It goes like this, Plant A Kiss...

One of my favorite authors just released a new book in time for Valentines Day!  Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is as adorable as you could hope for.

Heart Crayon Valentines & a free printable

I'm finished with A's class valentines! Aren't they sweet? If you'd like to create your own, scroll to the bottom of this post to download the printable.

With a little bit of love... and whipping cream

We made these sweet little cherry pies last night, but first, the book that inspired them!

Doodle Valentines (& a great activity book)

There are so many great Valentine's ideas out there, I had a hard time deciding on what to do for each of the girls' classes. But when I ran across this doodle valentine from Inchmark, I knew I'd found the perfect one for E.

Last-minute Valentines

Between trying to sell our house, dealing with our car insurance company, dealing with the other driver's car insurance company, shopping for a new car, and trying to heal, I completely forgot that Valentine's Day was around the corner. When I received an email today from E's teacher about passing out valentines, I nearly had a heart attack. I always try to do handmade valentines, but how on earth?!? There's no time!

*Cue dramatic music* Skip to My Lou to the rescue! Cindy @ Skip to My Lou posted these adorable free butterfly printables a couple years ago and am I glad she did. I'm sending the hubby to the store for colored cardstock and lollipops ASAP.

Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond

The artist of the If You Give... books republished her 1983 tale of a little girl and her adventure in the most unusual weather. Cornelia Augusta discovers a shower of hearts and gathers them in her raincoat to take home. Once there she turns each one into a special valentine for each of her friends. Such a sweet and gentle story, the illustrations alone are worth checking it out for your Valentine's Day reading.

Whoopee! Whoopie Pies!

Have you heard? Cupcakes are sooooo 2010. This year it's all about the whoopie pie! It's been years since I tasted one, but when my sister Kim @ Sand and Sisal posted her Red Velvet Whoopie Pies I was inspired to pull out my Mom's old recipe. 

Whoopie Pies

Cake:

1/2 c shortening

1 c sugar

2 c flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 c cocoa

1 egg

1 c milk

1 t vanilla

Filling:

1/2 c shortening

1/2 c butter

1 c powdered sugar

1/2 c marshmallow fluff

1 t vanilla

1. Cream shortening and sugar.

2. Add egg, milk, and vanilla.

3. Gradually add dry ingredients.

4. Spoon batter onto cookie sheet (flattening slightly).

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

6. While cakes are cooling, beat the filling ingredients together.

7. Sandwich cakes with filling. Add sprinkles if desired.

And of course, hand the beaters to your babies...

While you dig into the real thing!

Henry in Love by Peter Mccarty

This is one of those stories that parents will probably enjoy more than kids, but with understated text and adorable ink and watercolor illustrations, it will be a welcome break from Disney Princesses and Dora the Explorer. Henry is a little boy cat who goes to school hoping to woo the little bunny girl Chloe. When showing off doesn't work, Henry discovers that sacrificial giving is more successful. The story is short and sweet, and the illustrations are brilliant. I loved it and think you will too!

Paper tube heart stamps

It took having children to get me to enjoy Valentine's Day. I love my hubby, but we're both way too independent to enjoy a holiday that dictates romance. So, I channel my inner pink-fanatic at the start of February and dive with my children into a world of hearts, hugs, and warm fuzzies.

Using a couple toilet paper tubes and some red and pink paint, I created heart stamps for the girls. It took a bit of practice to get the heart just right, but once it was firmly creased it worked well as a simple and disposable stamp.

A enjoyed the stamp for about 5 seconds before she moved on to full-blown finger painting. My "H is for Heart" turned into "H is for a horrendous, happy mess!"

E did a great job on her card. I love how the paint splattered in spots... although I later found out it was non-washable paint, and I spent part of the afternoon carefully scraping it off of my dining room table!

Valentine Surprise by Corinne Demas

Lily tries to create the perfect valentine for her mom. Each day she makes a new heart, but each day it isn't quite right: too lopsided, too skinny, too pointy. At the end of the week a frustrated Lily gives her mom all of the rejected hearts only to have her mom exclaim, "Oh, Lily! You made me one for every day of the week!"

This simple story has sweet illustrations and subtly teaches days of the week and shapes to young children in a gentle story that kids will easily relate to.

Kids in the Kitchen - Sugar Cookies

Hubby is working long hours this week, so I decided we would fill the time with baking! Although E is reading at a second grade level, her math skills are not as advanced, so I am exploring ways of incorporating math into everyday routines. Baking is a great exercise in mathematics (explaining why so many of my culinary creations go wrong)!

Before we jump into the kitchen, let me introduce you to a book that is as sweet as its title:


Sugar Cookies: Sweet Little Lessons on Love by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I ran into this treasure at Barnes and Noble yesterday and my husband literally had to  pry it out of my fingers. The book is a dictionary of sorts, defining words you desperately want your children to understand and emulate: honesty, courage, trustworthy, loyalty, etc. These character traits are brilliantly explained in terms of sugar cookies; for example, "COMPASSIONATE means that when you burn the cookies to a crisp, I'll be there to give you a hug." There are beautiful scenarios for each of the words, accompanied by illustrations as light and sweet as an oven-warmed cookie.

The third in a series, Sugar Cookies is my favorite: a wonderful follow-up to Valentine's Day and an equally good introduction to quality character traits.

The book includes a recipe for iced sugar cookies (of course), but I was in the mood for the soft, doughy kind. Here is the recipe we followed from All Recipes:

Soft & Chewy Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Measuring out ingredients is a great way to work on counting and fractions. I'll admit it, it took me a minute to figure out how to get 2/3 cup butter out of two sticks.

3. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Let your child break open the eggs... or in the case of my little don't-want-to-get-my-hands-dirty, just break.

4. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Who are we kidding? Throw into the cuisinart and push "on".

5. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. These cookies do not spread very much, so if you would like flatter cookies, butter the flat bottom of a drinking glass and use to gently press each ball of dough. And don't forget to snap a quick photo of your ridiculously cute baby balanced precariously on the countertop!

6. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. Sorry, but I simply must show off the apron my SIL made me!

7. If you'd like, you can roll the tops of the balls in sprinkles before baking. Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cones w/o the Mess!

I had E's Valentines Day party today, and it was a huge success! The kids loved their pony bead heart necklaces. I was afraid the craft would be too hard for the kids, but they did great and there were enough moms there to help.

(Isn't my friend's little girl adorable? She and her twin sister are always so well-dressed. :)

The book My Heart is Like a Zoo was also a huge hit. Besides the book and the craft, I was responsible for dessert. At first I planned on keeping it simple with heart jello jigglers. My mom always made these for my class and I have fond memories of "finger jello".

But then my sister Beth @ The Stories of A to Z twittered (tweeted?) a picture of these Valentines Faux Ice Cream Cones and I fell in love. She hadn't blogged about it yet, so I googled for a recipe and found one at Easy Cake Ideas. It looked easy, so I decided to give it a try. Here's what I did:

The Meringue Tops (do this the night before if possible)

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg whites
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar (mine turned out fine without)
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• Piping bag or gallon size Ziploc bag

1. Preheat oven to 200° F

2. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until foamy. Make sure your bowl and mixer are very clean. Any grease will ruin the meringue.

3. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form.

4. Add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until the mixture holds stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.

5. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or tin foil (not wax paper). 

6. Using a piping bag without a tip or a gallon size Ziploc with a 1” hole snipped in the corner, pipe a meringue 'ice cream' swirl in roughly the same diameter as the opening of the ice cream cone.

7. Top each with sprinkles.

8. Bake for 1 ½ hours or until the meringue is dried out and crisp to the touch. 

9. Crack the oven door and leave to finish drying out overnight.

The Cake Cones

1. Using a cake mix, follow the directions up to pouring into the pans.

2. Line up the ice-cream cones on a cookie sheet.

3. Spoon the cake batter into the cones, filling only to the line where the neck of the cone widens out.

4. Bake at 350° F for about 22-25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

5. Cool completely.

Assemble!

Spread icing (I used store-bought) on top of the cake cone and then top off with one of the meringue cookies.

Now they're all ready to pass out to a class of sweethearts! These ended up being a huge hit with E's classmates. They got a kick out of the pretend ice cream, and I heard two little boys exclaim "it's not messy!"

The whole process took most of the afternoon yesterday and much of the morning, so I don't plan on doing this again anytime soon, but I am proud with the way they turned out. If you want a simpler solution, my sister used marshmallows inside the cones instead of cake and added M&Ms to the meringue.

No Book!?!

Instead of my recommending a book today, I'd love to hear YOUR favorite valentines day or love-themed childrens book. (Psssst... that means leave a comment!)

I'm linking up with:
- Hoosier Homemade Cupcake Tuesday
- Today's Creative Blog Get Your Craft On

A Classy Heart

This year I'm responsible for E's pre-K Valentine's Day party. Despite the fact that this is her third year in school, this is my very first party. I've lucked out the past two years with canceled parties, but now I'm having to face the music. Surely I, a children's book and craft blogger, can throw a little preschool party!
The trick is finding a craft that will take up an appropriate amount of time, be easy enough for 4 year olds to do with little assistance, and not create a huge mess for the teachers. My find:

Pony Bead & Pipe Cleaner Heart Necklace.

I came across the tutorial on the Women's Day website via One Pretty Thing. I modified it a bit to make it even simpler:

What you'll need:

• 1 red pipe cleaner
• 24 red, white, and pink pony beads
• white ribbon

1. Fold the pipe cleaner in half and give to the child with a bag of beads.

2. Have the child thread the beads onto each side of pipe cleaner in whatever pattern they choose.

3. Thread the last bead onto both pipe cleaners and twist down to shape into a heart.

4. Wrap the ends of the pipe cleaner around that final bead and trim, tucking extra into two neighboring beads.

5. Loop a ribbon around the heart to create a necklace.

Voila! A pretty heart necklace the girls can wear and the boys can beat each other with give to their moms.

For storytime, I'm reading my new favorite book: My Heart is Like a Zoo. But if you haven't run out and bought it yet, here are a few others that might work...

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

All the Boynton books are cute, but this one is pretty adorable. Read to your own little snuggle puppy (or to a class of precocious 4 year olds) and enjoy a silly but sweet song of love.







Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff

So it's getting obvious that this franchise is going to milk every holiday for every last cent, but that doesn't mean it's not a cute read. I mean, c'mon, that's one adorable little mouse!