A very LOVEly Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday Mr Bee and I celebrated Valentine's Day without kids, so today I was able to focus entirely on having fun with the kids while Mr. Bee worked (poor man).

Our day has been filled with a variety of activities and fun-filled adventures. And let us not forget candy! There has been plenty of candy.

The other day we made our Love Goggles in preparation for today. Toddler Bee didn't know what they were for, but he loves binoculars and any reason to make some. They're very easy to make: all you need are toilet paper rolls, paints, and decorations (we used tissue paper, craft paper, and glitter).

This morning, we used a red paper plate to make Valentine's hats. You could decorate these if you wanted, but ours were already red so that seemed perfect.

Now, you're ready for a scavenger hunt!

I cut hearts out of craft foam and taped Hershey's kisses to them. Then, when the kids were playing upstairs, I hid them along with loose kisses around the downstairs. Scavenger hunts are always wildly popular with the Bee Children and today was not an exception. Toddler Bee was running around finding candies and whooping in excitement. Baby Bee hid and ate kisses while everyone else was busy with the hunt. She's a sneaky one, that baby.

The last thing Toddler Bee found was a decorated shoe box filled with treats. I had plans for this, too, but time started to run a little low...Maybe it will make another appearance at a later date.

So much candy!

We played a few rounds of BINGO and used more Kisses for markers instead of Bingo dabbers. I made the sheet myself and chose to do shapes and colours instead of images. It was fun (Toddler Bee kept shouting BINGO!!) but it's also a good way to buff up on colours/shapes.

And, the foam hearts I used for the scavenger hunt, were recycled and used in a game of Fishing for Love! All you need to do is remove the Kisses from the hearts and add some metal paper clips. Then, I tied some string onto a wooden spoon and attached round magnets to the opposite end of the string. You can find adhesive backed magnets in craft or dollar stores.

Lunch was another LOVEly affair. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make egg in a basket...but it sort of lost it's shape as it cooked. But, he also had a heart-shaped sandwich, and a cute little hot dog/cheese love struck heart.

After lunch, we made our "All the Things I Love" craft. It's similar to the Grinch graft we made over Christmas, only shaped like a heart and listing only things he loves. As always when I do an activity like this, it's fun to see the types of answers he comes up with. Apparently, he loves money...and orange motorcycles.

Then, we used some more craft foam to make a photo frame! Just make sure when you cut out the centre space you make it smaller than your photo so the picture doesn't fall through the opening!

And finally, after much begging I let Toddler Bee have some candies...but not before he sorted them by colour! Another great learning opportunity!

All of that brought us up to now and the kids are taking a break from all the excitement to watch a movie. It has been a wonderful day. Valentine's Day where people focus all on love and we were no exception to that. I am thankful to have a wonderful husband and kids. And I am very happy that I am able to have these fun days with my kids and help them create so many happy memories. The smiles on their faces makes it worth all the hot glue burned fingers, paint on furniture, and endless amounts of craft supplies that never seem to be contained to one place.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your day was filled with love and lots and lots of chocolate.

Beautiful flowers from the loves of my life!

My husband...a romantic with a sense of humour.