A Week of Valentine's Parties

This year's Valentine's art project

There's pros and cons to having quite a few part time kiddos. A con would be not having all kids at one time, which means we can't have just one Valentine's party because someone would miss it. A pro to this would be we get to have multiple parties in one week! The kids had a blast with heart shaped snacks and meals, coloring, Heart Game, and of course passing out Valentine's to one another. Here are a few things we did that are kid approved:

The sensory bin was a hit (clearly). There was white rice, red and pink flower petals (fake), mini hearts that the kids counted and buried in the rice, then re-buried and re-counted over and over again.

We completed the heart shaped pancakes with chocolate sauce and a heart shaped strawberry on top.

Nothing beats heart hats during lunch! The kids colored them, then watched in awe as I cut them into heart shapes. "Hey! It's a heart! How did you do that??!!?" They kind of believe I'm magic.

Working on Valentine's for school.

I call this photo Battle of the Wills. They're both trying to tell the other one what to do, but they're both bossy so it doesn't work.

Paper bags were perfect for their Valentine's. The kids loved the stickers and using oil pastels to decorate their bags.

Another winning lunch: heart shaped grilled cheese, veggies, and pretzels

Baby friends are about the cutest thing ever. Sometimes your friends tries to get away, so you chase after them anyways. They can't get away that easily....there's not that many places to go in daycare!

Daycare had a late start one day (due to weather). The cat was seriously concerned why the sun was up and fully out and the house was quiet. He patiently waited for kids to come.

One of my favorite stages is seeing a baby become a toddler. Sure, things can be difficult, but things can also be easier. Like when they take off their socks and instead of hiding them in toys they hand them to you. When this happened, I told the one year old to put them in his shoes. He put them in the eleven year old's shoes instead. So close! It made me smile though.


Practicing ABC's, counting, and learning Disney Princesses. All of the important things in life.

"Oh no! Help her, she's dying!" --words that are spoken that make my heart stop. Thankfully it was part of their game.

I noticed in the afternoon, after all daycare kiddos had arrived, that my husband left his six pack of beer in the breezeway (also known as the daycare room entrance). Somehow, parents didn't notice, a kid didn't grab one, and my husband got spoken to (oh-so lovingly, as you can imagine). I wanted to die in that moment though! Thankfully, I have amazing families who didn't think anything of it (they're probably used to our oddities at this point).


One look at my counter had me giggling. Bleach cleaner, the kid's favortie green beans, Goldfish crackers that we couldn't live without, beer bread mix (that was amazing! Good ol' Trader Joe's), a pouch of food, and formula. Typical and random.

The kids took passing out Valentine's very seriously. Even putting stickers on each other very carefully.

Of course the highlight of the week was a heart version of our Find It game. I cut out various shapes, colors, and sizes of hearts and hid them around the daycare room. Once they were all found, we counted them out (all 17 of them), sorted them into colors and sizes. The kids had a blast with this and requested the game over and over again.

Looking hard for those hearts!

I was lucky enough to have my own Valentine's party Friday night, complete with take out and cuddles. While, after a week of humans and animals constantly touching me, space would have been welcomed, the cuddles and a relaxing evening was a great end to the week.