Since I’m a homeschooler, I try extra hard to facilitate fun holiday things in my home, so the kids don’t feel left out when all their neighborhood friends are talking about class parties, and treats, and what-not.
But you don’t have to be a homeschool mom to throw a super-stellar Valentine’s Day party for your kids and their friends.
The first thing I always do is decorate. My kids love to help, and it’s fun to let them. My six-year-old is a pro at cutting out paper hearts, so I assigned him to make a heart banner. He chose to do a white, pink and red pattern; but anything at all, pattern or no, will be festive and fun. I used his banner as the focal decoration, but accented it with crepe paper streamers, and a plastic, disposable, pink table cloth.
As our party guests arrived, I gave them each a brown paper sandwich bag, and have a bucket of crayons handy, so they could get right to work decorating a bag to hold their Valentines in. This also serves as a good gathering activity, while you wait for everyone to arrive.
Then it’s time to really get the party started, with games! Disney love songs musical chairs is always a hit. And so is BINGO. I found this adorable free BINGO printable from crazylittleprojects.com. Check out her site, it has loads of cute things.
After games it’s time to make some treats. My favorite Vday treat to make with kids is candy and fruit kabobs. I make piles of different fruits and candies (i.e. bananas, strawberries, dried apricots, heart shaped marshmallows, cinnamon lips, sugary gummy hearts, etc.) and I give each kid a shish-kabob skewer (and warn them to be careful with the sharp end) and let them make their own. It’s always a big success.
When the kabobs start winding down, it’s time for the finale. The Valentine exchange. I’ve found that the easiest way to do this, is to line all the bags up in a row on the table or floor, and have the kids walk down the line and drop a Valentine in each one along the way. When everyone is finished passing out their Valentines, I take a stapler and staple each paper bag shut, so nothing will spill out, and everything will make it home all in one piece. (And so no stay candy wrappers find their way onto your floor.)
As a party favor, I send each kid home with a Rice Krispy treat heart. Basically you make your normal Rice Krispy treat recipe, and then before the mixture cools you take spoonfuls and pat them into a large heart-shaped cookie cutter, so they become heart-shaped, and then stick them on a pan covered in wax paper to harden. Once they’ve hardened, melt a cup of chocolate chips and a Tbsp of vegetable oil over medium heat on the stove, stir it up until well blended, then drizzle a little bit of melted chocolate over the top, just to make them fancy. :) Adding the oil will make your chocolate drizzle more smoothly. When the chocolate dries, put your Rice Krispy hearts into a cute cellophane bag, tie it up with some red ribbon, and there you have it. A successful Valentines Day shindig for the kidlets. You can cross that one off your list. ;)
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