It's Time for Hearts! (Valentine's Day)

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

I don't get any requests for homemade Valentines now that the kids are getting older. However, they still enjoy the Valentine's Day treats I make them. Normally, they get a small gift and some candy. I usually make a treat for the holiday as well (themed cookies, candies, pudding...) If you want any ideas, I have a list of Valentines, Food, Crafts, Gift, and Activity ideas below. If I come up with any new ones, I'll update the list!

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
• I also saw a 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.

St. Nick's Day is Coming on 12/6!

I know we just celebrated Thanksgiving, but St. Nick's Day is right around the corner on Thursday 12/6! If you are out Christmas shopping this weekend, you may want to keep an eye out for little stocking stuffers. I have some stocking stuffer ideas and a little history on St. Nick's Day below.

I used to love St. Nick's Day when I was a kid. I remember waking on on December 6th, eager to see what my stocking of goodies contained. When I was a little older, I learned that not everyone celebrates St. Nick's Day. It's in Europe and in German and Dutch communities in the US. I grew up in a city with strong German roots and St. Nick's Day was always celebrated. My mom had never heard of the holiday until she came here for college. She thought it was very odd that they told her to put her shoe outside her door!

Who Was St. Nick?
St. Nicholas (St. Nick) was the model for the jolly man himself (Santa Claus). St. Nicholas was from a wealthy family and would secretly give out gifts to people. The story I remember hearing was about a father who had three daughters. He was poor and could not afford dowries for the girls, which the needed in order to get married. Without the dowries, their futures looked bleak. Nicholas threw a bag of gold coins for each daughter into the house through a window at night. (There are different stories with different times frames: 1 night, 3 nights, 3 years.)

How To Celebrate:
Growing up, we each had our own stocking that we put out in front of our bedroom door the night before St. Nick's Day. My husband's tradition was to put his Christmas List in his stocking for Santa to pick up. However, other families put out shoes instead of stockings.

The night of December 5th, place a stocking or shoe outside the children's door(s) and fill it with goodies. You could also hang or place them on the fireplace. In the morning (on December 6th), open the stockings!

Stocking Stuffer Ideas:

• "Gold" $1 coins in honor of the bags of gold coins St. Nicholas gave. (You can ask for them at the bank.)
• Candy. My favorite are the Candy Cane Tootsie Pops. The boys like getting the soda flavored jelly beans that come in a small soda bottle. (Target or Amazon carry them.)
• Small games or deck of cards.
• Books or comic books.
• Small coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, markers, fun shaped pens, etc. The coloring book link is to Amazon, but Target and Michael's often have these Grab & Go packs for $1.
• Barrettes, headbands.
• Grab and Go games. These fit into stockings and are great for car rides or while sitting in restaurants. Some of our favorites are Clue, Connect Four, Trouble, Battleship, and Guess Who.
• Special ornament. We get each kid their own ornament every year. It has their name and the year on it. (Even if I just write it on with a Sharpie.) We try to make it special for that year. (An apple/desk/pencil if they started school, a horse for their first horse ride, an ornament from vacation, a train if the took a train ride, ballet slippers or musical instrument for first show/concert.)
• For older kids: gift cards to Amazon, iTunes, movie theater, laser tag, their favorite store. Or a new phone case, ear buds for phone/computer/i-pod.
• Hot chocolate mix.
• Small stuffed animals.
• Lego's. There are so many kinds! (Ninjago, a box of Lego's, Nexo Knights, Minecraft, Friends.). Lego also had Ornaments. Kids build the Lego figure and place them inside a clear round ornament to hang on the tree. The boys loved them. The mini-figure packs are also great stocking stuffer. (Lego has these in stores or online. Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, and sometimes even the grocery store will carry these.)
• Small toys. (Hexbugs, small Nerf guns, Matchbox or HotWheels)
• Art supplies. (sketch pads, pencils, pens, paints, crayons, stickers...)
• Pez Dispensers. I loved getting each year as a kid. I used to have a small collection of them, but they got misplaced during moving. They come in a lot of varieties! (Christmas, Star Wars, Avengers, Scooby Doo, Presidents...)
• Toothbrush.
• Flashlight.
• Temporary tattoos.
• Chapstick or lip gloss.
• Small fruit (clementines, apples).
• Compass. 
• Gum.
• Elf On The Shelf. Our Elf, Eugene, originally came to us on St. Nick's Day.
• New video game or DVD. The boys sometimes get a joint St. Nick gift of a game or DVD.
• Advent Calendar.
• For Kids: Even though they may get it a few days late, they'll still enjoy it! There are the traditional chocolate calendars, which I have seen at Target/grocery stores/craft stores this year. There are also a lot of non-food types available! [Lego City, Lego Star Wars, Lego Friends, PlayMobil, Play-Doh, Minions, Hatchimals, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hot Wheels, Disney (Tsum Tsum, Olaf/Frozen), Paw Patrol, Crayola, VTech, and even a bead craft option.] There are also simple countdown versions. NOTE: I have had a hard time find the Lego calendar when it gets closer to December. Sometimes I found it, but it was through a 3rd party seller and they raised the price by at least $10. Check online and in stores early to make sure you get the one you want and for the regular p
• For Adults: There are a lot of adult themed Advent Calendars too! Master of Malt offers many different alcoholic calendars (especially whiskey and scotch). Last year I bought myself an Advent Calendar with nicer dark chocolates. I even saw some with socks for every day! 
• For Pets:
• Dogs: 
• New Toy (Honky Hedgehog, bone, ball)
• Whimzees
• Bully Sticks
• Booties for their feet
• Homemade Peanut Butter Pumpkin Biscuits (click link for recipe)
• Cats: 
• Toy

LINKS:
St. Nicholas (Wikipedia)
http://www.stnicksday.com/

*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.

Woof, Meow, Bubble Bubble....Translated: "Don't Forget Your Pets!"

The gift buying season is upon us. Every year I sit down and make a list of the people I need to buy for and struggle to match that list to gift ideas. Face it, some people are harder to shop for than others. Since I'm probably not the only one with this problem, I thought I would share some of my ideas. Today's list is for the  furry and scaly creatures in our lives. Check back often throughout the month for more gift buying ideas! Good luck shopping! May the deals be plentiful, your cart overflowing, and your wallet not emptied.

Pets like getting gifts too! In fact, we usually give our dog a cardboard tube filled with treats that she works on opening/eating while the kids open their gifts.

DOG:

• Dog House (We have an inside dog, but this looks like a nice house.)
• Collar 
• Leash  This is the leash I use for J, and I love having the two handles! The normal handle is great for walks, but when I need her closer the second handle comes in handy.
• Toys: Kong, Nylabone, Stuffed Toy, ChuckIt! (For those of you, like me, who cannot throw the ball very far!)
• Dog Bed
• Treats: Whimzees, make your own
• Pawz: Disposable rubber booties. These are the only booties J will use. We get snow and ice, but she can't feel the ground well in the thicker normal style dog boots/booties. These protect her feet but she can still feel the ground. We love them.
• I saw Advent Calendars for dogs at the store! DreamBone comes filled, or Midlee offers an empty one that you can fill with your own choice of treats (which is great for dogs with dietary restrictions!).

If the kids want to help there are some ideas for gifts they can make for the dog too:
     *Chew toy. Use scrap pieces of fabric (jeans work best) and tie together in a knot at the top. Braid together and tie again at the bottom.
     *You can ask your kids for any stuffed toys they don't want anymore and are ok with being chewed up. The boys have donated a few stuffed animals to make stuffies for the dog. I bought squeakers online to sew into the toys to make our own squeaky toys. It's a lot cheaper than buying a ton of stuffies for her, when she normally destroys them within a day.
     *Treats. Fold over the ends of a cardboard tube on one side (toilet paper roll, paper towel roll, etc.). Fill with a few dog treats and fold the ends over to seal. Let the dog(s) figure out how to get the treats out while everyone is opening their presents.

CAT
Mouse Catcher
Scratching Post
Tree House
Ball Tower

FISH
Tank/Aquarium
Reef Ornament
Log
Ship: Pirate or Battleship
Fish Training/Obstacle Course


GERBIL/HAMSTER/FERRET
Running Ball
Playground