Tag Archives: Valentine’s Day

Love Note Scavenger Hunt

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I first read about doing a love note hunt for Valentine’s Day in Real Simple magazine. They suggested hiding a note about something that you love about your children each day in February. Then on Valentine’s Day, they can look for all 14 notes. I thought it was a great idea, but 14 notes would be too much for Buddy.

After a little thought, I decided to take that idea and make it into a scavenger hunt for Buddy. We usually buy Buddy a small gift for Valentine’s Day, and this hunt will lead to that present. My mom often did scavenger hunts for my sister and me growing up, and we loved them! It’s a special tradition that I want to continue for Buddy.

I cut out 6 hearts out of red construction paper. On each heart, I wrote one thing that Hubby and I love about Buddy. I also put where to find the next clue. Since Buddy is still pretty young, I wanted to keep the hunt clues pretty straight forward. I’m very excited about doing our hunt this year, and I plan to make it a tradition for years to come.

Since it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, I don’t have any fun pictures of Buddy to share. But I wanted to share the idea before Valentine’s Day in case any of you want to do something similar for your family.

Heart Stamping Valentine

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Buddy’s school asked every student to make a Valentine for his or her classroom. I decided that we would do the heart stamping activity from last Valentine’s Day (read about it here). Once Buddy finished his painting, we made it into a valentine.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I started by pulling out a sheet of painting paper, which I taped down with painters tape. Then I pulled out a couple of paper plates, washable kids’ paint, a heart cookie cutter from the dollar store, and two toilet paper rolls. I poured paint on the plates, and I creased the toilet paper rolls to look like hearts. Finally I pulled out Buddy’s smock to keep the paint off of his clothes.

Buddy started with the cookie cutter. I liked using this in addition to the toilet paper hearts because it gave us a different size of heart. 

Once Buddy was done with the cookie cutter, we switched to the toilet paper hearts. We did these in two different colors. 

We let the picture dry for a couple hours. During that time, I asked Buddy about all of the things he loves about school. Once the picture was dry, I wrote his responses into some of the hearts with a black felt tip pen. Then we added a Happy Valentine’s Day and Buddy’s name at the bottom. 

I’m really happy with how this turned out! It was a lot of fun and very easy.

Heart Stamping Art Project

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Last week, Buddy and I made Valentine’s Day sun catchers. This week, I wanted to do another craft related to Valentine’s Day. (What can I say? I love getting ready for holidays.) When I first saw this heart stamping idea on Housing a Forest’s blog, I knew it would be a perfect activity for Buddy.

*Disclaimer- This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I started by folding three toilet paper tubes into heart shapes. Then I put each heart on a paper plate with paint. (This was our first time using Crayola washable kid’s paint, and it was great!) I also used painter’s tape to tape down a piece of construction paper.

At first, Buddy was more interested in the containers of paint than the actual project. He wanted to play with the containers like blocks, and he was upset when I took them away. However, once I showed Buddy how to make hearts with the tubes, he was very interested.

Buddy did a great job of stamping hearts on the paper. He wanted to use both ends of the roll for stamping, so that made a bit of a mess. He also liked to see what the paint looked like when it smeared, so not all of the hearts were perfect. But overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out. I would say it’s Buddy’s best art project yet!

Buddy was really proud of his final product! I think it looks great for art done by a one year old! We will definitely try this again next Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day Sun Catchers

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Last weekend I pulled out all of our Valentine’s Day decorations. I didn’t have any decorations for my kitchen, so I decided to make some with Buddy. I loved our fall sun catchers, and decided to make some for Valentine’s Day.

During Buddy’s nap, I cut some small squares of red and pink tissue paper. I also used painter’s tape to tape down clear contact paper. I decided not to do a construction paper outline like I did in the fall, because I thought I’d be able to cut out a heart without a guide.

Buddy was immediately interested when he saw the materials for our project. I put the tissue paper in a bowl to make it easy for him to grab. He loved picking out the tissue paper and putting it onto the sticky contact paper. He wanted to make huge stacks of tissue paper, though, so he needed a little help spreading everything out.

After a little practice, Buddy was better about getting every square to touch the contact paper. If there was a huge pile, I just scooped the extra off the top and put it back into the bowl.

When we had used all of the tissue paper, I put another piece of contact paper on top. Then I cut out several hearts of different sizes. I used clear tape to put our final product on our sliding glass doors.

This was such an easy project and a lot of fun for both of us. Buddy really enjoyed the process, and he was proud of the final product. I love having a little seasonal touch in my kitchen. We will definitely make sun catchers again in the future.

Please share if you have any other easy holiday activities for kids. I want to do at least one more Valentine’s Day activity with Buddy soon.