Valentine's Day Lunches and Snacks

Love packing cute lunches for your little ones? One of my favorite times to glam up their school lunches are for holidays! In the past, Valentine's Day lunches have been made extra special with a few lunch making tools and fun food. Snacks are easy, too!

I LOVE my heart shaped silicone muffin liners. (I purchased them a couple of years ago from Michael's craft store.) I can bake cupcakes or muffins ahead of time, and throw them in with the kids' lunches. Plus, they work perfectly to separate portions of food.

Use a paring knife to make heart shaped strawberries. Cut off the leafy tops by cutting at an angle downward and then at an angle back up again (almost like you are cutting an upside down triangle out of the top of your strawberry.)

If you own any type of cookie cutters, you most likely own at least one heart shaped cutter. I have some of all sizes. The big ones can be used to cut an entire sandwich into the shape of a heart. The smaller ones can be used to make practically anything heart-shaped, including cheeses, fruit, and bell-peppers.

I used my "Lunch Punch Sandwich Cutters, Fairy Set" to make a heart and crown out of sliced mozzarella for the top of my daughter's sandwich.

Sometimes the smallest touches make the funnest difference! Add stickers to fruit cups, plastic bags, or juice boxes.

The kids get a LOT of sweets for Valentine's Day at school. Making fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods "cute" on this day is a must  if you want them to eat anything worthwhile that day. Hey, and do not stop on Valentine's Day. I add heart shapes all year long and send my love right in their lunchbox!

Valentine's Day Creation Station

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching! I made one comment about Valentine's Day to my kids, and that is all it took. They began asking begging to make Valentine's cards and crafts with me. The good thing is I am always replenishing my craft supplies so we have enough art supplies for such an occasion. The problem is that all the craft and art supplies are scattered in different places around the house.

I thought the best way to kick-start our craft time would be to get a little organized first. I wanted to set up all their supplies in a special way, too. Why not surprise the kids with a Valentine's Creation Station? Everything would be at their fingertips and they could let their creative minds go wild!

I raided my own craft containers, pulled out my leftover Valentine's craft supplies from last year, and went around the house to gather their usual supplies. After I had everything I went on to organize and set up a surprise Creation Station for after school.

Organize your children's craft supplies for easy access.

Here is a list of  some of the supplies that can be used to make your own Valentine's Day Creation Station:

• Glue 
• Scissors & craft edged scissors
• Crayons, markers, paints
• Construction paper
• Scrapbook or patterned paper
• Valentine's Day stickers
• Foam stickers
• Valentine confetti
• Stamps & Ink pads
• Twine, ribbon, lace
• Stencils
• Doilies
• Glitter and glitter glue pens

I found these cute, little tin heart containers with lids on sale last year. They were the perfect sized containers to hold small stickers and all those tiny confetti pieces. We just snapped the lids back on for easy clean-up.

I encourage you to pull out your craft supplies and set up a Valentine Creation Station just for your kids! It does not have to be anything fancy, but they will appreciate some (organized) fun options.