Happy Valentine's Day

Happy, happy Valentine's Day to you all, my friends!  So sorry for the lack of posts lately...Jennifer & I have both been battling migraines!  My little one has been under the weather too, poor little guy!  He's following in his Mommy's footsteps of being sick on holidays.  


Before he got sick, however, we had so much fun with our Valentine's photo shoot.  Each year, I take Valentine's Day pictures of him to make our annual card to send to family and friends.  This year, we went with a kissing theme!  I wanted to share some of my fave photos of the day with you.  

 I put on my brightest lipstick and gave my lil' sweetheart some smooches!  He said, "Moooommmmy, what ARE you doing? Wait, I have to look in the mirror!"  Then, he cracked up laughing! 

He's such a funny little guy!  He keeps us laughing all the time!

I got out my chalkboard and put a price on those kisses.......can't be just giving those away! ;)

And, this is my favorite of the day!  After several tries of making the "blowing a kiss" pose, we finally got it right.  Then, I just added those cute hearts in my photo editing program, Fireworks.  

Here's some of our Valentine's photos from years past.

age 10 months: Special Delivery

age 1 year, 10 months: Warm hugs!

age 2 years, 10 months: Prince Charming

We hope your Valentine's Day is filled with special people, fun times, and mostly L.O.V.E.!!!

Heartfelt Hump Day {Valentine's Couples Party}

I got a little email this morning from Chanda of MattiCakes that couldn't have come at a better time!  I knew I needed something Valentine-y to post today and Chanda sent me the details and pictures of the sweetest Valentine's party!


In Chanda's words...

I threw the Italian themed party for some couples that needed a boost in their marriages  We did have a 10 year anniversary couple so we gave them a private table.  But all of us decided to serve our husbands with great food and all their favorite desserts.  We focused on Song of Solomon- "My beloved is mine and I am his"... It was really amazing to honor God through our marriages and serving our husbands.  

The little black rocks on the plates were to not only find your place but to put in our pockets.  I put my husband's in my pocket and walked around all day with it.  It reminded me of the burden that he can sometimes be but that when I see his name to take it out, God gave him to be the foundation and leader of my home.  I would pray each time and soon, I liked having it there.  It made me think of him 

all day.

  

I also transformed our spare room into a LOVE LOUNGE.  The wives would take their husbands there to dance with them. Music- Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Worship music, Oldies and goodies...  

Gift bags were made from 100 year old Valentines cards.  They were filled with a game of body part and instructions, all kinds of chocolates and fun stuff from scented oils and lotions to gift cards to give to each other... 

Jars on the tables were Modge Podged with burgundy food coloring and then doilies and raffia attached.  I put candles and flowers inside them with a few tomatoes and rose petals... it was pretty! 

Menu board was just a corkboard with a frame and material I had left over.  

My hubby and I had everyone take a "prom" photo. 

Thanks for sharing with us, Chanda!  The party looked so fun and gives us some great ideas for Valentine's Day!  :)

 Day. 

Valentines Day Freebie

Just because I love y'all....we did this in class today and my kids did really well with it-- I hope you will enjoy it!!

Customized Teacher Valentines

Hi Friends!  Just stopping by really quick to let you know that I just added something fun to my etsy shop.  They are customized teacher valentines.  They are chic and pink with a gray and white chevron pattern.  I wanted to make a cute valentine with my hand-drawn vintage teacher clipart.  The clipart was originally drawn for a customer who wanted a vintage teacher-themed birthday party!  I knew that lovely lady would be popping up again sometime!  :)


Anyway, you can customize EVERYTHING...hair color, skin color, eye color, & hair length!  Your kiddos would be over the moon to get a valentine from you that LOOKS like you.......so cool!  

Take a look HERE & until Feb. 10th, you can get this for 15% off for using the coupon code LOVE15.  

Cupid's Flight~ Day 2

Take a look at these TOADally cute frogs over at Mrs. Fails' Frogs! Aren't they darling?  You can also see Mrs. Fails' Valentine's Party here.

Over at A Special Kind of Class, they created the most adorable valentines. Zoom on over and take a look!! 

Cupid's Journey: Day 1

Hello, and welcome to Day 1 of Cupid's Journey around Blog Land!  Our journey today will include three stops at some awesome 1st and K teacher's blogs!


Our first stop is with Mrs. Parker at Learning with Mrs. Parker.  Following the tutorial at First Grade Parade, she made darling "I love you" hand valentines.

Our next stop is with Mrs. McMurray at F is for First Grade.  She made adorable heart-shaped crayons for her kiddos! 

Our last stop for today is at Kinder Fun!  She did lots of fun activities with her Kinders for Valentine's Day!

Don't forget, you can join Cupid's Journey any time this week!  The more stops we have on our flight, the more fun!!!  Have a great Tuesday and thank you to our Cupid's Journey Hosts for today!!! :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!  We had an idea!  You've all heard about Flat Stanley.  Well, we thought it may be fun to do something similar, just with blogs, for Valentine's Day!  We would LOVE to see how you celebrate this {Heart} Day with your kiddos at school or your family at home!  So, I'd like to welcome you to "Cupid's Journey!"  If you want to come along with us on this journey of love, here's what you need to do...
(1) Take our cute little button below and add it to the bottom of your blog posts about Valentine's Day.

<center><a href=" http://www.frogsbeesundertheseas.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src=" http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab84/daphnejackson/button2.png" /></a></center>
(2) Leave us a comment with the link/address of your posts.
(3) We will share YOUR IDEAS on our blog sometime this week!
(4) So, come on, and join us on the journey...we promise it will be fun! :)

I've got my EYE on you!

Just had to share a craft idea with you that I got from Nanalulu's Musings. This was SUPER easy and the kids loved doing this. They called them sweet monsters. {TOO PRESH!} Anyway, take a look at some of the pictures that I took after completing the project.   

Enjoy! :)

Valentine's Day Freebies

Happy Valentine's Day Weekend, friends!  Today, on my other blog, I posted about two Valentine freebies that you may need for you classroom or for your family to celebrate Valentine's Day!  The two files you can get for FREE are my 2" circle tags (for cupcake toppers) and treat bag toppers (to top sandwich baggies) from my SWEET HEART'S CAFE Collection.  

To read about how to download these files, go HERE!  


When I think about all the Valentine's Days in the classroom with my kiddos, I remember that day being CRAZY!  For some reason, this is the holiday that hyped the kids up the most.  I don't know if it's bringing their valentines to school or getting candy, but I remember being so exhausted on those days.


When I was teaching, I used to have special centers on Valentine's Day.  I could keep everything from year to year and it was so easy just to bring it back out again each year!  I had five centers...

1. Cookie Decorating: I gave the kids a plain sugar cookie, then they spread on icing with a popsicle stick and added small conversation heart candy on top.

2. Valentine's Sentence Writing: I had an old paper decoration with some Valentine phrases that I put in the middle of the table.  The kids could use that or write their own sentence about Valentine's Day and then draw a picture.  These were later made into a class book.

3. Red Hot Counting: I took the chocolates out of 4-5 heart boxes (and no, I didn't eat it...I'm not a chocolate eater, crazy I know).  Then, I labelled each spot in the box with a number and gave the kids a bunch of red hots.  They had to look at the numbers and count out that many red hots for each spot. 

4. Conversation Heart Sorting and Graphing: Each child had a bag of small conversation hearts.  They sorted them by color on their sorting mats and then colored in a graph to see how many of each they had in their bags.  Then they got to eat them! :)

5. Mail Delivery:  I made two blue "mail shirts" by putting a label that said "United States Postal Service" on blue t-shrits.  Another option would be iron-on transfers.  For my Valentines holder, I bought a shoe organizer at Dollar Tree and attached hearts with the kids' names to each pocket with paper clips.  The pockets are the perfect size for all those little valentines.  If a child brought treat bags or something larger, they could deliver them to their cubbies.  This was always a favorite center! :)

Then, I usually had a special lunch for my little lovelies that day! This particular lunch was chicken nuggets, chips, juice, and a cookie.  I found little buckets at Target Dollar Zone with heart-shaped holes. I filled them with water, added votive candles and the children had a candlelight Valentine's Day lunch, complete with special music!  I never once had anyone touch a candle or turn over a bucket.  They were just so excited to get to have candlelight, they were on their best behavior!

What do you do in your classroom for Valentine's Day?  We would LOVE to feature you...just send us your ideas and photos to frogsbeesundertheseas@gmail.com!


Have a sweet Valentine's Day!
XOXO!

Printable Valentines

Does your child need some Valentines to give out at school or to friends and family?  OR, do you need some Valentines to give to your students?  Are you just not satisfied with those commercial Toy Story and Glee Valentines on the shelves at Walmart?  Well, I have the answer for you AND it will save you money too ~ a win/win!!

I have travelled all around the blogosphere so I could bring you a collection of the cutest and most stylish printable Valentines for your children (or for you)!

 The Long Thread

One Charming Party

The Rubber Punkin

Bunny Cakes

Skip to My Lou

Pure and Lovely

A class full of precious valentines is just a click away! Have fun!