Valentine Fun

I know Valentine's Day isn't really a holiday, but I still think it's fun.  I love to do fun things for my family.  When we took down our Christmas decorations we instantly put up our Valentine decorations.  Mainly because Madalyn always thinks the house is "boring" when all the Christmas decorations are put away.

This year I have found so many cute ideas for Valentine's Day on Pinterest!  What in the world did I do before Pinterest??  If you haven't checked out Pinterest, you need too.  It's a plethora of ideas for holidays, recipes, school ideas, crafts, fun things to do with the kids, etc.  It really helped me stay awake during all of those late night feedings.  I have also found cute ideas on blogs.  I'm going to share two of my favorite ideas with you.  Both of them start on February 1st and last until Valentine's Day.  My family has really been enjoying these two new traditions!

The first idea I want to share is a Valentine Book Countdown.  It's an idea I adapted from something I saw on tickledpinkmandy.blogspot.com.  You should really check out her blog.  She has so many great ideas!  It's one of my favorite blogs to read.  Mandy had a Christmas book countdown that was so cute! You can read her blog post about the Christmas book countdown here.  I plan on doing that for Christmas this year.  I thought it was such a cute idea, I wanted to do one for Valentine's Day.

Things you will need:

• 14 Valentine's Day books
• Wrapping paper (I found cute heart wrapping paper in the dollar spot at Target.)
• A basket or tub (I used a pink tub that I already had)
• Ribbons and bows to decorate the basket

Wrap each book.  I numbered ours.  I tried to save the longer books for the weekends when we aren't so rushed with baths and bedtime.  After you wrap the books place them in the basket that you decorated with ribbon and you are finished!  I had our basket ready before February 1st because that is the day we started.  The kids have loved it!  Here is a picture of our basket.

The next tradition I started this year is a "Heart Attack".  I found the idea on Pinterest (again...what did I do before Pinterest???)  A "Heart Attack" is where you cover someones bedroom door with hearts that list something you love about them.  You add one heart on February 1st and continue to add one each day until Valentine's Day.  By Valentine's Day their door is covered with 14 hearts. 

Things you will need:

• Scrapbook paper (I found cute packs of Valentine scrapbook paper in the Target dollar spot)
• Scissors
• Markers
• Tape

Cut out 14 hearts for each person.  Write something that you love about them on each heart.  The night of January 31st I taped a heart on each door so it was there when they woke up on the 1st .  Madalyn looks forward to reading her heart each morning.  She was really surprised on the 2nd when another heart appeared.  Here are some pictures of the doors.  I'm also doing it for Mike, but I didn't take a picture of our closet door.  I still have more hearts to add. 

I hope you enjoy the ideas!