Valentine Rewind -- A few ideas for next year

I realize Valentines Day has already come and gone, but here are a few ideas you can pocket for next year.

Since I live in a house full of guys, I went off of the old standby: "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." But rather than feed my boys unpleasant chalky candies or other sugary treats that would leave them scaling the walls, I took things in a different direction. Pictured up above is the bento lunch I made for my eldest son. Every day for lunch I make him a bento and for Valentines Day I wanted to make him a special themed lunch. Inspired by the look of classic candy hearts, I placed a heart shaped cookie cutter in the middle of the bento box and filled it with strawberry yogurt (you can use whatever kind you like but strawberry or blueberry make for a fun pink or purple color which fit the theme). Next, I cut out Xs and Os from some cantaloupe. On the side I made kiwi hearts and strawberry roses (you can find the tutorial for the roses here: http://www.joyzz.com/article-1514.html ). I was truly surprised by how touched my son was by this. As soon as he came to the table, he looked at it and exclaimed "Hearts and flowers? For Valentines Day? For me? Thank you mommy! I love it!!!" His response was even better that I had hoped for!

Next we made a rainbow heart pizza for dinner. I'm sorry to say I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of it before it was devoured, but the experience was wonderful! I cut up a rainbow of toppings: purple onion, pink Canadian bacon, orange bell pepper, yellow pineapple, fresh green spinach leaves, and red cherry tomatoes. I rolled out and shaped the pizza dough into a heart, added the sauce and cheese, and then allowed my boys to toss on as many rainbow toppings as they wanted. They were thrilled with all the different colors! After it was cooked up, the whole family enjoyed a delicious Valentines Day dinner of rainbow heart pizza.

Lastly, for arts & crafts day with our friends, I created a little Valentines Day game for the kids to play called "Catch the Love Bug." I had some spare material in my craft box so I whipped up these cute, only slightly creepy looking, love bugs. Using the biggest cooking pot I had (although you could use a basket, bowl, or bag) we had one kid move around the room with the pot while the other kids tried to toss the love bugs into it. They had a blast! In the end, they each got to choose one love bug to take home with them too. It was another fun way to celebrate Valentines Day without the need for copious amounts of sweets.