Valentine's Day Cards

Handmade, Homemade Classroom Exchange Cards!

This year for Valentine's Day I put my brain to work trying to come up with a unique cards for my kids to exchange at school. Candy seems to be aplenty these days and after throwing my sons birthday party in December and seeing kids actually leave candy on the ground after breaking a pinata because they had enough, I knew I had to start providing things that were not candy based (and this is very hard for me to do.... I have an enormous sweet tooth).

So with the munchkins in tow we paced the the aisles at Target. I wanted to make sure it was still a Valentine they wanted and had some input in creating. After some debate and discussion (yes, with a four and six year old....sometimes I think I'm nuts) we came up with two Valentine cards that the kids are stoked about and helped create!

Sophia's Bubbles

A month or so ago I ordered personalized ribbon from Pick Your Plum with a heart and Sophia's name on it. I knew I wanted to make some sort of Valentine with it but wasn't sure what. When Sophia saw these bubbles at Target and had to have them, I was stoked!

Colin's Sports Cards

Colin's pre-school Valentine's were a bit more difficult to come up with. He was overwhelmed with the concept, he wasn't sure what I meant by making Valentine's (it's his first time) and he can't make a decision to save his life on a good day....so it took some time to come up with a concept. Standing over 25 different cards at Target at 4pm as we were all needing a snack and juice (coffee for me), I was doubting my decision to let the kids decide and really wishing I would have just bought some plain cards for him to write his name on. When he saw a bag of bouncy balls and I caught a glimpse of some sports related paper cards...were were suddenly in business. I bought some tiny treat bags in the baking aisle at Hobby Lobby and used a stapler to attach everything. The picture isn't so great...but they turned out pretty awesome and Colin keeps saying over and over that he can't wait to give them to his friends! SCORE!

Hope you enjoy these homemade V-Day cards and that they inspire you to create something unique this year or next!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Last Minute Halloween Snacks!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN! I get into it. I make snacks, I make gift bags, I visit many, many costume stores. I make chili, buy tons of candy and get dressed up EVERY, SINGLE YEAR! I ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Yesterday I had planned a little get together for my daughters class at the park. It was a half day of school and I thought it would be a great time for moms to get to know each other as well as have the kids play without all the restrictions of school. Plus here in Phoenix it's been 100+ degrees until a few days ago....finally we could play outside, NO MORE indoor playrooms! YAY!!!

Then suddenly an hour before I was heading to pick up the kiddo and meet everyone at the park I realized that even though this was a last minute thing and I had told everyone to bring a picnic lunch, I should have some snacks and some sort of drinks just in case. Plus it was a few days before Halloween.....I had to do something fun!

Problem...I had ONE HOUR. No way to make my usual ridiculous overblown Halloween cupcakes!  I ran to Target and got thinking. I filled a drink container with ice and orange gatorade, grabbed some stuff to make a Halloween snack mix and some cookies and candy to make a silly little cookie thingy! Ta-dah! Yummy, Halloween snacks!


HALLOWEEN SNACK MIX: Popcorn, Candy Corn, Peanut Butter M&M's, Pretzel Sticks.
I put little brown lunch sacks next to it, with about four inches cut off so it was more snack and kid size. Everyone had a great time filling up their bag and eating their favorite parts of the snack mix.

WITCH HAT COOKIES: I saw a few different versions of a cookie like this over the past few weeks and thought it was a great treat the kids could help prepare. The kids went nuts for it and with the awesome Pillsbury Easy Frost Orange Halloween frosting these were even easier to make. Grab the Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies and Hershey Kisses and you are all set.

You now have easy snacks you can buy and prepare in less than an hour.