valentine's

Last-Minute Valentine’s Party Ideas for Kids!

Holidays, kids

I’ve always appreciated Valentine’s Day, but I love the holiday more now that I have kids. My son especially loves Valentine’s Day and has declared it as his second favorite holiday after Christmas. Every year, we have so much fun making Valentine’s crafts, heart-shaped treats and finding thoughtful ways to tell our family, teachers and friends that we love them.

This year, Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday, and our school district has the President’s Day holiday (this year, President’s Day is Feb. 17 — it always the third Monday in February) listed as a 4-day weekend, instead of the typical 3-day weekend that I grew up with. So, the kids will be home for Valentine’s Day! Curious about how we should spend the holiday, I decided we’ll host a last-minute mini Valentine’s Day party. As I’m typing this, we’re only two days away from Valentine’s Day, so we need food, decor and activities that we can pull together fast and easy!

Below, I’ve listed my favorite ideas for hosting a last-minute Valentine’s Day party for kids, including heart-shaped food, festive decor and love-themed crafts and games! I also shared these ideas on KTLA Morning News – scroll to the bottom to watch the clip!

Sharing my last-minute Valentine’s Party ideas for kids on KTLA Morning News

VALENTINE’S DAY FOOD FOR KIDS

Heart Shaped Mini Tortilla Pizzas

I love that these pizzas are only three ingredients – so easy! Thanks to TheBakerMama for this cute recipe!

Photo courtesy of @thebakermama

Photo courtesy of @thebakermama

Ingredients:

  • 12 street taco size tortillas
  • 12 slices mozzarella cheese
  • 36 pepperoni slices
  • 1/2 cup prepared pizza or marina sauce, for serving

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
  2. Cut each tortillas into a heart shape with a 4-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter or shape the tortillas into hearts with kitchen scissors. Place the heart-shaped tortillas on a baking sheet and bake for 5-8 minutes until they start to lightly brown and crisp around the edges. 
  3. While the tortillas are baking, cut slices of mozzarella cheese with the same heart-shaped cookie cutter you used to cut the tortillas.
  4. Use a mini (1-inch) heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut the pepperoni into heart shapes or shape the pepperoni into hearts with kitchen scissors.
  5. Once the heart-shaped tortillas have baked, place a slice of heart-shaped mozzarella cheese onto each tortilla and then 3 mini heart-shaped pepperonis.
  6. Return the topped tortillas to the oven and bake for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to turn golden brown in spots.
  7. Serve with pizza or marinara sauce for dipping.

Deviled Strawberries

This is an adorable healthy-ish treat from one of my favorite TV chef Katie Lee Biegel. The deviled strawberries’ filling is the same recipe – marshmallow creme and cream cheese – used for fruit dip at parties when I was growing up in the 90s. Top your deviled strawberries with coconut, chocolate shavings or sprinkles. Find the full recipe here.

Photo courtesy of Food Network, Katie Lee Biegel

Assorted Treats from Cheryl’s Cookies and 1800 Flowers

It’t not a Valentine’s Day party without heart-shaped treats and chocolate, of course! Cheryl’s Cookies and 1800 Flowers has you covered with a large variety of beautiful and playful treats perfect for a kids Valentine’s Day party! Plus, Cheryl’s and 1800 Flowers offer same day or next day delivery in many zip codes throughout the United States. This is a perfect last-minute option for treats when hosting a party. Here are three of my favorite Valentine’s treats for kids from Cheryls.com and 1800flowers.com:

Cheryl’s Cookies Valentine Gift Tin Treats Assortment – This cute heart cookie tin comes with 15 snack size butter shortbread heart cookies plus 17 other different treats, like raspberry galettes, buttercream frosted red heart cutout cookies, cheesecake flavored buttercream frosted raspberry cookie, gourmet drizzled chocolate pretzel and a raspberry crumb bar, so all your party guests can choose their favorite goodies. Purchase this cookie tin here.

Photo courtesy of Cheryls.com

1800 Flowers Fleur de Chocolate Belgian Chocolate Roses – This box of chocolate roses not only looks stunning on your party table, it’s fun to eat while letting each guest pick their favorite rose! This also could be a fabulous hostess gift! Purchase the beautiful chocolate rose box here.

Photo courtesy of 1800flowers.com

Disney Princess Explosion Box with Spinning Music Stand – Add some excitement to your Valentine’s treat table with this show-stopping explosion music box that’s perfect for a Disney princess fan! When your kids open the box, they’ll feel completely enchanted by the flurry of bright butterflies and a delicious strawberry shortcake topped with an edible bow. Purchase this fun music box with strawberry cake here.

Photo courtesy of 1800flowers.com

VALENTINE’S DAY DECOR FOR KIDS

Florals from 1800 Flowers

Flowers are an iconic symbol of Valentine’s Day, and 1800Flowers.com is the floral and gift authority with 49 years of helping consumer’s celebrate the love-filled holiday! In fact, this year they plan to deliver 24 million stems with 15.5 million of them being roses! They have a curated collection of fun gifts and floral bouquets that are perfect celebrating with your littlest sweethearts and are available for next-day and same-day delivery on Valentine’s Day. A favorite arrangement of mine is the Fields of Europe Romance Bouquet. This vibrant mixed bouquet includes a variety of pink and red blooms. On special request, the blooms can feature a whimsical heart banner that says “Happy Valentine’s Day.” I also adore this Love Pup Arrangement for kids, which includes a plush puppy! Arrangements from 1800 Flowers are designed and delivered by a local florist in your community. If you’re looking to support a local business, this is a great way to do that!

Photo courtesy of 1800flowers.com

Photo Courtesy of 1800flowers.com

Heart Shaped Table Runner

Sprucing up your dining table for Valentine’s Day is easier than you think with foam paper! I love using foam paper for easy crafts, like the heart-shaped table runner. I used pre-cut foam hearts, but you could also cut them yourself from regular foam paper. You could always use construction paper to create a similar table runner, but I prefer foam paper because I think it looks nicer, and it lasts longer!

Photo Courtesy of ANightOwlBlog.com

Tissue Paper Wreath

This was a craft my mother taught me in the 90s, and now I love that I get to share it with my children! To make this wreath, cut a large heart out of a piece of cardboard. You’ll also need Elmer’s liquid glue, a pencil with an eraser, and LOTS of squares of tissue paper – preferably in red and pink Valentine’s colors! If you want to hang it inside or outside, attach a ribbon or decorative pipe cleaner as a hook on the back of the wreath once complete.

Photo Courtesy of Creative Station by Baker Ross

VALENTINE’S DAY ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

XO Tic-Tac-Toe

In my opinion, there’s not a more fitting kids’ game for Valentine’s Day than tic-tac-toe because of its X’s and O’s! I used foam paper and decorative craft tape to make one version of a tic-tac-toe board and painted wooden hearts for another. You can create X’s and O’s out of pipe cleaners (bonus points if you shape the O into a heart!) or use different colored candies for opposing players. I used Dove milk chocolate hearts for one player and Dove dark chocolate hearts for another.

Valentine’s Themed Tumble Tower

Put a love-themed spin on the classic tumble tower game! I got this cute idea from Vanessa at the Tried and True Creative Blog. Jazz up your blocks with some red hearts, then write Valentine’s themed instructions on each block. Every time your child pulls out a block, they have to follow the instructions. Blocks could say, “Show us how dogs say I love you,” “Give me Eskimo kisses,” or “What do you love most about yourself?” I’ve seen many different versions of Tumble Towers available on Amazon and at Target, Dollar Tree and craft stores, and I used paint pens to write on the blocks.

Photo Courtesy of TriedandTrueBlog.com

Photo Courtesy of TriedandTrueBlog.com

Melissa & Doug Heart Themed Crafts

Sometimes, we don’t have the time or energy to make our own crafts, so I adore Melissa & Doug for helping out with their heart themed craft kits. Melissa & Doug has long been one of my favorite children’s toy and activity brands. From classic wooden toys to realistic pretend play sets, Melissa & Doug products inspire creative thinking through screen-free, open-ended play. They intentionally make well-crafted toys that are developed with care to be passed down from generation to generation or shared family to family. Here’s some of their great heart-themed craft products to consider adding to your Valentine’s Day party:

Created By Me! Heart Beads Wooden Bead Kit

Created by Me! Heart Box Wooden Craft Kit

Wooden Stamp Set – Friendship

All these crafts are so fun to do with friends and guaranteed to last!

Photo Courtesy of Melissa & Doug

Watch the full TV segment featuring all these ideas on YouTube, linked below!

What other ideas do you have for a kids Valentine’s Day party? Share in the comments below or connect with me on Instagram at @maggiehjackson.

Personalized Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Kids, Their Friends and Teachers

Holidays, kids

I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day, but when I was a kid growing up the 90s, it felt limiting and sad. Like, why do only couples get to celebrate “the day of love?!” I always had so much anticipation leading up to the holiday only to be let down that it wasn’t necessarily designed for little 7-year-old me. Sure, we had class parties and passed out Valentine’s cards, but it still always felt like the main focus was on romantic couples rather than ALL the people we love.

Then, there came the anti-Valentine’s Day movement when I was in my early 20’s where people dedicated the day to NOT celebrating romance and instead glorified being single. This also felt sad to me. The intent felt like it was coming from a negative place, so I never felt comfortable going out for a night on the town with my single friends celebrating NOT being in love. Valentine’s is supposed to be about all the positivity of LOVE!

Next came the GALentine’s fad in the mid 2010’s, and I loved this trend then and now! Finally, we’re expanding Valentine’s Day to love beyond romantic couples, and we’re sharing love with friends that matter so much to us! Every year, I do a fun little event with girlfriends to celebrate how much we love each other. Gosh, where would I be without the love and support of my gal pals?!

Then, I had children, and it only seemed right that I share my love of Valentine’s Day with them, too! So, in our house, we’ve made a point to celebrate Valentine’s Day as a day full of love for our family and everybody we love! Our kids still get to watch mommy and daddy go on a date and celebrate Valentine’s Day the old-fashioned way (which I feel is important), but we also make time to say and show how much we love each other as a family. And, we share our love with our friends and teachers, too! In our house, there’s never too much love, and it’s important to tell those who we care about how much we love them!

As part of our family’s Valentine’s Day tradition, I love to get small gifts for the children. I know some of you may be rolling your eyes thinking that I’ve fallen victim to another “Hallmark holiday” and consumer capitalism, but don’t freak out… these gifts are nothing like Christmas! They’re just small gestures that say, “I’m thinking of and love you!”

The small Valentine’s gift baskets I gave my kids last year

Another part of our family tradition is taking the time to put together gifts for our children’s friends, family and teachers. It’s so fun to hear what they love about each of their friends and help them pick out gifts for their grandparents and teachers.

I hope you’ll consider joining us in our new way of celebrating Valentine’s Day with everyone! Below, I’ve put together some fun gift ideas for kids, their friends, family and teachers! This year, I’m doing all personalized gifts by purchasing items that can be engraved or monogrammed. There’s just something so much more special about a personalized gift! It feels so thoughtful. Plus, they become keepsakes!

Valentine’s Day Gifts for Kids

Small gift baskets are my go-to for Valentine’s Day. Remember, this is not Christmas, so you don’t need to overdo it! My best recommendation is to stick to a practical theme, so you have a goal in mind and don’t overspend on frivolous toys and candy. For example, if you have a spring break beach vacation coming up, gift your chlid a beach tote filled with beach goodies, like a swimsuit, towel, sand toys, etc. Think of your child’s personality and what they like to do. If you have a budding artist in your house, make them a gift basket filled with art supplies.

For this year’s Valentine’s Day gifts for our kids, I’m turning to Personalization Mall, because they have hundreds of unique gifts you can personalize and use to create theme gift baskets. Here are some of my favorite gift baskets (or in this case, bags and buckets) ideas!

Beach-Goers Gift Bag – Put all these items into the striped beach bag, and you’re all set for your upcoming spring break vacation or summer! For even more fun, add a swimsuit, goggles and beach snacks!

Classic Stripe Personalized Terry Cloth Beach Bag- Large

I Dig You Personalized Beach Pail & Shovel

Classic Stripe Personalized Beach Towel

Vibrant Name Personalized Water Bottle

Sous Chef’s Gift Bucket – If you have a little one who loves helping out in the kitchen, he/she will adore their own personalized chef’s apron, hat and utensils! Add this personalized pizza puzzle for a fun foodie touch! Put everything in an adorable custom treat bucket that can be used year after year!

Chef In Training Personalized Kid’s Apron

Chef In Training Personalized Kid’s Chef Hat

Hearts Personalized Kids Dinnerware

You Have a Pizza My Heart Personalized Round Puzzle

Hugs & Kisses Treat Bucket

Aspiring Artists Gift Bucket – Your little artist will love coloring and painting crafts personalized with their name while wearing this craft smock!

Art Time Personalized Kid’s Craft Apron

Valentine’s Day Personalized Coloring Book

Paint It! Personalized Coloring Canvas Prints

Just For Him Personalized Pencil Box

A Little Treat Bucket Metal Bucket-Large

Construction Lovers Bucket – If your little love can’t get enough diggers and bulldozers, consider building him/her a bucket filled with construction toys and gifts.

I Dig You Personalized Bucket-Large

Construction Crew Personalized Kids Hat

I Dig You Sweatshirt

I Dig You Socks

Melissa & Doug Personalized Tool Kit

Valentine’s Day Gifts for Kids’ Family

There’s no more precious gift than a photo of your kids, and Shutterbugs Photoshoots in LA has Valentine’s themed set-ups for your little loves! Founded by local mom, Rachel Nomann, Shutterbugs puts a unique spin on classic studio photography by capturing a variety of headshots showcasing your children’s personality in a monochromatic style. Shutterbugs is offering three mini photo shoot dates for special Valentine’s Day themed photos – January 28, January 31 and February 1 – but you can book a session with Rachel year-round, too! The Valentine’s Day Mini Sessions are 10-15 minutes per child for $100, and you’ll receive 5-7 black and white high-resolution images per child. Regular photo sessions are $200 per child and include 15-30+ high-resolution images of your child. I did a regular Shutterbugs photo session last year with my two kiddos, and we have used these photos several times as gifts for grandparents and friends, in addition to printing them for art on our wall at home. For larger wall prints, Rachel recommends using Smallwood Home. For standard prints both large or small, she recommends Shutterfly, Minted, or Artifact Uprising. To book a Valentine’s Mini Session or Regular Session with Shutterbugs Photoshoots, visit the link in Rachel’s Instagram @shutterbugs_photoshoots, or email littleshutterbugs@gmail.com.

Class Valentine’s Day Cards

I get nostalgic every year helping my kids making Valentine’s cards for their classmates. What a fun tradition! This year, I wanted to do something a bit more special! Instead of buying whatever character-themed cards were left on the shelves at Target, we decided to create our own personalized class Valentine’s cards with Minted. I love that Minted has hundreds of cards to choose from, and you can personalize each card with your preferred colors, shapes and messaging. This was a perfect excuse to use our Shutterbugs Photoshoots images, too! If you don’t want to use a photo, there’s so many fun cards with cute Valentine’s Day puns or games, like word searches and mazes. I also love that there’s some cards that encourage giving small toys and snacks rather than candy. We ended up choosing few different cards to give to our friends at school and at other activities, like tee ball and music class. We’re looking forward to giving our friends the cards you see below!

You Color My World Valentine’s Cards

You Color My World Stickers

Crayola Crayons Party Favor Pack

Just Another Cheezy Valentine Cards

Just Another Cheezy Valentine Stickers

Cheez-It Cheese Crackers Variety Pack

Happy Heart Day Photo Card

Happy Heart Day Custom Stickers

Jumbo Hearts Photo Card

Jumbo Hearts Custom Stickers

Wonderful Words Cards

Make class Valentine’s Day cards with us!

Gifts for Kids’ Teachers

Teachers need ALL the love on Valentine’s Day! After all, they take great care into loving and teaching our children every day! Instead of gifting your child’s teacher the typical chocolates or flowers this Valentine’s Day, I recommend giving something personal and useful! The best place for personalized gifts in LA? The Monogrammed Home in San Marino! And, if you don’t live in LA, they ship! This adorable boutique has a large variety of thoughtful upscale gifts that can be engraved or monogrammed. I love the idea of giving teachers tote bags filled with desk supplies and other teacher essentials, like a cosmetics bag, key chain, etc. It’s also fun to make sure all the items are red and pink for Valentine’s Day! Below are some fabulous teacher gift ideas from The Monogrammed Home. Make sure you get all your orders in by February 2, so that you’ll get them monogrammed in time for Valentine’s Day! Shopping from here also means you’ll be supporting a small local mom-owned business! LOVE!

Teachers Rule Notepad

Gogo Keychain

Acrylic Catchall

Travel Tumbler

Medium Boat Tote

Screen Cleaning Towelettes

I’d love to hear about how you plan to spend Valentine’s Day in the comments below! For more product recommendations and lifestyle tips, be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok!

XO Maggie

Healthier Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cooking, Health & Wellness, Holidays

These healthier red velvet cupcakes are everything you love about the original – sweet, chocolatey, moist cake with cream cheese frosting! We made these cupcakes for Valentine’s Day and topped with pink, red and heart-shaped sprinkles to make them festive! These cupcakes are so easy – only takes 30 minutes to make! – and they’re reduced sugar and protein packed! We reduced sugar with Truvia Sweet Complete Monk Fruit Sweetener but still used regular powdered sugar in the frosting. We upped the protein in these yummy cupcakes with King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour.

Ever since becoming a mom, what I eat and feed my family means so much more to me. I want overall good health and energy to care for my family, and I want my kids interested in eating more than just junk food. But, I never want to keep my family from enjoying celebrations and “party food” like cupcakes, so, recently, I’ve started looking into healthier swaps for refined sugar and flour.

A swap for sugar I’ve discovered is Truvia Sweet Complete Monk Fruit Sweetener, which is an easy 1:1 swap. Monk Fruit Extract is a calorie-free sweetener that comes from monk fruit, which is native to the mountains of China and Northern Thailand. This sweetener is zero calories and replaces sugar anywhere you’d normally use it – coffee, teas, baking, etc.

For an alternative to flour, I’ve enjoyed exploring King Arthur brand’s Keto Wheat Flour and Gluten-Free Flour, because they’re also an easy 1:1 swap in recipes. The Keto Wheat Flour is an awesome way to boost my kids protein intake with 17g of protein per serving. My family isn’t gluten-free, but I uncovered the health benefits of removing gluten from my diet when I did the Kroma Wellness 5-day reset (I’ll write a blog post about that later), so King Arthur Gluten-Free is also a great option.

Below is my recipe that I updated from the original Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes recipe found on Peanut Butter and Jilly. My recipe is not vegan, but it’s delicious!

Healthier Red Velvet Cupcakes

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Yields: 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

Frosting:

  • 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 4 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 4 tablespoon butter, softened
  • option to top with sprinkles of your choice

Directions:

  • Preheat the oven to 350
  • Mix together the almond milk, melted butter, monk fruit sweetener, cocoa powder, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and food coloring until well combined.
  • Add the flour to the bowl and mix until a thick batter forms. Spoon the batter into 12-14 lined cupcake molds and bake in the oven to 25 minutes.
  • While the cupcakes are baking, use an electric hand mixer to mix together the powdered sugar, cream cheese, and butter. If you desire a thicker frosting, add ¼ or more powdered sugar to the mixture until desired consistency is reached. Allow cupcakes to cool, then spread the frosting onto the cupcakes. Enjoy!

Let me know if you try these and what you think! Be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok for more easy recipes, healthy lifestyle and ideas for your family!

XO Maggie

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