Family Valentine Party Ideas

My girl loves a party. She’s a lot like me in the fact that she enjoys the planning and preparation almost as much as the party itself. This is our first year of homeschooling, which means no school card swap or box decorating (hallelujah!) so we decided to do our own thing at home instead. By our “own thing” I mean copy ideas from Pinterest (see my Valentine Board).

She made cards to send to some of her cousins, family members & friends, both near and far. I found packs of 8 red cards and envelopes in the $ spot at Target. Score! She wrote special notes inside, decorated them with stickers, and added a special origami heart before we sealed them up and attached her custom return address labels.

Here’s the plan for the rest of the day. First up is heart-shaped cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast. For dinner we are making our own heart pizzas with special pepperoni! For dessert, we will whip up a batch of Valentine whoopie pies sans the red dye. Here’s my recipe.

1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/2 water
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix all ingredients together with a mixer. Scoop 1/4 cup of mix into heart-shaped silicone molds (found mine at Hobby Lobby). Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let cool and remove.

2 sticks butter, softened
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Mix butter, vanilla, and milk with a stand mixer. Continue to blend adding 1 cup of sugar at a time. Pipe in between 2 of the cakes. Be generous!

A party isn’t complete without decorations. We made these wax paper crayon hearts (note: skip the iron and go straight for the oven at 200 degrees). tLG decorated the sidewalk with chalk hearts and also set up some tic-tac-toe boards. After all, those X’s and O’s sound like hugs and kisses to me. We are also planning to tackle these secret message watercolor notes, mainly because they seemed simple. Paper, white crayon, water colors. Check! Our evening will wrap up with a batch of chocolate slime, Valentine BINGO, Mad Libs and a few games of hide the heart (very similar to hide the thimble)!

For gifts, I’m planning to ask my hubby if he will “BE-er” my Valentine. In my book, V-day is pretty much the single-handed most cheesy holiday there is.

tLG is getting this Auburn tumbler filled with candies. Because nothing says true love like buying alcohol and your rival’s emblem (GO BAMA!) for your sweeties. 😉