Valentine's Day is Tomorrow!

The kids are too old to exchange Valentine's at school, which I kind of miss. It was always fun for me to see what kinds of things they came home with. I still give them something small, usually candy or a book. 

If you're lucky enough to have kids that are still in the age of celebrating Valentine's Day, my list of Valentines, Food, Crafts, Gift, and Activity ideas is below!

HOMEMADE VALENTINE'S:

• Minecraft Valentine's Day Boxes 
• Heart Crayon Valentines
• Candied Popcorn Bags, "I'm popping with happiness that you're my Valentine". One year I attached a Valentine themed bag full of candied popcorn to a store bought Valentine.
• Use potato stamps to make a hearts on a homemade card. (Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out the shape.)
• Play-Doh Heart ornaments/necklaces
• Make Heart Shaped Chalk
• Hot Air Balloon: it could even have a picture of your child in the basket. "Your friendship lifts me up."
• Butterfly Pencil
• Bubbles with a Valentine's Day themed note like "Your friendship makes me bubbly".
• S'more Kit (marshmallow, graham cracker squares, piece of chocolate), "Your friendship makes me feel mushy inside".
• Goldfish or gummy fish in a fishbowl shaped baggie with a "school" type of message. The pre-made bags can be hard to find and making the bags can be a little time consuming (click for directions). If you use a regular bag, you can cut a bowl shape piece of paper, write the message and place behind the fish.
• Other non-candy ideas: clementines, cars, glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces ("Your friendship brightens my day"). The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find little treasures in.
• Hanging Stained Glass Card with "stained glass" made from wax paper and crayons.
• Easy Stained Glass Heart with contact paper and tissue paper.
• "I know I'll go far/succeed with you as my friend" type of message with a goodie bag of school gear: pencils, erasers, goldfish bag, ruler, markers, stickers, etc. The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find themed pencils and erasers.

CRAFTS:

• Love Monsters and Bugs
• Heart Magnet and Bookmark Crafts
• Footprint Hearts (great for little kids)
• Stained Glass Valentine
• Play-Doh Hearts
• Valentine's Day Coloring Page
• Heart Bird Feeder
• Bouquet of egg carton flowers.  Works as a craft, decorations, and could also be a Valentine (write on the petals or leaves, use single flowers or make a bouquet...).

ACTIVITIES:

• Valentine's Day BINGO
• The Sky Is Falling, using heart shapes.
• Valentine's Day Word Find
• Heart Shaped Valentine's Day Word Find
• Valentine's Day Memory Game

FOOD:

• Hidden Surprise Poundcake. I made this for St. Patrick's Day, but if you substitute a heart for the clover, it would be great for Valentine's Day!
• Valentine's Day Cake Pops
• Valentine's Day Parfaits
• Easy Valentine's Day Lunch
• Candied Popcorn. Place in little Valentine's Day themed bags and they make a great Valentine's Day treat!
• Heart Peanut Butter Cookies
• Pie Jars
• Layered Jello
• Ice Cream Sandwiches, rolled in red/pink/purple, heart sprinkles
• Fondue
• Valentine's Day Candy

GIFTS: * 

• Valentine's Day Gifts For Kids
• Unique Valentine's Day Gifts
• Last Minute Valentine's Day Gifts
• I even saw an ad for beef jerky flowers and a 10 day preserves gift box!  

PETS:

• The boys like to help make the Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Biscuits for our greyhound. We use heart, star, and pumpkin cookie cutters to make the shapes. 
• Gift ideas for Pets
• There are a lot of Valentine's Day gifts out there now for dogs, including this Valentine's Day heart shaped box of treats for dogs at Target ($9).  

What are some of your favorite homemade Valentines and treats?

*If you buy an item on Amazon using the links, I may receive a small commission for the referral. It does not affect your cost at all! If you want, you can read my Disclosure page for a little more information.

Thanksgiving is Thursday!

 Thanksgiving is November 23rd this year; it's just a few days away!  Below I have some of my ideas for Thanksgiving (food, crafts, activities, and books for kids). 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

FOOD:

• Easy Pumpkin Dip
• Easy Thanksgiving Themed Lunch
• Turkey Fruit Bowl
• Deliciously Easy Turkey Cookies
• Turkey Rice Cereal Treats
• How To Cook The Perfect Turkey
• Left Over Turkey Ideas The pizza with Thanksgiving leftovers is one of my favorites!
• Cranberry Pie. Easy and delicious! 
  

CRAFTS:

• Pine Cone Turkey
• Paper Plate Turkey
• Thankful Turkey
• Turkey Snack Bag
• Turkey Mums
• Pumpkin Turkey
• Handprint Turkey
• And of course, J doesn't want to be left out. We made her some leaf and pumpkin-shaped dog biscuits (click here for my recipe). 

ACTIVITIES:

• Thanksgiving Word Find
• What In The World Is A Wattle!?
• Thanksgiving Feast Word Hunt
• Thanksgiving and Turkey Word Hunts 
• Thanksgiving Themed Word Scramble 
• Kids Coloring and Activity Table 
• Thanksgiving Word Find (RV Shaped) 
  

BOOKS*:

• Scooby Doo and the Thanksgiving Terror
• Scooby Doo: The Thanksgiving Mystery
• Turkey Day
• Trucktown Trucksgiving
• Pete the Cat, The First Thanksgiving
• 'Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving
• Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House)
• The First Thanksgiving
• There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Turkey! 
• Llama Llama Gives Thanks 
• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 
• Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George 
• Fancy Nancy
• Thanksgiving Jokes

*Affiliate links. If you buy an item from Amazon using my links, I may receive a small commission for the referral. It does not affect your cost at all! If you want more information, please visit my Disclosure page.

  

Valentine's Day is Coming Up!

It's hard to believe January is just about over and February is tomorrow. Valentine's Day is coming soon!  

I don't get any requests for homemade Valentines now that the kids are older. The older grades don't even trade Valentine's!

I still give them something small, usually candy or a book. 

If you need any ideas on home made Valentines or things to make it fun/special, my list of Valentines, Food, Crafts, Gift, and Activity ideas is below. 

HOMEMADE VALENTINE'S:

• Minecraft Valentine's Day Boxes 
• Heart Crayon Valentines
• Candied Popcorn Bags, "I'm popping with happiness that you're my Valentine". One year I attached a Valentine themed bag full of candied popcorn to a store bought Valentine.
• Use potato stamps to make a hearts on a homemade card. (Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out the shape.)
• Play-Doh Heart ornaments/necklaces
• Make Heart Shaped Chalk
• Hot Air Balloon: it could even have a picture of your child in the basket. "Your friendship lifts me up."
• Butterfly Pencil
• Bubbles with a Valentine's Day themed note like "Your friendship makes me bubbly".
• S'more Kit (marshmallow, graham cracker squares, piece of chocolate), "Your friendship makes me feel mushy inside".
• Goldfish or gummy fish in a fishbowl shaped baggie with a "school" type of message. The pre-made bags can be hard to find and making the bags can be a little time consuming (click for directions). If you use a regular bag, you can cut a bowl shape piece of paper, write the message and place behind the fish.
• Other non-candy ideas: clementines, cars, glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces ("Your friendship brightens my day"). The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find little treasures in.
• Hanging Stained Glass Card with "stained glass" made from wax paper and crayons.
• Easy Stained Glass Heart with contact paper and tissue paper.
• "I know I'll go far/succeed with you as my friend" type of message with a goodie bag of school gear: pencils, erasers, goldfish bag, ruler, markers, stickers, etc. The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find themed pencils and erasers.

CRAFTS:

• Love Monsters and Bugs
• Heart Magnet and Bookmark Crafts
• Footprint Hearts (great for little kids)
• Stained Glass Valentine
• Play-Doh Hearts
• Valentine's Day Coloring Page
• Heart Bird Feeder
• Bouquet of egg carton flowers.  Works as a craft, decorations, and could also be a Valentine (write on the petals or leaves, use single flowers or make a bouquet...).

ACTIVITIES:

• Valentine's Day BINGO
• The Sky Is Falling, using heart shapes.
• Valentine's Day Word Find
• Heart Shaped Valentine's Day Word Find
• Valentine's Day Memory Game

FOOD:

• Hidden Surprise Poundcake. I made this for St. Patrick's Day, but if you substitute a heart for the clover, it would be great for Valentine's Day!
• Valentine's Day Cake Pops
• Valentine's Day Parfaits
• Easy Valentine's Day Lunch
• Candied Popcorn. Place in little Valentine's Day themed bags and they make a great Valentine's Day treat!
• Heart Peanut Butter Cookies
• Pie Jars
• Layered Jello
• Ice Cream Sandwiches, rolled in red/pink/purple, heart sprinkles
• Fondue
• Valentine's Day Candy

GIFTS: * 

• Valentine's Day Gifts For Kids
• Unique Valentine's Day Gifts
• Last Minute Valentine's Day Gifts
• I even saw an ad for beef jerky flowers and a 10 day preserves gift box!  

PETS:

• The boys like to help make the Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Biscuits for our greyhound. We use heart, star, and pumpkin cookie cutters to make the shapes. 
• Gift ideas for Pets
• There are a lot of Valentine's Day gifts out there now for dogs, including this Valentine's Day heart shaped box of treats for dogs at Target ($9).  

What are some of your favorite homemade Valentines and treats?

*If you buy an item on Amazon using the links, I may receive a small commission for the referral. It does not affect your cost at all! If you want, you can read my Disclosure page for a little more information.

Fall and Halloween Ideas

 It's October! It's going to be Halloween Time! I'm getting excited for Fall. 

Although we haven't Boo'd anyone yet, I do have the Boo Bag supplies ready! We found some fun things this year. We moved this summer into a house, so I am excited to see which of our new neighbors also love Halloween.

If it's cold and/or rainy/snowy, some of my past Halloween posts would be good for staying-home Halloween fun. 

  
ACTIVITIES:

• It's Time To Boo! (Boo Bags). Also has non-food ideas which are great for The Teal Pumpkin Project!
• Halloween Tic Tac Toe.
• Feed The Monster Game (also a craft).
• Spooky Storytimes. Many local libraries and bookstores have Halloween-themed story times! The link has some of my favorite Halloween books so you can make your own story time too!
• Scare Up Some Cookies. We had a friend over to decorate Halloween cookies. It was lots of fun.
• It's A Spooky Glow Party. Halloween cookies that glow in the dark!
• Halloween Bingo. Great for when you are the one stuck at home handing out the candy!
• Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Picking. Every year we go with friends to the pumpkin patch and let the kids pick out a pumpkin. We usually end up at the farm's store eating apple fritters or apple cider donuts. It's a great time! (See Food below for my apple cider donuts recipe!)  
• Haunted Gingerbread House. Why should Christmas have all the fun?
• Halloween Scavenger Hunt.
• Halloween Crossword Puzzle. 
• Word Finds: 
• Halloween Word Find.
• Pumpkin Shaped Halloween Word Find.

• Halloween Mazes:

• Candy Time
• Monster Time
• Pumpkin
• Maze
• Coloring Page.
• Pumpkin Soccer or Bowling. Use a small pie pumpkin as the ball. 

• Soccer: Split into two teams and create goals (small plastic cones work well). Have kids spider walk (aka crab walk) and kick the pumpkin soccer ball with their feet.
• Bowling: Make pins from rolls of toilet paper.
• Ghost pins: Decorate rolls with black paper eyes and mouth.
• Mummy: Wrap a piece of toilet paper around a roll and add eyes.
• Witch: Wrap in green tissue paper, add construction paper eyes/nose/mouth, and top with paper hat.
• Vampire: Add fangs/mouth/eyes, and a black paper cape.
•  Frankenstein: Wrap in green tissue paper, draw with a sharpie or add black paper stitch marks/scars. Add eyes/nose/mouth.

FOOD:

• SNACKS & DESSERTS:
• Apple Cider Donuts.
• Witchy Pretzels.
• Ghost Pretzels. 
• Spider and Eyes Sugar Cookies.  
• Pumpkin Oreo Cookies.
• Candy Corn Jello.
• Ghost Brownies.
• Jello Worms.
• Cookies and Monster Donuts. (Frankenstein, Eyes, and Spider cookies) 
• Candy Corn Brownies.
• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. We roast the seeds every year after carving the pumpkins. The kids love eating them!
• Frankenstein Cups. Super cute Frankenstein snack holders made from green ice cream cones, pretzels and candy!
• Rice Cereal Ghosts, Frankensteins, and Mummies! Great if you love Halloween and Rice Cereal Treats!
• Haunted Parfaits.
• Monster Apples. These are a great snack! For an extra sweet tooth, add a fruit roll-up or fruit leather tongue. You could also dip in chocolate and add candy eyes. (TIP: slice apples, soak in lemon water for a few minutes, dry off really well. Dip in chocolate, place on wax paper to let chocolate set. If you are going to store them in the refrigerator, let them set up in the fridge as the chocolate will harden faster.
• Caramel Apples.
• Jack O'Fruit Bowls.
• Pumpkin Dip. Great at Thanksgiving, but works well with pumpkin theme at Halloween too!
• Rainbow Cupcakes. We made these for St. Patrick's Day, but they will work great for a Candy Corn Halloween cupcake too! Use a white cake mix/recipe. Divide batter into 3 bowls. Color 1/3 of batter yellow, 1/3 orange, leave 1/3 white. Layer the different colors in the cupcake pan and bake according to box/recipe directions. (Link to post has more detailed directions.)
• Spider Suckers.
• Monster Eggs.
• Orange and Pepper Pumpkins.
• Candy Corn Spiral Cookies. See my Christmas Swirl Cookies post for directions. Instead of using red coloring or Christmas, use orange or yellow food coloring in half the dough. If you are really ambitious, divide the dough in thirds and color 1/3 yellow, 1/3 orange, and leave 1/3 white. Or use fun colors like purple, lime green, black, and orange and make Tie Dye cookies.
• Dog Treats: Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats (It might be fun to have a water bowl and a bowl of dog treats out for any dogs that are walking around during Trick-Or-Treating too!)
• Dog Yum: Roasted Pumpkin. I take the freshly cleaned out pumpkin guts (minus the seeds) and roast/puree them for J. She loves getting pumpkin on her dog food.

• DRINKS:
• Have your Cider and eat the cup too! Use an apple to create an edible cup!
• Mommy's Little Helper. WARNING: This is an alcoholic drink. BONUS: It looks super spooky with dry ice!
• Witches Potion.
• Eyeball Ice Cubes.
•  MEAL IDEAS:
• Breakfast: 
• Ghostly Toast. Check out my Egg in Toast post, but use egg whites instead of a regular egg. Use a ghost cookie cutter to cut out the shape to make it Halloween themed! If you don't have a ghost cutter, scramble an egg, and use a pumpkin cookie cutter!
• Pumpkin Face Pancakes. Easy Halloween themed breakfast: decorate pancakes with whipped cream, berries, and candy corn.
• Pumpkin Face Oatmeal. Easy Halloween themed breakfast: Add banana slices and blueberries for eyes, candy corn for teeth.
• Pumpkin Muffins 
  
•  If you don't feel like making breakfast, IHOP has a Mummy Face pancake through 11/2 for $3.99. I am not sure if they are doing the free pancake on 10/31 this year.
• Lunch or Dinner:
• Haunted Shepherd's Pie.
• Ghoul Burgers.
• Mummified Hot Dogs.
• What's For Dinner Mummy? Mummy meatloaf, with recipe.
• Mummy Mini Pizzas. Super easy to make with English Muffins!
• The Not So Spooky Lunch. You can carve a jack o' lantern face into almost anything (apple halves, radishes). If you have a ton of extra time, cut a large carrot into round slices. Trim the top to form a pumpkin with a stem.
• Pumpkin Soup.
• Attack of the Monster Veggies.
• Pumpkin Sloppy Joes.

CRAFTS:

• Venus Fly Trap Costume. 
• Pirate Trick Or Treat Bag.
  
• Erasable Pumpkin (Chalkboard Paint).
• Feed The Monster Game.
• Spider Web Placemats.
• Toilet Paper Witches Boot.
• Attack of The Play-Doh Spiders. A little time consuming, but a bit hit. Great for school parties or Halloween goodie bags!
• Ghosts and Spiders using egg cartons.
• Pumpkin Pots. Easy pumpkin decorations using a clay pot and a sharpie. If you have green pipe cleaners, it just adds to the fun!
• Pumpkin Stained Glass. Easy craft with tissue paper and contact paper.
• Ghostly Handprints. Great for a craft or a card to send to family!
• Pumpkin cards.
• Pumpkin Boats. We made these for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but they work for Halloween too!
• Pumpkin Carving Alternatives.
• Sweep Your Way Into A Snack. Broomstick bags: great for decorations or goodie bags! 
• Gourd Lighting (a pumpkin candle holder).
• Toilet Paper Roll Monster.
• Pumpkin Toilet Paper Roll.
• Monster Time Craft.
• Homemade Tombstones. I am not good at cutting out shapes from wood, so I used cardboard. These are not waterproof though!
• Spooky Bushes! Cut eye shapes in the side of an empty toilet paper roll. Cover one open end completely with dark tape to keep the light from escaping out the sides. Duct tape works great. Insert activated glow stick. Tape open end closed. Place in yard for Halloween spooky effects. Last year I placed in the bushes and by the gravestones. TIP: Use the thicker glow sticks to get the most light. I used a few glow bracelets and they did not work as well.
• Easy Halloween Luminaries (stencils included). 
• Killer Venus Fly Trap
• Easy Trick-or-Treating Pumpkin for suckers/lollipops
• Ping Pong Eyeballs
• Wreaths
• Eyeball wreath
• Halloween themed wreath

TIPS:

• My list of Best and Worst Halloween Treats.
• Trick or Treat, Halloween Safety.
• For an easy Halloween treat, push suckers into a pumpkin (or drill holes into a craft pumpkin to reuse again). Kids can take the one they want and you simply refill when it gets low.

Some of my Fall Fun links work great for Halloween too!

OTHER FUN LINKS: (Links are external links, not to DailyMesses.)

• Pumpkin Stencils from PicMonkey. 
• Edible Jack O'Lantern Ice Cream Bowls. (I really want to try these!)
• Marble Mini Pumpkins (with nail polish)
• Spider Webs (made from black trash bags!) 

What are some of your fun ideas/traditions for Halloween? Share in Comments!

 

 

*Post may contain Amazon Affiliate Links. If you buy an item from Amazon using my links, I may receive a small commission for the referral. It does not affect your cost at all! If you want more information, please visit my Disclosure page.