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Valentine’s Day is a fun way to boost the post-holiday blahs, and it provides a special opportunity to let your child(ren) know how wonderful you think they are!
Here are some ideas for making the day fun:
- Start the day off with a surprise! Tie red and white balloons to your child’s bed or desk chair while they sleep -- so it’s the first thing they notice upon waking.
- Valentine’s breakfast: Make sweetheart pancakes! Mix batter as usual and
grease your skillet or griddle. Dip a chopstick or the end of a wooden spoon handle into the batter, then “draw” a heart shape onto the grill. Wait about 30 seconds, then carefully spoon batter over the heart (it should cover it completely). Cook as usual. When done, the pancakes will have a darker heart in the center!
- Special Valentines to give to friends: Instead of the typical boxed Valentines
given out each year, have your child do something that stands out. Bake sugar
cookies (either with a heart-shaped cookie cutter or buy the slice-and-bake kind
sold around Valentine’s Day with a red heart in the center). Send to school in a bag to hand out as-is, or go a step further and pipe each classmate’s name in icing on the cookies first!
- Lunch box Valentine: Slip a note, Valentine’s card, or special sweet inside your child’s lunch.
- After school: Have a Valentine’s tea party or special dinner. Decorate the table, serve red and white foods (“I Love U Spaghetti,” salad with radish “hearts”), and have heart-shaped cake for dessert. Have any goodies you give out (like stuffed animals or boxes of candy) sitting at each child’s place when they come to the table.
- Don’t have a heart-shaped pan? No problem! Bake your cake according to
package directions using one round and one square pan. When done, cut the round cake in half (two semicircles) and place each adjoining a side of the square layer and frost as usual. Voilá! Heart shaped cake.
- No time to run out and buy decorations (or wanting to save money)? An easy instant decoration is to grab that deck of playing cards tucked away in a drawer, pull out all the heart cards, and scatter them face up on the table.
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