Valentines Party Ideas

On February 14th, invite a group of children under 12 for Valentines party.

Have them join in kid-style celebration of love. Here I have included some ideas to get your party planning started. Have fun!

Resources:

Decorations

Tape construction paper hearts on the fence. Make a balloon arch by tying red balloons to a kite string (about 12" apart). Secure the ends of the string on the ground with dowels. Sprinkle your walkway with pink glitter. Drape the trees in the yard with pink crepe paper streamers, or let them hang down and sway in the wind. Play romantic music. Place a sign near the front door that says "Welcome to Valentines Party!"

Drape the entrance with red tulle. Outfit the party room with balloons and streamers in the official colors of love - pink, white, and red. Tape construction paper hearts with romantic sayings to the walls. Angels and cupids are great decorations to add.

Light lots of red, pink, and white votive candles, and set them around the area. Decorate the center of the room with bunches of red balloons, or tie one heart-shaped Mylar balloon to the backs of two chairs, joining them together with ribbons.

Hang posters showing romantic movie scenes. Get small teddy bears from a dollar store, tie a ribbon around their neck, attaching a piece of cardstock with each guest's name on it. Place the teddy bears on the guests' seats at the table.

Dress up launch and craft tables with red paper tablecloths, adding a bowl of heart-shaped candy in the center for nibbling. Tie red balloons to the backs of the chairs.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Guess How Much Love is in the Jar: Before the Valentines party, fill a jar with Hershey® Kisses (or other "romantic" candies). As the kids arrive, ask them to guess how many candies are in the jar. The child who guesses the closest gets to take the candy home.

*Lollipop Mice: From stiff colored paper, cut out a bunch of hearts, about 4 inches across. On each, draw a nose and eyes. Punch four holes above the mouse's nose. Thread a short length of pipe cleaner through the top two holes and another through the bottom two. Lastly, slip a lollipop (either flat or round) down behind the whiskers.

*Valentine's Day Cards: For this Valentines party activity, you'll need construction paper, paper doilies, scraps of fabric (ribbon and yarn), sequins, metallic paper or aluminum foil, pictures of flowers cut from seed catalogs, and crepe paper for ruffles.

Put all the supplies on the table along with scissors, glue, and clear tape. Also have heart-shaped cookie cutters and heart templates cut from cardboard to use as guides. Invite the kids to make cards for their parents and friends.

Favors

For your Valentine party favors, hand out such items as boxes of candy, heart-shaped mirrors, bouquet of flowers, valentine candies, Mylar balloons with romantic sayings, T-shirts and other items with hearts on them.

Valentine Party Games

*Heart Hunt: For little kids, stage a heart hunt, planting construction paper hearts all around the house. The object of the game is to have the kids find as many hearts as they can.

*Relay Race: Before the Valentines party, cut out a construction heart shape for each player. Think of some things to do, such as: jump, crawl, hop, skip, and walk backwards. Take two hearts. Write the same thing to do on each. Do this for all the hearts. Put the hearts into 2 piles on one side of the play area.

Split your group into 2 teams and line them up. Put each pile of hearts across the room directly from each line of players. On "Go" the first player on each team runs up to a pile and takes a heart. The players then come back, doing what it says on the hearts (e.g., skip, hop, run, crawl, etc.) moving back to their lines. When the first players get back to their teams, the next players run to the hearts. The first team to finish wins.

*Candy Necklaces: On strands of licorice, guests get to create their own edible necklaces. Provide candies and goodies with holes in the center (e.g., Fruit Loops, Lifesavers, Cheerios, etc).

*The Heartbeat Game: Have the players sit in a circle and choose one player to start. The first player chooses a category like "colors," "names," "foods," "TV Shows," or any other category he or she can think of.

Next, the player begins to slap, clap, and snap in rhythm by slapping her legs twice, clapping twice, and snapping her left fingers and then her right in an even rhythm. All of the other players do the same actions in the same rhythm so that everyone in the circle is slapping, clapping and snapping at once.

The starting player then calls out an item from the chosen category, saying it just after she snaps, without changing or loosing the rhythm. The next player in the circle follows in turn, naming another item in the category just after snapping.

Play continues in this manner around the circle and doesn't stop until a player can't think of an item, repeats an item, or misses the beat - that player is out of the game and must leave the circle. The next round begins with a new category. The game is over when only one player remains in the circle.

*Who Knows Your Child Best?: Gather the kids around and get them to answer questions about your child. You can ask about what she likes and doesn't like, weight/height at birth, hobbies, etc. Whoever gets the most answers right - receives a small prize.

*Kind Things: Here's a great Valentine party game for siblings. Set the timer and see how many kind things kids can write down about each other in 5 minutes. You might suggest writing down generous things the person has done or nice things about the way he or she acts, thinks, plays, works, or looks. Done right, this game will clear the air of sibling rivalry for the afternoon.

*Blind Man's Bluff: How well do your guests know their friends? This fun Valentines party game will help them find out!

Choose one player to be the Blind Man and blindfold him. All of the players form a circle around the Blind Man with their hands joined. The players start moving in one direction until the Blind Man claps three times. At that time, the players in the circle must stop. Blind Man points out to one of them and is given one guess to name that person.

If the Blind Man guesses correctly, the two players switch places. And if he guesses incorrectly, the player steps into the middle of the circle with the Blind Man.

The Blind Man stays blindfolded and tries to catch his chosen player, who in turn tries to avoid being caught. Once the Blind Man catches the player in the circle, he must try to identify the player by touching the player's clothing, hair, and other features (the player must stand still while the Blind Man does this).

When the player is correctly identified, the Blind Man removes the blindfold and joins the circle, and the identified player becomes the Blind Man. Play continues until everyone has taken a turn being the Blind Man.

*Make-a-Poem: Split the kids in groups of 3, and assign each team a person that everyone knows. It can be anyone, from a school principal to a friend to a celebrity. Give the kids 5 minutes to come up with a 3 verse poem about that person starting with, "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue." At the end of the activity, have the children recite the poem in front of everyone.

*Cake Walk: At the end of the Valentines party, invite the kids to play this fun game. Place colored hearts on the floor (tape them down with clear tape). These should be about a size of a placemat.

At game time each child stands on the heart. When the music starts playing, they move around the circle stepping only on the hearts. When the music stops, draw a corresponding heart from a basket to match the one on the floor. (Number the hearts before the game.) The child who is standing on that heart gets to step out and pick a prize.

Valentine Cake:

*Heart Cake: For this Valentines party cake recipe, you'll need 1 cake mix, 1 can vanilla or cherry frosting, red food coloring, 1 tube red decorating gel, candy hearts and sprinkles and cake pans (one 8" square and one 8" round cake pan).

Make 1 square and 1 round cake according to package directions. When they are cool, cut the round cake in half and arrange the pieces to form a heart.

Make pink frosting by adding 1 or 2 drops of red food coloring to the vanilla, or use cherry frosting. Frost the cake and decorate with candy hearts and sprinkles. With decorating gel write "We Love Our Friends" or "Happy Valentine's Day" on the cake.

Valentines Party Food Ideas:

*Valentine Fruit: Cut small cantaloupes or honeydew melons in half, and remove the seeds. Cut out the melon flesh and put it aside. Then cut a small slice out of the bottom of each melon half so it will stand without wobbling.

Fill the shells back up with cantaloupe or honeydew slices mixed with raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Or fill a large melon with a mixture of 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup coconut, and 16 oz cottage cheese. Assemble sliced fruit around the melon for dipping.

*Painted Heart Cookies: Mix up your favorite sugar cookie recipe, cut out the heart shapes, and refrigerate until ready to paint and bake. To make each color of paint, mix 1 egg yolk and 1/4 tsp water. Add a few drops of food coloring until you've reached the desired shade. Using a clean paintbrush, paint onto the uncooked sugar cookie dough, then bake according to recipe directions.

*Lovely Croissants: Serve croissants filled with fresh strawberries or cherry pie filling. Top with chocolate sauce or whipped cream.

*Heart Sandwiches: Prepare sandwiches using your child's favorite fillings. Cut the sandwiches into heart shapes using butter knife or cookie cutter.

*"Romantic" Lasagna
*Trail Mix (nuts, seeds, dried fruit, etc.)
*Pizza (cut into heart shapes)
*Heart-Shaped Jello® Jigglers
*Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
*Ice Cream

Valentines Party Drink Ideas:

*Love Potion: For this Valentines party drink recipe, you'll need 2 cups frozen strawberries, 2 cups frozen raspberries, 4 cups white grape or apple juice, and maraschino cherries.

Thaw the berries slightly, then place them in a blender along with the juice. Mix on high until you have a uniform color. Garnish with cherries.

*Sparkling Apple Cider

*Source for Content & Photos: Courtesy of Family Fun Magazine