Valentine's Ideas ... sharing and searching!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Anyone else out there excited that Valentine's is on a Saturday? I am usually running around in the normal hectic state of a school day (with the added activities of making sure valentine's and games are ready for a class party) and I haven't been able to get to all the cute, fun ideas I keep running into.



This year will be different - YAY!



I get to do all the busy stuff on Friday, for example, one of the games in Thing 1's class, and, thank you google, I found a very easy, fun activity ... Cut out 4 large hearts from foam or poster paper. Split the kids into 2 teams if you are working with smaller groups (more if you are working with the whole class, then you will need to cut out more hearts) ... Have the kids do a little relay race where they place one heart down, step on it, place the next heart down, step on it and pick up the first heart and place it in front of them to step on next. They keep going until the get to the finish line. Then they pick up the hearts and take them to the next player in line. When all the kids in a team have crossed the "Love River" safely, that team wins and they get a little prize. The other team will also finish and get a little 2nd place prize. Then, if we still have a few minutes we'll stack conversation hearts and see who can get the largest stack.



Now, for home, the only real Valentine's tradition we have maintained is to make little individual heart shaped pizzas for dinner. The kids LOVE them and I couldn't get away with it if I tried to skip them. So, dinner is planned.



But this is what I am sooooooo excited about ... Breakfast!

Heart Pancakes - made like I made the pumpkin pancakes - I think the hearts will be much easier since I will only need pink and plain pancake batter. Adding a little beet puree to your batter will give you a natural food coloring, then make sure to add a little cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to "sweeten" it up a bit.



I have some recently made strawberry compote to add to the pancakes and we will have a very lovely breakfast! Yay!



Now that I have shared a few, I am looking for any other fun little (easy) traditions that might be out there. I always love to add to my idea stash, so please let me know what makes your valentine's day fun and special!



Happy Valentine's Everyone!

and if you don't care to celebrate this fun little made up holiday, well, have a good day anyhow!