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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Toddler-Friendly Valentine's Day Party!



Henry and Holden had several friends over for a toddler-friendly Valentine's Day party! I used lots of ideas from Pinterest to try and make it fun for the littler kids. It was low-key but turned out great! 

Party prepping the night before
 I made tags to make Valentine treat bags as a favor. I just printed them two to a page, filled Ziploc bags with Goldfish or the toddler snack mix I made, and stapled the tags to the top. I thought they looked really cute as the table centerpiece. I also printed several free garlands and hung them with baker's twine. Simple and cheap! I'd like to make this a yearly event, so I can save them for next year. (I also plan to head back to the stores after Valentine's day and try and score a few sale things for next year!) Got a few other decorations and a felt garland in the Target dollar isle. I already had a red tablecloth, and just bought some cheap red plates at the store. I couldn't resist a few heart necklaces, bracelets and some cute bow ties for photo props. For some reason, all the kids love the necklaces, either to swing them around or chew on them. :) 

For food, I made strawberry cupcakes with Cool Whip for icing. (I didn't want to do anything to heavy and too sugary for a morning play date!) I also made the pretzel kiss buttons, since I'd made those before at Thanksgiving and they're a hit! Next year I bet Henry and Holden will be able to help me make them...or eat all the chocolate, anyway. The main snack was the toddler Valentine snack mix, which I saw on this blog. I thought it was a great idea, and it was a huge hit with the kids and moms! I used strawberry yogurt Cheerios, strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats, dried strawberries, yogurt melts (which was everyone's favorite ingredient, the kids were picking those out!) and some yogurt covered raisins. That will definitely be a repeat recipe! It's nice not to have  We also did little fruit kabobs, which I saw here. (I swear Holden ate at least half the tray by himself!) To drink, I just picked up some strawberry lemonade and added some fresh strawberries to the pitcher. I found some red paper straws and added them to the mason jars because that always looks so cute. A few juice boxes for the kids rounded things out.

I wanted to do a few crafty things, even though the kids were pretty young still this year. I got a few paint dot markers with a coupon at Michael's, and some foam heart stickers when they were on sale. I already had some stickers and crayons. Then I just bought some heart shaped cardstock cut-outs and some Valentine's colored cards so kids could decorate a card or heart. I wanted to keep it mess-free as much as possible! Maybe next year I'll brave finger paint or markers. :) I had plenty of left over supplies from this time around, so we'll see what we come up with next year! Like I said, there are always plenty of Pinterest ideas to browse through. 

So we had a great time! The toddlers played with all of Henry and Holden's toys and enjoyed the cupcakes and snacks. The moms took plenty of pictures and still had time to socialize a little. I also made sure to get a picture of each mom and kid in front of the cute heart garland and send it to them to include with the Valentine they made. Can't wait to do it again next year. Here's a link to the printable tags I made. Feel free to use them any way you'd like! I thought they turned out pretty cute. Click here to print them.

Pictures with our Valentines!
Gotta look good for the picture! Accessorizin' 

Too young to be kissing girls! 
Mmmm, cupcake
Why do we bother trying to take group pictures of toddlers? :)
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1 comment:

  1. Everything came out SO cute! Thanks for sharing and linking back! :)

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