Valentine's MINUTE TO WIN IT game printable

So, I was searching for a fun Valentine's activity for my son's class and found this cute Minute to win it idea from Pinterest! Yay! That will be perfect for my "center's" activity. Here's the blog with the original idea. She has a printable, too. But I changed mine a bit because I didn't totally understand what to do on the math part. Hehe. Anyway, I thought I'd share incase someone else wants to use it.

To use image: Right-click on it and "save picture as..." name it and save it somewhere you'll remember. Open a word document and insert image. Re-size to fit your page. If you'd like a better quality copy, leave a comment with your email and I'd be happy to send the pdf (since I'm not really very technically savvy and don't know how to upload a printable pdf on my blog yet). ;)

TO SET UP- Place one piece of licorice, one Pixie Stick, and a Hershey's kiss each in their designated spot on the page. Pour 25 M&Ms into a small container and set in front of contestant.
TO PLAY THE GAME- Set a timer for a minute aaaaaaaaand, GO!
1. Fill each circle with an M&M.
2. How may of each color are there?
3. Open a Hershey's kiss with one hand, eat it, and put the garbage in it's spot.
4. Empty pixie stick onto heart.
5. Bite ends off of licorice and blow pixie powder outside of the heart.
DONE! How'd you do?

IF YOU'RE NOT KEEN ON MESSES AND ARE PLAYING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN-
1. Use two hands instead of one on #3 above.
2. Skip #5 all together and have the child blow a "do-do-DO" in their licorice to signal the timer's stop.
Much less messy and helps out on the time.

We did this in my son's class and let me tell ya, they LOVED it!!!

Thanks so much, Stacy Julian, for your super fun idea!
Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so after actually playing the game, I realized the spot for the licorice was too small and it actually took 2 minutes to accomplish all that. Either that, or I'm just really slow. Haha! Anyway, I decided to fix my page. So here's the new 2 MINUTE TO WIN IT page! Also, I added a spot for the contestant's name, and their time. I gave a special prize to the kid with the fastest time... which was 1:22!

Enjoy.

Heart attacks, Fancy Dinner, and Chocolate Fondue

We had such an awesome Valentine's day last year! We spent it with our WHOLE family and was seriously the BEST!

We started out by giving a couple of "Heart Attacks"! This has become a tradition of ours.

We took pretzels, stuck heart-shaped strawberry marshmallows on them, dipped 'em in chocolate, then topped with sprinkles. Here's an earlier post I did about these treats. Once the choco-mallow pops were cool, we fixed plates, cut out hearts and let the kids write on them.

Then, my husband took the kids to deliver the goods.

 We couldn't think of any one better to attack than our widowed Great Grandma Brady (my mom's mom) and Great Grandpa Anderson (my dad's dad). We couldn't let them be alone on Valentine's day!

They silently attacked houses with hearts and left a plate of goodies. Grandma B. had no idea! When they had gotten every heart perfectly placed, the kids and Joey rang the doorbell and hid. When grandma came to the door, they jumped out and surprised her! She got kind of emotional. She said we made her day! Doesn't get much better than that! They stayed a little while and told her how special she is to them.

They did the same thing to Grandpa A., only he caught them in the act! He saw them out the window! Haha! The kids finished while Grandpa, with a full heart, watched them. They stayed and talked while he shared oranges and chocolate-covered peanuts. He was so appreciative! He left his hearts up proudly for a few days.

What a fun little service project!

If you don't want to use tape, you can use a magnet for their door (most doors are magnetic), or glue each heart to popsicle sticks and peg all over their lawn!

So, while they were gone, I was home setting the mood...

 The ambiance is key! I wanted it to feel special without breakin' out the fine china (I only have enough for 4 of us anyway), so I used cute paper plates and napkins. I placed them on silver platters to make it look like they were on fancy chargers. I hung beads from the chandelier and whipped out the red candles (and red hot candies). Not too bad. The kids absolutely LOVED it! We ate in candlelight the whole time. VERY romantic. ;) For a recipe for the Sweetheart Salad with a sweet and tangy Peach Balsamic Vinegarette, click HERE.

MY VALENTINE'S!

These are the faces of the people who make my life so wonderful. <3

Dinner was a hit!

But as fun as the day was, I have to say that DESSERT was the BEST!

And it was so easy! Just take anything you'd like to dip in chocolate and load it on a plate! We used Dollar Store "Heart Picks" for our skewers. So fun! For the chocolate- just take a bag of chocolate chips and add your favorite creamer (my favorite is coconut <3). Melt in a sauce pan & dip your goodies! I'm sure any creamer would be awesome. We have quite a variety-- we LOVE to use them in our hot chocolate and Pero.

 The kids had a blast coming up with their own little concoctions. There's just something fun about dipping your food, huh? Then, we all decided to tell each person one at a time what we loved about them. We went in a circle until every person had been told by all 6 of the rest of us. BEST PART OF THE NIGHT! Sweet, emotional mommy moment... I discovered that despite all the arguing and pestering, my kids really DO love each other! Very, sweet, perfect end to the night.

Here's a beautiful short video to help your family get into the spirit of Valentine's day- LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Happy Valentine's day!

Check out this PDF for tons more Valentine's Day ideas!

Embellish your Chandelier

If you're lookin' to add some holiday ambiance (or for a romantic evening), try this simple idea! 

Simply drape inexpensive metallic beads wherever they'll hang. Use clear fishing line (or thin wire) to tie in place if needed. I wanted to hang jewel tassels at the curve under each light, too. I ran out of time & decided I'd better get going on our special dinner! After all, what good is a fancy table setting & blinged-out chandelier WITH NO MEAL???
It was still really cute, though!

Sweetheart Salad

I made this salad for my family for our first course on Valentine's Day.

What says V-day more than a naturally heart-shaped strawberry?

To make the strawberry hearts, just core them (kind of
deeply), and slice in to 1/4 inch hearts. Place on top of
whatever you think might need a little love. ;)

Salad -
Washed Spinach
Red leaf lettuce
Chopped cucumber
Shaved Carrots
Diced Tomatoes
Broccoli florets
Avacados
Chopped ham or canadian bacon

Peach Balsamic Vinegarette-
1 Italian Dressing pouch
Balsamic vinegar (according to directions)
Olive oil (according to directions)
4 Tbsp. peach jam (or any flavor you like)

Easy, but delicious!

Easy Choco-mallow Pops

These are a PERFECT little item to make with your kids. It's so fun & easy!

All you need is:

Shaped marshmallows, Pretzel sticks, & Chocolate chips.

You can top with sprinkles if you have them.

Take a bag of shaped marshmallows (we used the strawberry-
flavored hearts for Valentine's Day), and stick a pretzel
 in the bottom of the marchmallow.

+

Dip them in melted chocolate chips. You can't go wrong here.
Just shake off excess chocolate, and...

 =

Place on wax paper and top with sprinkles. Cool & enjoy.
*Tip: If you like the taste of Charleston Chews, try leaving
your pretzel-stuck marshmallows out un-covered over-night
(or two) and dip in chocolate. It makes 'em chewier. Yum!

These are a quick, inexpensive activity/treat you can make for any holiday. Just buy the current holiday marshmallow shapes & top with corresponding holiday sprinkles.

I'm gonna blog about a frog...

THIS frog. Who says Valentine boxes have to be boxes? And GREEN is a perfect color for the occasion, right? Well, it works for us!



Here he is! He looks love sick, doesn't he?
Lift his tongue to open his mouth.

 

Take a clean, empty can. Hot glue
the lid on.

Trace your can on to the center of a
piece of card stock. Any color will
do; it won't be seen (here's an
opportunity to re-purpose).



Draw legs & eyes. Line up a second
sheet underneath it.



Cut both pieces of card stock out.
Cut the eyes off one of them.

Using those pieces, trace and cut out
4 green felt legs and one set of eyes.
Set aside for later.
(I marked the fronts & backs of
these, but did it on the wrong
sides! Use a pin to mark it so you
don't make my same mistake!)

Okay, now you're ready to roll. Lay your can down on to a piece of felt. Roll it like you would if you were wrapping a gift and cut it AT LEAST a half an inch too big on both sides. Glue it on using a hot glue gun. Overlap the felt on the circumference of the can... just a little.



Glue the extra felt down on
to the rim. Do the same the
plastic lid on the other side.



Now take your circle w/ legs and cut a piece of felt about an
inch bigger around the cut-out. Cut slits all the way around
and start gluing one tab down at a time, gently pulling it in
the direction needed to make it straight against the sides.



This is kind of what it'll look like.

Glue on one pair of legs to cover tabs.
 Line it up as evenly as you can.



Now glue his cute bum to the bottom of the can.
Add a heart.

To cut the mouth out, pinch the
center of the felt and cut to make a
hole to start from.

Do the same thing you did with the backside, to the front.
Wait to glue the inside of the mouth in the next step.
Glue the head onto the plastic lid side of the can. Make
sure it lines up the same as the back (so it stands okay).



NOW, glue the mouth tabs to the inside of the plastic lid.

Glue the remaining legs & eyes onto the back of the head. 



Now, it's ready for YOUR creativity!

 THIS IS THE FUN PART!

Make a mouth at least 1/2" bigger than the hole. Glue
on at the TOP OF MOUTH ONLY!
Add whatever you want now!

"Feed me"!

 That's it! It's not too difficult, but is a little time-consuming. It's worth the effort, though! Let me know if you come up with your own version of this! I'd love to see it!

Here are a few more ideas!

We made the puppy out of a baby formula can. The love
bug is made from a frosting container. Instead of a flap, I
made that one so the whole lid (face) can come on & off.

HAPPY CREATING!