Valentine's Day: Muffin Tin, Crafts and more

Happy Valentine's Day

 For God so Loved the World that

He gave His

         Only Son that

 Whoever believes            

     In Him

Should not                

             Perish but have

Eternal    

Life     

I have seen this before and I wanted to share it on Valentine's Day.  I found it at this neat website: Ministry-To-Children.com.
 
The children have really enjoyed receiving "mail" in the mailboxes we made.  In fact, yesterday Tabitha was so upset because she had gotten up from her nap before I got home from shopping, so her mailbox was still empty.  (Teeny little downside, now they think they are going to get something whenever they wake up. Any suggestions how to explain that they won't be?)  Anyway, I put a little candy in after dinner and a simple note that said "Mommy and Daddy Love You."  They were so thrilled and apreciative of that note.  They carried it around for quite a while and Tabitha kept coming over to thank me for it.  It really moved me how thankful she was for such a small token of our love. 
 
This morning they got a little more than a small token, I couldn't help myself.
 

They got a balloon (can you say dollar store) a $1 box of chocolates and a cute little jelly kabob.

I got the older ones some marshmallow cupcakes because the store only had three "kabobs."

Of course Hannah had to get something for her first Valentine's Day:

You'll never guess what she played with more.

We have been reading some cute books for Valentine's Day that involve giving valentines.  I already mentioned Valentine Mice! by Bethany Roberts in my last weekly review post.  This week we have been reading 1-2-3 Valentine's Day by Jeanne Modesitt.  I have not actually read it to the girls myself, but I have listened in as brother and daddy have read it. It is really a charming book about Mr. Mouse going from house to house to distribute valentines. This book is a repetative counting book that rhymes.  I really enjoyed listening to it. The amount of animal friends increases by one at each house and I loved the ending where he goes to the last house and you discover that the mice who are receiving the gifts are his own children.

We also read Sweet Hearts by Jan Carr, which a book we also took out last year. In this story lots and lots of handmade valentines are appearing around the house, secretly being delivered by the little panda bear.  Or so he thinks. I also enjoyed the rhymes in this book.  Can you tell I enjoy rhyming books?  The illustrations appear to be collages, adding dimension to the panda family and their surroundings.



Both of these books give simple directions for making valentines.  Though we did not follow the directions we did make valentines for daddy this morning before he woke up.

 

I cut out Amelia's hearts for her and let her start coloring:

 

However, I let Tabitha cut out her own hearts again:

Amelia continued to have a blast coloring:

When they were done coloring I punched holes and let them sew the hearts together to make a pouch:

Hannah actually colored some on her very own (she had tried the other day but she wasn't pressing hard enough)

Then we used glitter!  I have wanted glitter for a while now, and finally broke down and bought some.

Then we put some chocolate footballs that I found in the Valentine's section of Rite Aid yesterday.

Daddy really enjoyed getting his footballs.

Then we had our muffin tin lunch.  

I had been planning this for a while now. I borrowed some great ideas from some great blogs. JDaniel4's mom linked up to my Valentines Activities Link Up and shared her Heart Empanadas. I couldn't find my small heart cookie cutter, so I used kitchen shears to cut a little nick into the top and then I shaped the biscuits into hearts. I added some meat mixture and after I added the top biscuit I added some color by brushing on beet juice, as the theme is red/Valentine's Day. Then we made what Nicole over at Mama to 4 Blessings calls Valentines Tasty treats.  We called them heart crisps.  We cut out hearts from tortillas and sprayed them with cooking spray then we sprinkled on red sugar crystals.  After baking them for 5 minutes at 400 degrees, I noticed that as Steven was placing them in the muffin tin they looked like butterflies, so I added the already planned Twizzlers as bodies.  Then I made my first ever "kabobs."  After the week when the theme was heart picks, kabobs I was kicking myself for forgetting that I could make my own picks out of toothpicks and construction paper.  So today I did just that and speared on some red peppers and grape tomatoes. (this was the first thing both girls attacked, after being told they had to wait for the candy).   Then I made strawberry clouds.  I flavored/colored cool whip by adding a little bit of Jello powder as they don't seem to make strawberry Cool Whip anymore.  Then I added chopped strawberries and a heart shaped strawberry on top.

 

 Starting at the top

Heart Empanada

Heart Crisp butterfly

Red vege Kabobs

Strawberry Clouds

Valentine's M&Ms

Strawberry Milk

and in the middle a yummy chocolate heart (like they needed more candy)

Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to check out more neat Valentine's Day Tins



I am also linking up to