Valentine Snack Mix

I love to throw together snack mixes, and I especially love a sweet and salty mix.  I know my kids will pick out the things they like, but I like a handful of everything mixed together.

This snack mix is a combination of:

1 cup Quaker Whole Hearts cereal (just found this at Target last week - yummy and perfect for Valentine's Day )
1 cup Annie's Bunny Graham crackers
1 cup Valentine m&m candies
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup Snyder's Butter Snap pretzels

In The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll, Clayton and Desmond work together to make a Valentine for their teacher, but they end up arguing about it and decide to work alone.  After trying to make their own Valentines, they decide to work together again to make the biggest Valentine ever.  This book has a nice message for preschoolers and early elementary aged children.

Pretzel Rolo Valentine Treats

We make these little treats for just about every holiday; it's so easy to make them holiday specific by changing the colors of the m&m candies.

I used Snyder's Butter Snaps square pretzels, Rolo candies, and Valentine m&m candies.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the square pretzels on a baking sheet, place one Rolo on each pretzel, and put them in the oven for approximately two minutes (when the Rolo candies are soft and squishy).  Remove from the oven and immediately place one m&m candy on each Rolo.

The Story of Valentine's Day by Nancy J. Skarmeas explains why we celebrate Valentine's Day.  We own this book and read it every year.  It's perfect for children of all ages.

Spoonfuls of Sugary Love

I saw these sweet spoon treats in Family Fun magazine and figured they would be a nice after school treat for C and R.

To make them, I began by melting white chocolate according to the package directions.  Then I spooned the melted chocolate into a resealable bag, snipped the corner, and piped it onto the spoons.  You could just spoon it on, but piping made the whole process and the final result a lot neater.  I added Valentine sprinkles and let it harden.

They were perfectly delicious stirred into hot cocoa.

We LOVE Curious George, absolutely adore him.  We love all of the books, the television show, the movie, all of it!  Happy Valentine's Day, Curious George! by N. Di Angelo is one of our favorite Valentine's Day books.  If you think George's mischief is funny, then you will enjoy this book too.

Valentine's Day Breakfast

This is a very easy breakfast that still manages to wow the kids.

Begin by lightly buttering both sides of a piece of bread.  Then use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut a heart out of the middle of the bread (keep that heart piece though!).

Place the bread (both pieces) in a skillet, and crack an egg into the heart shaped hole.  Add a little salt and pepper if you like.

Once the egg is firm, flip the bread/egg over and cook until the egg is however you like to eat it.  Don't forget to flip the heart bread too.  

Spread strawberry jelly on the heart.  YUM!

Check out the heart shaped eggs made with a mold over at Little Wonders' Days too!

Enjoy while reading Queen of Hearts by Mary Engelbreit.  Ann Estelle makes the most beautiful box to hold her Valentines, but she spends so much time on the box that she forgets to make Valentines for her classmates.  Her creative solution to this problem is very sweet and heartfelt.

Somebunny Loves You

We have been enjoying My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall for a few years now.  It's a fun book any time of year, but we especially like to read it around Valentine's Day.  Each page of the book features a different animal created out of heart shapes with a description about how the narrator's heart is like each animal, for example, the heart is eager as a beaver, steady as a yak, hopeful as a hungry heron fishing for a snack.


Our heart cookie bunny is the perfect snack to go along with this book.  One of the pages in the book has a  rabbit made out of hearts and it was the inspiration for this treat.

To make your own heart bunny, begin with two large heart shaped sugar cookies, one small heart sugar cookie, and a heart shaped marshmallow. 

I found these at Target.  You could always use a regular mini marshmallow.

We iced some of our cookies, but that is optional.

Cut one small heart cookie in half.  These will become the ears, so I like the icing .

Place a large cookie, the marshmallow (tail), and the cut heart (small heart cookie; ears) on a plate as shown.

  

Place the second large heart cookie on top as shown.

I used black gel icing to make the face.  I would have loved to use a heart shaped sprinkle for the nose, but we didn't have any.  I made a tiny upside down heart with the black gel icing.

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