREE Valentine's Day Printable Gift Tags just for YOU!

Do you have any simple kid-friendly DIY Valentine's Day ideas to share!?! Please tell us about it in the comments below!

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DIY Organic Bloom Frames

I love changing up my home decor often, so I can't bring myself to spend big-bucks on a single piece; so in-turn, I'm kind of a cheapskate. Most of my decor in my home is some how a DIY version of something I saw and loved so...Yep! I have a DIY version of The Organic Bloom frames! I'd love to share with you today how to get a similar look over at the Homemaker's Challenge!

Another place I found CHEAP frames to paint up yourself if the Goodwill has a low stalk: http://www.poppyseedprojects.com/kits/Frames! Check out their blog as a great resource as well!

  Poppy Seed Project GIVEAWAY coming Soon! Stay tuned.
I'm thinking the RED and HEARTS might be a good hint ;o)

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The 180 Video

What changed their minds...in seconds?

IT IS WORTH ALL ~33 minutes of this video!

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Knight and Shining Armor 1st Birthday Party {FOOD}

The Table:

I had a yellow table cloth left from our oldest daughters party and the blue table cloth I though I bought to layer on top ended up being goodie bags so I used this picnic table cloth I also already had. It worked. The flag streamers are made from scrapbook paper, hot glue, and ribbon.

The feast was an attempt at “Mid-evil Carnival food/ Knight-ish food”.

We made {frozen and cooked according to the package} Corn Dogs!
The holder is a round cardboard cake thing that I covered in tin foil and poked holes through with scissors.

Cotton candy on Popsicle sticks {and my hubs thought I’d never find enough uses for that giant box of 1000 sticks…}. I took tubs of $1.00 cotton candy from Wal-Mart and unrolled it. Then I rerolled sections of it back onto sticks. The only way it would have been cooler is if it were blue…but the pink kinda looks like it goes with the red ;o)

We went with a kid-friendly, less waist version of caramel apple!

Cake balls {affectionately named cannonballs} made from the left over parts of the cake that were cut off to make the castle and smash cake!

Pretzel rods dipped in almond bark with added theme colored sprinkles, aka Pretzel Swards!

This bucket is one we had around the house for Benjamin that I’d found for $1.00 at the Goodwill! Chunked out cutlery in it- voila!

Ice cream, pre-scooped into punch cups and placed back into the freezer right before the party to save time and make for easy serving!

This is the wooden highchair we’ve used for all of children. We just took the cushion off so it wouldn’t get stained by the chocolate, left the plastic tray on for protection, and added part of the flag streamer I made.

Yep! I put on an apron and took his diapered-self straight to the kitchen sink for a quick scrub down before getting redressed for the pinata and presents!

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Knight and Shining Armor 1st Birthday Party {PINATA}

Pinata

Since it’s a 1st birthday we needed some kind of simple yet fun game that both big and little kids so do. I decided a pinata would be fun and tried to make this regular pinata into an pull sting pinata…fail. It was a awesome added decoration but my attempt at making it a pull sting so it would be 1-year-old friendly didn’t quite work. Oh well. I’ll tell you how I did it and I’m sure you could figure out how to do it a little better.

*Excuse the laundry basket full of stuff and the rest of the mess on the table- we were crafting that day.

Supplies:

  • Steak Knife
  • Packing and scotch tape
  • Currling Ribbon
  • Scissors
  • Glue Stick
  • Hot Glue Gun

I chopped a flap open on the bottom of the pinata using the steak knife leaving 1 side still attached.I then cut the curling ribbon the desired length. I chose 1 string to be the “opener” and used the packing tape to make sure that string was securely attached to the flap as to pull open the entire thing when tugged}. Then I lightly taped the other strings around the edge. ***I think this was my mistake. If I had used the glue stick they might have fallen out easier as opposed to any string being the “opener”. OR if I’d punched small holes in the flap and slid the extra strings through without having them attached at all. If you know how LET ME KNOW! Then I stuffed that pinata to capacity.

I chose to use Great Value fruit snacks as a healthier option for the littles that would be at the party. I added in some sheets of stickers cut into individual pieces for added confetti and grab-ability. Instead of greedy grabbing I taped each child’s name around a bag of snacks. I’ve also seen this done with little plastic bags of other snacks. I put an extra in there in case I forgot a name. FUN!

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