So Valentine's Day is just around the corner, how it's that time of the year already I don't know! Feels like it was just Christmas!
The day to celebrate love is upon us, most people see Valentine's Day as a day to spoil their partner, a day to make an effort of being super romantic, a day to show their love for one another. However I don't necessarily think we should only show our partners how much we love them but we should share that love with the other people we love too, including our children.
Recently there was an outrage that local supermarkets were selling valentines cards from children to their parents and one woman thought the idea was completely ludicrous because Valentine's Day is a day for couples…. as you can probably tell, I don't agree. I don't think there's anything wrong with buying children a wee gift on Valentine's Day. My husband has bought our daughter a little gift and a card every year since she was born. My dad used to buy us a little something too. I really don't think there's anything wrong with it. My daughter showed me a whole new meaning to the word love when she was born so I'm going to celebrate with my little girl as well as my hubby. So on Valentine's Day, I like to do a little themed day with Heidi because well why not!
I've popped down some of our favourite things to do on Valentine's Day for you to try too.
Valentine's Photoshoot
This is a nice one to do, if you've got a little one, as their not old enough to do arts and crafts and baking etc. We took this on Heidi's first Valentine's day and the plan was to take a picture every year to keep and look back on, however, I think we missed a year oops! It's still one of my favourite ever pictures because, well, that wee face!! I just took the picture on my phone but obviously if you want them to be more professional you could book a family photographer and get professional photos done. But I just used a white table cloth, roses that my hubby gave me and she was wearing a love heart dress. Job done.
Easy Love Heart Painting
When your little one gets a bit older and can start doing Art's and Crafts this one is super easy to do.
What you need;
- Paper
- Some Paint
- Toilet Roll Tube shaped into a love heart (you could also use a pipe cleaner shaped into a heart or just a love heart cutter)
What to do;
1) Shape the toilet roll tube into a love heart
2) Let your child choose a paint colour
3) Dip whatever love heart you're using into the paint
4) Use it as a stamp on a piece of paper
5) One easy love heart stamped picture!
Keepsake Painting
Whilst we're on painting, this is such a lovely one to do and such a nice keepsake. We did this as gifts for grandparents. Depending on how wriggly your little one is, you can do this when they're quite wee but when they reach toddler age it might be easier to get the prints. This is another thing you can do each year to see how much your babies have grown, because it's so easy to forget how small they once were!
You'll need;
- A good bit of card or a canvas ( we used a canvas the first year as we were gifting them)
- Paint and Paintbrush
- A Pen
- Glitter if you want to add glitter
- A basin, soapy water and a towel for child clean up!
What you'll do;
1) Make sure your child's hands and feet are clean and dry
2) Choose which colour of paint you want to use
3) Get the canvas or paper ready to make the prints
4) Paint your child's hands with the paint and position their hands into the shape of a love heart and print onto the canvas or paper
5) Clean the paint off of their hands
6) Paint your child's feet and print them onto the canvas or paper
7) Decorate the rest of the canvas
8) Write whatever you want on the canvas we choose " I love you from the bottom of my heart to the tip of my toes"
Homemade Cards
There's something special about a homemade card compared to a shop bought one especially when it's been crafted by little hands! Perfect afternoon craft to do with your little one. These ones are super easy to make too and helps get rid of all those wee scraps of paper that are clogging up the craft box.
You'll need;
- A piece of card
- Scissors
- Different coloured tissue paper or normal paper
- Glue
- Coloured Pencils or Pen
- Sellotape
- String
What you'll need to do;
1) Draw a Love Heart shape on the front of the card and cut it out
2) Put the love heart aside
3) Cut up or get your little one to tear pieces of tissue paper or coloured paper
4) Get your child to glue the bits of paper to the love heart so it's completely covered
5) Open the card and sellotape a bit of string to the love heart and then sellotape it to the inside of the card, when you look at the front of the card you should see the love heart dangling down.
6) Write I love you to pieces on the front of the card
7) Help your little one write a message in the inside for the recipient
Homemade Gifts
This is the first year we've made a gift normally we just do cards but with a new baby coming I thought this was the perfect gift for Heidi to give her Daddy. Things are bound to change once the baby comes, but she loves her quality time with her Daddy at the weekend so, I asked Heidi what things she'd like to do with her Dad and we wrote them down and put them in a jar and each weekend they can pick one. This could also be a nice gift for father's day or Mother's Day. This is so easy to do and costs nothing if you've already got the bits in the house.
You will need;
- A jar
- Paper
- Scissors
- Coloured pens or pencils
- Sellotape
What you need to do;
1) Measure around the jar and cut a piece of paper to fit
2) Get your little one to decorate the piece of paper
3) Cut up smaller bits of paper to write the ideas on
4) Write down your child's ideas and fold up the bits of paper and pop them into the jar.
5) Help your child name the jar
6) Sellotape the decorated label around the jar and Voila! One homemade, super easy gift for a loved one.
Easy Love Heart Wreath
We don't normally decorate the house for Valentine's Day but I do like to have thing's that Heidi has made up around the house. This wreath is the perfect decoration to pop up over Valentine's Day and again it's another craft that won't take long. If you hadn't already guessed, Heidi loves crafts! I love finding things for us to do that aren't too expensive, that don't take too long because well, the attention span of a three-year-old and it's February in Scotland, we need activities to do when it's pouring rain outside!.
So for this Wreath, you'll need;
- A paper plate with the middle cut out.
- Different coloured paper cut into different sized love hearts
- Some glue, I prefer to use a Pritt Stick
What you'll need to do;
1) Cut the middle out of the paper plate
2) Cut out love heart shapes in different sizes
3) Help your child glue the back of the hearts
4) Let them stick the hearts around the paper plate
5) You've got yourself a Love Heart Wreath!
If you've got an independent child like me and have misplaced the child-friendly scissors like me…Have everything cut and ready before you get your child through to do the craft because that's a tantrum just waiting to happen that nobody needs.
Love Heart Hunt
Who says hunts are just for Easter?! This is a nice one to do on Valentine's Day if you're lucky enough to get a dry day you can do the hunt outside but if not an indoor hunt will do! If you've got more than one child and they can read you can write little messages on the hearts before you hide them or you can just hide hearts for them to find. We have big foam hearts so I use them and because of the size they're easier for her to find but card cut into love hearts will do fine.
What you'll need;
- Love Hearts to hide ( You can make them different sizes if you wish)
- A basket or bag for you're little one to collect the hearts
- A Valentine treat if you wish
What you'll need to do;
1) Cut out or use pre-bought love hearts to hide
2) Hide the hearts around the garden or the house.
3)Give your child clues as to where to find them.
4) Try to remember where you've hidden them all!
5) Give them a Valentine's treat at the end of the hunt if you wish, this could be a little teddy or a chocolate heart lolly.
Valentine's Themed Meals
It's a day to celebrate love so why not make your meals love heart-themed? If you have a little one that loves to help in the kitchen this is an ideal thing to do on Valentine's day. All you really need to do this is a love heart cutter! Even if your little one doesn't want to help take part in cooking and baking they can help cut everything into a love heart!
Here's an example of our Valentine's Day Menu…
Breakfast – Love Heart pancakes with some strawberries and raspberries, if you want to be really fancy you can cut your strawberries in half and form them into a love heart.
Lunch - Use your love heart cutter to cut sandwiches with your child's favourite filling into love hearts (you can use a smaller cutter to shape some cucumber and other fruits and veggies to go with their sandwich if you wish)
Dinner - I couldn't think of what to do that we could shape into a love heart other than potato, but Heidi is a massive lover of pasta, so we're going to make the Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti Bolognese from our Disney cookbook, followed by homemade love heart brownies.
Meals taste better when they're made with love 😉
Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day everyone!
Hope it's a day spent with the ones you love most! <3
