A Long Day at Home

Today my hooligans all get to spend the day with me. Yay. It’s above freezing here, but barely. Enough, however, that if I kick them outside, they’ll come in coated with mud from head to toe. So we’re thinking of inside activities.

I do love making Valentines for school, though, so that’s what we did all morning. I’m sure you’ve seen all of these ideas in one form or another, but I think each fits perfectly.

The oldest got to choose what to make, and after (painful for me) deliberation, went with “You Rock” attached to Pop Rocks. I found the guitar valentine at The Fickle Pickle blog. I just copied and pasted it to Photoshop Elements, added the hooligan’s name for the “from” part, and added a snazzy polka dot background. Quick and easy. All he had to do was write each classmate’s name and staple the card to the Pop Rocks. He’s all about using the stapler, so happy to do it!

The kindergartener agreed to making rainbow fish crayons and coloring this “fin-tastic” stamp for his 22 classmates. I know my time is running out for him to tolerate these puns on his name, so we spent a little more time on his. He did a great job coloring and then writing each classmate’s name, I thought. We put them in a small ziploc bag decorated with hearts. I found those at Dollar Tree.

Princess Thundercloud had these 3D Valentines last year, as well. She was much more cooperative while taking the photo this year, which was a pleasant surprise. These are fairly cheap…I added the sentiment with Photoshop Elements, then printed wallet size photos at Costco. They’re $0.39 for 4, then the lollipops were from Walmart and inexpensive.

There are tons of ideas online, if you’re still looking. I heard a newsperson say Google searches for handmade Valentine ideas is up three thousand percent over last year. Wow! They are a fun activity to do with your kids, and I look forward to it every year!