Valentine's Day happenings - 2010

So I didn't get a lot of pictures (ok, none of Valentine's day itself) but I do have a few from some of the festivities that I'd like to share with you.

It started with their school Valentine's Dance on February 5th, where an adult had to be there with the student (the whole time). Thankfully Brian was able to make it so we had some fun all together.

(There's a couple more pics if you go here)

Here we have Brian trying to show Vincent how to do the "Y" for YMCA

Brian holding Karah's hand so she can twirl around in a circle - she loved it!

Vincent sitting down for a minute with his classmate, Lily. I couldn't resist the cuteness factor :)

Karah with a couple of her classmates all getting in on the picture action

Vincent & Karah ~ they do love each other! :-D

The class parties were the Thursday before Valentine's day and the kids were excited about their goodies.

Karah with her Valentines

Vincent and his Valentines

And what did they give out, you ask? Well, they each had the little cards, but wanted to give out a treat too. I had first seen the idea for these treats at Little Birdie Secrets (love their site!), but hadn't seen the tutorial link - until after I had already made these. So we grabbed some Wilton's chocolate pieces (blended 2 parts milk chocolate & 1 part dark chocolate), sticks, bags w/ties, and mini candy canes (on sale @ Walgreen's for $.39/pack of 40).

The kids enjoyed helping to make them. I melted, stirred, and placed the chocolate onto the stick laying on the parchment paper and they took turns laying the mini candy canes onto chocolate to form a heart. Mint & chocolate are a yummy combination! Sure it was different from the tutorial, but I really like how these turned out. I love the contrast of the red & white "heart" against the dark, chocolate background. Plus, there's some substance to it as well. We ended up being able to use all 60 sticks in the package, making enough for both their classes plus a few extra. The kids also dipped some candy canes & pieces into the chocolate to have little yummy bits to munch on.

Notice the one I made for Brian in the bottom right corner? :) I had also tried sprinkling some crushed candy canes on one of them, but didn't like the look very well, so that one became mine on Valentine's day. The kids each got one as well and everyone was happy - and loved!