Our Valentine's Day CRAFTS

We began to think about Valentine's Day around the first of February.  We got out our Valentine's books, and we started to work on cards for our friends and family.

Most of the cards we made were along these lines...

I drew hearts and X's and O's and had the girls cut them out.  They then glued doilies, strips of paper, and their valentine's embellishments onto craft paper cards.  We did these in several steps.  And I'll note that the doilies "ate" a LOT of glue...as the glue sticks were easily gummed-up in the "lace".  No chance those were going to fall off, for sure!

The girls worked very diligently to address the cards, "To: Granddaddy and Emme...Love," and sign their names.  (Of course I fed them each letter...but it was still great practice in writing.)

In addition to the cards, we made several crafts.  These were my absolute favorites!

I found an extra large heart-shaped cookie cutter, and the girls traced around it with a crayon.  I realized this was their first "tracing" experience, and they really enjoyed it.  (I think I'll dig out more cookie cutters to see what else we can create.)

Then I inked their hands with washable ink (that stuff is awesome!!! it literally just wipes off!), and made their handprints inside the heart.  LOVE-LOVE-LOVE-LOVE-LOVE!!!

Finally, we got to work on making valentines for the girls to give to their classmates.  The girls had fun making them, and I thought they turned out really cute!

B gave the chocolate chip granola bars, bearing the sentiment, "Valentine, you're so CHIPPER!"  And A gave bunny-shaped fruit snacks with, "Valentine, you're some-BUNNY special!" on them.

The girls stuffed the goodies and the messages inside the bags.  For the headers, the girls used my paper punch (with very little help!) to punch hearts from white cardstock.  I helped them make thumbprints (again from the washable ink) to decorate the hearts.  I stapled the craft paper header onto the bags, and then the girls glued the ribbon of their choosing, followed by the heart.

They laboriously wrote each of their classmates' names on the back, and signed their own names.

These were a bit time-consuming, but we only had about 10 for each of the girls to do, so it was manageable over the course of the day.

We have certainly enjoyed our crafting over the past two weeks!  I love that the girls were able to be so involved in sharing the joy of the holiday!

And now...would you know that the girls have already started to ask about St. Patty's Day???  Seriously!!!  These babies are nothing if not celebratory!

This mama doesn't mind a bit, though.  I've decided there are few things more fun than celebrating holidays with kiddos.  :)  :)