Valentine's Day for Preschoolers FREE Printables

I love holidays!

Valentine's Day is on the horizon and I'm finally learning to plan ahead!   A couple of years ago, I didn't realize that 18 MONTH OLDS (!!) exchanged valentines until a list of names came home from school the DAY before, of course when B was out of town, and I was left scrambling!

This year, I'm making Valentines well in advance.  I know my years are numbered when I can convince them to hand out healthy-ish/non-candy items with their valentines, so I am taking advantage while I can!   Valentine puns are my FAVORITE.

Baby M is giving her classmates applesauce pouches (I'm buying organic GoGo Squeeze pouches), and I'm using these AWESOME-sauce Valentines.  (See bottom of this post for a link to the full-resolution PDF files for printing)

C keeps going back and forth between glow sticks and yogurt-covered raisins, so I'm prepared for both outcomes :)  

If you want to use any of these free printables, click below for links to the full-resolution PDF files.  I printed mine on normal letter-size white cardstock (they'll print 6 to a page).  For the awesome-sauce and glow stick printables, there are 2 versions linked below - one addressed to "Valentine", and one with a blank space to write in a name.

Click here for the AWESOME-sauce printable

Click here for the AWESOME-sauce printable with space to write in a name

Click here for the glow stick printable

Click here for the glow stick printable with space to write in a name

Click here for the raisin printable

Click here for a link to the valentine we used last year with Goldfish crackers (it would also work with Swedish fish or Goldfish Grahams!)

Free Printable: "O-FISH-ally" Goldfish Preschool Valentines

Last year, I was the clueless mom that didn't realize that 18-month-olds exchanged valentines at school until C came home with a list of names the night before - when Blair was out of town - cue panic mode.  

This year, I was prepared!  I can't stand the thought of giving other toddlers candy or sweets with their valentines, and most of the pre-packaged varieties were for characters C had never heard of.  I decided to go with Goldfish, C's favorite snack.  These cards would also work well with Goldfish Grahams or Swedish Fish if you have older kids or just don't mind the sugar :)

Note: I bought a box of 30 bags of Goldfish at Sam's, not noticing that they were 1.5-ounce bags instead of the normal 1-ounce bags they sell at the grocery store.  The bags are huge (but were still cheaper than buying multiple packages of the 1-ounce grocery store Goldfish).  I noticed that in the Valentine's Day section at Target, there were little mini bags of Goldfish Grahams that are the perfect size for a valentine (why don't they have tiny bags of regular Goldfish too?!)  So, you might want to pay attention to the size of the bag if you don't want huge ones like mine :)

Click here to download a PDF file of the printable "O-FISH-ally" Valentine's cards.  I tweaked the colors after I printed mine to make them a bit brighter.  There is one page of mixed colors, and one page of each of the five colors - so you can decide which page(s) to print for your kiddo's Valentine's color preferences.  I chose to print a variety of colors (on plain white cardstock) and let C choose which color to give to each friend.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Halloween Fun: Frankenstein footprint craft + printable template

I am ALL ABOUT the adorable baby handprint and footprint holiday crafts!!  Do their tiny hands and feet EVER get old?!  We've done the footprint ghost craft a couple of times (just white footprints on black paper, add eyes and mouth, done), so I wanted something different for a recent October toddler play date.  I think these footprint Frankensteins are adorable!!

 Having made way too many handprint and footprint crafts in C's short 15 months on this earth, I like to think that I have it figured out.  I use washable, non-toxic tempura paint (this is Sargent Art brand from Hobby Lobby - $1.59 for a good-sized bottle) and a mini foam craft roller (also from Hobby Lobby) to apply the paint to their little feet.  The foam roller results in a nice, even application of paint and gets it done much more quickly than applying with a paint brush (and dipping their feet into a plate of paint makes it way too gloppy).  I've used a cheap foam paintbrush too, and it works, but it takes longer and the paint isn't as even.

Other than paint and some way to apply it (foam roller, paintbrush, etc), all you need is white construction paper or cardstock, a black Sharpie, a white paint pen or liquid white-out, and a silver Sharpie!  (If you don't have a silver Sharpie and don't want to buy one, you can just do the ear things in black instead of silver).  

This craft is pretty easy and you can embellish it however you want -- we chose to write "Trick or Treat" on ours.  I've included a printable of the "Trick or Treat" design below - just print it on white letter-sized paper and get going with your Frankenstein footprint-making!

Click here to download the 'Trick or Treat" template to make your own footprint Frankensteins!

Halloween Fun: BOO Poem and Ghost Printables

One of my favorite parts of Halloween as a kid was our neighborhood's tradition of leaving anonymous Halloween treats on each other's front porches with a "BOO" sign and corresponding poem -- it's a great way to spread Halloween cheer among your neighbors and, as kids, we loved "sneaking" up to a neighbor's front porch to leave their goodies for them to find.

I thought this was a tradition that all kids grew up with and was surprised when my husband wasn't familiar with it.  Basically, someone starts the process by leaving a bag or basket full of Halloween/fall treats on 2 neighbors' front porches, along with a poem that instructs the recipients to each do the same for 2 additional neighbors within 2 days.  The recipient places the "BOO" sign on their front door or front window so that other neighbors know they've already been "BOO"-ed, so that they don't get picked twice.  If everyone plays along, you can spread the Halloween cheer to over 250 neighbors within 2 weeks!!  It is fun for kids to design the "BOO" sign for their neighbors and do the "sneaking" to leave the bag or basket on the front porch, and it is fun for everyone to see the tradition spread from house to house as more houses bear "BOO" signs on their front doors or windows!

The goodies you include in the bag or basket can vary depending on the age / size of the family you're BOOing.  When we were kids, the bags were normally mostly candy or Halloween cookies....sometimes there was even a bottle of wine or a couple of beers for Mom and Dad!  Since most of the families in our neighborhood have toddlers who are too young for candy, I didn't want our bags to be too candy-heavy; instead, I filled them with Halloween stickers, a Trader Joe's pumpkin bread mix, a kit (from Hobby Lobby) to make a "BOO" garland, Halloween napkins, and a small amount of candy - I figured the pumpkin bread, BOO garland, and stickers were something that the families could enjoy doing together.

It's not too late to start this tradition in your neighborhood!  I've included a printable of the "BOO" poem (that provides the instructions for the recipient) below, as well as a printable of the "BOO" ghost sign that we used (although feel free to make your own - or let your kids design one!)

For the "BOO" poem - print on white or colored letter-size paper:

Click here to download BOO poem



For the "BOO" ghost sign - print on white letter-size paper and then use scissors to cut a ghost shape out of the paper.


Click here to download BOO ghost

Random Happy - Gift a Redbox Movie Night

Gifts are definitely one of my love languages!  Not in that I'm a great gift giver at birthdays or Christmas...I love giving people little surprises just because!  I try to bring C's daycare teachers little treats every few weeks to show our appreciation for them, mostly as a fun surprise on Friday.

He has 4 teachers that care for him on a daily basis, so I have to keep it to something small in order to be able to do it regularly.  I love popcorn and a movie, but now that movies are $12-15, a gift card to a movie theater would be too pricey for a random treat.  Did you know that you can purchase promo codes to Redbox that are good for a free night's rental?  A free Redbox would make my Friday!

The promo codes have to be purchased in multiples of 5.  As of June 2015, a bundle of 5 DVD rental codes is $7.50, a bundle of 5 Blu-Ray rental codes is $10, and a bundle of 5 game rental codes is $15.  I went with the Blu-Ray codes, since a lot of people have Blu-Ray players; the Blu-Ray codes are still good on DVDs too since those are less expensive.  You can purchase Redbox codes here and they'll send the codes right to your email.

I made a little card to write the promo code on.  You can download it in PDF format, if you want, and just write in the promo code in the blank.

Click here to download

I packaged mine up in a colorful paper bag with a bag of M&M's and some popcorn from a specialty popcorn store nearby.  These mini bags of popcorn are only $1.25 and the popcorn is DELICIOUS!  If you're local to DFW, I got them from Popcorn Shack.

You could substitute a bag of microwave popcorn if you prefer.

The colorful paper lunch sacks were $0.33 at Walmart, and I downloaded the printable "thank you" tags from this blog.