celebrate valentine’s day – kid friendly!

Like most people, we will be staying home this year on Valentine’s Day. But if I’m being honest, we’ve always been pretty low key about it! This year I’m excited to incorporate some ideas to include the kids this year, since Valentine’s Day is falling on a Sunday and they’ll be home with us!

Cookie or cupcake Decorating Kit

I prefer to shop local and get these from a local cupcake shop here called Lancaster Cupcake. But if you don’t have something close to you – I was easily able to find a few kits on Etsy & Amazon – and by “kit” I mean, they will come with the icing, sprinkles and everything you need to create. If you get them online, you’ll probably need to source the cookie or cupcake (if you shop local, they will give you that!) My daughters would decorate meatloaf if it meant they get to be artsy and creative – so they always love this! 😛

creative valentines for school gifting

I came up with a NEW idea this year. I have always disliked how all of the little paper cards get lost in the bags. We accidentally give some kids 3, while others get 0. Honestly, I want everything super organized or it makes me crazy. So this year, I decided to buy little plastic boxes on Amazon (cheap!) with lids. Make sure the dimensions will fit what you want to put inside. For us – inside, we will put the Valentine card plus 2 pieces of candy that the kids like, and create a little fun package out of it! My hope is that they can reuse the box for something else when they are done – legos, gems, etc!

Dinner

Plan for 2 dinner seatings. We do this always because truthfully, our kids go to sleep and we eat around 10PM. But I’m praying yours is earlier! Anyway, maybe the kids’ dinner really special and fancy like they are at a restaurant! Have them dress up and set their table with (electric) candles, cloth napkins, music, and a fancy meal. THEN – once they are asleep – you can use this as an excuse to cook a fancy, but EASY meal for yourself. I’m thinking a chickpea pasta with store bought pesto and shrimp or veggies. Salad with croutons – toast up some slices of bread and rub fresh garlic on them as soon as they come out of the oven, then break apart! And make a chocolate avocado mousse in the blender! Or – order in your favorite take out and skip all of that. Check out my recipe tab on the blog for some ideas or send me an email if you need help!