The Family Groove | It's My Party | A Good Old-Fashioned Valentine's Day Party

IT’S MY PARTY
THE FAMILY GROOVE’S RESIDENT EXPERT KIDS’ PARTY
PLANNER LISA KOTHARI GIVES YOU A REASON TO
CELEBRATE WITH HER EASY-TO-PULL-OFF AND
OH-SO-MUCH-FUN FETE OF THE MONTH

February: A Good, Old-Fashioned Valentine’s Day Party
Well, it’s February. It’s winter. It’s dreary. What do you need to
get you and your family through the mid-winter malaise? All you
need is love, of course. Celebrate Cupid’s favorite holiday with a
“Heart’s Galore” party. This sweet little soirée marries the traditional
with the convenient (home, school, daycare, playgroup—it can be done anywhere) and says “that’s amore” to the kids you love.

The Invitations
Use red construction paper, doilies, red pipe cleaners, and pink and red glitter to decorate large homemade hearts that can be delivered to your guests. If you are hand-delivering, you can send these invitations tied to candies or a red balloon to kick off the festive party.

Another tip for decorating your heart-shaped invitations: Use Red Hots, Conversation Hearts or red licorice!

The Decorations

1	Fill your room with red, pink and pearly white balloons. Add in a few thematic Mylar balloons for added fun.
2	Hang a “Happy Valentine’s Day” banner.
3	Hang cupid figures throughout the party area from the ceiling.
4	Pink and red streamers always up the festive factor.
5	Use a red table cover for your party table. For festive confetti, use heart confetti, Conversation Hearts and Hershey’s Kisses to add a festive feel.
6	Tableware can include using pink, red and white plates, napkins and cups. Draw hearts on everything, or as a pre-dining activity, lay out white markers for the kids to make hearts on their own cups and napkins.
7	Place a big stuffed animal in the center of your table with a few balloons tied to one of his plush arms.

The Activities

1	Make some large tags with words on them that relate to Valentine’s Day, such as heart, flower, chocolate, etc. Place these name tags on the backs of the guests, who will not see the word on them. The kids must guess the word on their backs by the clues that fellow guests give to them.
2	Have the kids make their own valentines. Provide all the materials, paper, confetti, glitter glue, markers, crayons, etc., for the kids to design and decorate party valentines.
3	Exchange valentines.
4	If your party is at a school, make sure that all the kids have created a crafty box or bag to hold each other’s valentines.
5	Bake a batch of heart-shaped cookies and have the kids decorate them with pink frosting and candy toppings.
6	Host a Valentine’s Day–themed scavenger hunt.
7	Play “Pin the Bow on Cupid.”
8	Have a heart ring toss. Make a large heart, about 25 to 30 inches, and decorate it with a face using craft items or candies. Fasten arrows to the back to make it stand out to the kids, so it’s easy for tossing. Make toss rings out of pipe cleaners, and have the kids toss them on the giant heart. The kids who get it around the target win a chocolate.
9	Place Conversation Hearts into a jar, and have the kids guess the number.
10	Hide Hershey’s Kisses around the party area, then give the kids two minutes to find as many as they can.
11	Play “Musical Hearts.” Make a paper red heart or a stuffed animal heart. Have the kids stand in a circle, and when the music plays, pass the heart. When it stops, the person directly to the left of the person holding the heart is out. The game continues until there is only one person holding the heart. Give the winner a small box of chocolates.
12	Play “Can You Please Be My Valentine? Please Smile.” Have the kids sit in a circle and select one guest to be it. They must go up to a person in the circle and say this statement. The kid being asked must respond, “No, I cannot be your valentine, I cannot smile.” The kid must not smile in the least. If he does, then he becomes it and the game continues.

The Menu

1	Use a heart-shaped cookie-cutter to make small sandwiches, cut-up fruits and cheese slices, and red Jell-O Jigglers.
2	Make Valentine’s Roll-Ups: Use strawberry cream cheese, lunch meat, lettuce and a slice of cheese. Place each ingredient into a flour tortilla and roll them up.
3	Bake a heart-shaped pizza, with lots of toppings. Pepperoni and red pepper are two good Valentine’s Day choices.
4	Make chocolate fondue and have the kids dip fruit, small cheesecake, pound cake and marshmallows.
5	Make a batch of Rice Krispies Treats, roll into a heart shape, place a Popsicle stick inside and press on candy hearts. For more sweetness, dip one side into milk chocolate.
6	Mix one package of cherry Kool-Aid and one package of strawberry Kool-Aid with sugar and water. Add one frozen can of orange juice and lemonade. Mix until the juices are thawed. Add in one quart of ginger ale for a frothy drink.

The Goody Bags
Make Valentine’s Day paper cups and fill them with all types of festive candies, heart stickers, blinking heart necklaces, lip gloss, etc.

Lisa Kothari is the founder and president of Peppers and Pollywogs (www.peppersandpollywogs.com), a kids’ party-planning company that provides parents with ideas, entertainers and interesting web-based tools (customized rhymes and cards for your invitations!) to make kids’ party planning easy. She has recently written and published Dear Peppers and Pollywogs… What Parents Want to Know About Planning Their Kids’ Parties, which is available at www.amazon.com and www.peppersandpollywogs.com.

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