Valentine Fun with Toddlers

QUITE a bit of the cute Valentine stuff out there is for school-aged kids, which is understandable of course.  But since I told Susie about Valentine's Day, she has been randomly sharing the news with just about everyone we meet:  "Guess What?  It's going to be Valentine's Day and we're going to make a heart cake for Daddy!"  She's also going to have a small party with some of her friends, and I wanted to have a few special activities for them to do together.  Today she had over a friend who can't come to the party, and we did a little test run of the activities I came up with -- here's what they did!


1. Valentine Storytime -- we read Biscuit's Valentine's Day and Snuggle Puppy.  Chippy read with us, and they all seemed to enjoy the books.  We also sang "Oh How I Love Jesus" and told all the people we love (basically listing all family members).

2. Sweethearts Color Sorting -- I saw a paper version of this, but it seemed like a big pain to print and cut out lots of colored paper hearts, when instead you could just use the real candy, which is quite a bit. . . sweeter!  I was impressed that the girls caught on to the activity immediately (they are both several months from being 3), and maybe even more impressive, they didn't really try to eat the candies!  There were a few licks involved, but mostly they concentrated on the task.  We did it twice, and then I let them eat some of the candies.

3.  Hide-the-hearts -- I made felt heart bean bags to do a tossing game, but it was a bit out of their league, so instead I had them go in the other room while I hid them in the living room, Easter-egg-hunt-style.  You could obviously do this with paper hearts or candy or something as well, but bean bags worked well, because they prop up against things well.  

4. Heart picnic -- I spread out a heart blanket and fed them heart-shaped peanut butter sandwiches and strawberries.  Very simple, of course, but something about a picnic makes it SPECIAL. :)  I think for Susie's party, I will pull out her picnic table that we have stored away during the winter and have our indoor picnic on that.  With multiple kids, it will be a little less crazy.  

5. T-shirts -- it seems terribly popular to dress up for Valentine's day in a special outfit, so I did little applique shirts for my kids.  I actually just used plain shirts they already had, so it was very cheap!  I think they turned out super cute!