Rice Krispie Treats

The other day I was walking up and down the Valentine's aisle trying to figure out something different for my kids to give out as Valentine's and I overheard some ladies talking about how they were going to make heart shaped rice krispies and put them on sticks to make them look like flowers. I liked the idea but figured I would take it a step further and put them in a vase and put conversation hearts in the vase.

Items needed:
-rice krispies
-marshmallows
-butter
-heart cookie cutter
-skewers
-vase
-conversation hearts
-food coloring (optional)

Directions:
1. Make a batch of rice krispie treats you can dye them if you want I dyed mine pink.
2. Cut out hearts with the cookie cutter.
3. Put skewers in hearts.
4. Place in vase and put conversation heart around.

Olympic Torch

With the opening ceremonies of the Olympics tonight I thought that it would be fun to teach the kids more about the Olympics and what really happens. So I thought that today we would learn about the Olympic torch and make one ourselves. I found this one again and www.kaboose.com
Items Needed:
-1 sheet of white construction paper
-Clear tape
-Red, yellow, and orange tissue paper, 12" x 12" square of each color
-White craft glue

Directions
1. Roll the construction paper into a cone shape, tape closed.
2. Layer the tissue paper squares, red on the bottom, then orange, and yellow on top. Gather from the center of the squares and hold in your hand like a bouquet of flowers.
3. Put some white craft glue into the sides of the opening of the cone. Place the tissue paper into the cone and let the glue dry completely.
As we were making the torches I talked a little about why they have the torch and it's meaning. I found the information about the torch at wikipedia.

Paper Heart Wreath

Since Valentine's is nearing we decided to do some more Valentine's activities. This idea came from www.kaboose.com. I thought that this would go great with the heart curtain that we made on Monday to help decorate the house for daddy.
Items you need:
-9" dinner plate or paper plate
-Recycled cereal box or other thin cardboard
-Pencil
-Scissors
-Construction paper
-Markers, crayons or paint pens
-Glue sticks

Instructions:
1. Trace around the 9" plate onto the cardboard. Use your pen or pencil to draw another circle inside that one, about an inch away from the outside circle. Cut out the circle and the center of the circle to create a cardboard wreath base.
2. Fold a piece of scrap paper in half. Cut out a heart shape.
3. Fold the short end of a piece of construction paper up about 3 inches. Place the folded heart around the folded paper and trace the half heart shape into the paper. You should be able to fit three hearts on the paper. Repeat this step for each colored piece of paper; you will have a total of 12 hearts.
4. Cut out all the hearts and flatten out the creases so that the hearts lay flat. Using markers, crayons, or paint pens, write conversation candy phrases on the hearts such as "LOVE", "HUBBA HUBBA", "SWEET", "LOVE", "BE MINE", "KISS" and "PAL".
5. Arrange your hearts on top of the cardboard wreath shape without gluing them down. Once you have them where you want them, use the glue stick to attach each one.

Valentine Letter chocolate box

Items you will need:
-printed templates from DTLK
-crayons or markers
-glue

I found this activity at www.dtlk-kids.com. My oldest son is working on his letters in preschool so I thought this would be fun to do since it was Valentine's and would help him with his letters. They also have shapes, numbers and both upper and lower case letters. DTLK kids has a endless supply of activities, crafts, coloring pages, etc.

Double Chocolate Carmel Bars

Today the boys wanted to make a treat so I decided that we would do this recipe that I got from my friend after attending a Christmas party that she made them at. But I believe the recipe she got off the Internet from Betty Crocker. I did alter the recipe a little, I left out the pecans since my family doesn't really like pecans.
Double-Chocolate and Caramel Bars

Prep Time: 30 min
Total Time: 3 hours 5 min
Makes: 24 brownies
Bars
3 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups firm butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 bag (14 oz) caramels, unwrapped
2 cans (14 oz each) sweetened condensed milk
Chocolate Glaze
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9-inch pan with foil, leaving about 2 inches of foil hanging over sides of pan.
2. In large bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, cocoa and egg. Cut in 1 1/4 cups of the butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly. Stir in pecans; reserve 3 cups of the crumb mixture. Press remaining mixture firmly in bottom of pan; sprinkle with 2 cups chocolate chips. Bake 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in heavy 2-quart saucepan, melt caramels with sweetened condensed milk and remaining 1/4 cup butter over low heat, stirring constantly. Pour over crust. Top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake about 20 minutes. Cool completely, about 2 hours.
4. In small microwavable bowl, microwave 1 cup chocolate chips and the shortening uncovered on High 1 to 3 minutes, stirring halfway through heating time, until melted and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over bars. For brownies, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.

Heart Curtian

Items you will need:
-colored paper
-ribbon or curly ribbon
-tape

Today's activity I got the idea from familyfun.com they always have great ideas for parties, holidays, organization or just wanting to do something different with the kids. I cut out a bunch of hearts and had the kids color them or write reason that they love Daddy. Then after they were all complete we taped them to a piece of ribbon. Then on Valentine's morning they will be hanging from the doorway so when daddy wakes up he will find all the reason his little boys love him. This could also be done for the kids to find when they wake up or just as decoration for Valentine's Day. If you don't want them to hang in the doorway then just tape the heart all over the room on the walls, doors, cabinets, windows or were ever the person they are for will find them.