Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

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Last year we were asked not to send candy to school with our kids' Valentines. Sweet treats are being banned from the class room more and more and with it comes the need for non-sugary alternatives. My kids still love receiving candy so I put together candy free Valentine's Day gift ideas.  Today I'm sharing a list of candy free/ food free ideas.

Saying: "Whoopee! It's Valentine's Day"
What You Need: Whoopee Cushions
Find Them At: Amazon
Free Printable by: Paging Mom


Saying: "Valentine, you are just write"
What You Need: Pencils
Find Them At: pretty much anywhere
Free Printable by: Positively Splendid



Saying: "You are ah-MAZE-ing"
What You Need: Maze Book or pencils
Find Them At: dollar stores
Free Printable by: Balancing Home 



Saying: "Valentine You Make My Heart Bounce"
What You Need: Bouncy Balls
Find Them At: dollar stores, Walmart
Free Printable by: the Crafting Chicks



Saying: "Valentine, You're Out of Sight!"
What You Need: Plastic Camouflage Binoculars
Find Them At: Amazon, Oriental Trading
Free Printable by: Chocolate on Toast



Saying: "Hope your Valentine's is TOAD-ally awesome"
What You Need: Plastic Jumping Frogs
Find Them At: Amazon
Free Printable by: Crap I've Made


Saying: "You Blow Me Away"
What You Need: Wand Bubbles
Find Them At:
Free Printable by: Dimple Prints



Saying: "You make my heart glow"
What You Need: Glowsticks
Find Them At: dollar stores, craft stores
Free Printable by: Craftiness is not Optional



Saying: "Blow me a kiss"
What You Need: Lip Whistles
Find Them At: Amazon, party supply stores
Free Printable by: At Second Street



Saying: "You color my world"
What You Need: Crayons
Find Them At: pretty much anywhere
Free Printable by: Prudent Baby


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Free Valentine's Printable for Boys

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So I was going through a box of left over party favors in the garage the other day when I came across foam gliders and binoculars from Trent's army themed party last year. Hmmm... gliders and binoculars.   Could I use them as a Valentine goodie.  Well, a bunch of different sayings popped into my head right away for the gliders.   But the binoculars... what was I going to do with little plastic binoculars?  And what cute little saying could I use with them?

So after a bit of consideration, I decided on:

"You're so fly!  Happy Valentine's Day"

and

"Valentine- You're out of sight!"

Click on the image of the free printable if you would like to download and use one of these Valentines.

"You're out of sight!" 3x1.5

"You're so fly!" 4x1

You're so fly! 2x2

 

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Gluten-free, Dairy-free Birthday Treats

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In celebration of my son's 7th birthday, he took marshmallow pops to school today. We chose these because they allowed us to go both gluten and dairy free. Plus, they are so simple to make, he was able to help make them too. I did get a surprise though. When we first started, we had actually thought that we had chose a dye-free choice too and I was shocked to learn that marshmallows have blue dye in them (at least the Kraft ones we used do).

Marshmallows are typically gluten-free and dairy-free and since there is only one child in the class who doesn't do dairy, we dipped most of the marshmallows into chocolate and then sprinkles. For the dairy-free version, we dipped the marshmallow into water and then sprinkles. Sprinkling was definitely Trent's favorite part!

One little tip, that I picked up a year ago is to use a Little Dipper Crock Pot for  melting  your  chocolates  and  keeping  them  that  way  until  the  last marshmallow pop is finished.   I actually picked up a second one in a thrift store for $3 a few months back so that I could use more than one color at a time. Pin It

Upcycled Parking Garage

Pin It As my son's birthday is approaching, I was looking back at pictures of his birthday part last year and was inspired to share this upcycling idea. 

He was reeeeally into army everything last year.  We had buckets full of little green army men and our living room floor was often the stage of many battles.  Since both of my youngest are January birthdays, November is often a time when I start going through and weeding out forgotten toys before Christmas and their birthdays.  I wanted to put his old Parking Garage in the donation pile because he never played with cars anymore but he did sometimes use it for his battles.  Then it hit me.  It would be transformed into an army base. Pin It