So last week I hosted our homeschool group’s Happy Hearts Day party. We’re a small little group so it was fun making things extra special for the kiddos. Over all I think it was a great success. Our scheduling worked out that the party itself happened after Valentine’s Day so I was able to take advantage of after holiday clearance at Target and get all my goodies at 50% off. I can’t think of a party I’ve thrown where I haven’t gotten most of the goodies at Target on clearance. It is fun to check things out and see how I might repurpose different items into decorations, goodie baskets, or crafts.
The party pretty much happened around my son’s massive train table. I love how versatile that thing is well worth the effort dh, grandpa, grandma and myself put into it! I used a plastic table cloth to cover up the kiddo’s wall decals and to make the space a bit more festive.
One of my favorite projects was making the cinnamon candy bouquet as part of the centerpiece for the table. Using plastic skewers saved from a fruit bouquet, I stuck 3 candy hearts per stick and did about 12 of them to fill up my little vase. A great decorating but a treat too! Speaking of treats one of the moms and girls made homemade candy dots that were super yummy I couldn’t stop eating them!
I had purchased the hand towels last year and used to cover the box under the tissue paper flowers and as a centerpiece on the table. The Shower curtain (also purchased last year) worked great covering the Ikea Expedit 5x5 bookcase and made for a terrific back drop for taking a group picture with their craft. If you’re a Target clearance shopper too you’ll notice the heart garland I made using the felt ornaments from the Christmas clearance.
The craft was inspired by a classic craft all of us moms remembered making when we were in elementary school little heart people. I liked this craft as it challenged the kids to try a new technique of the paper folding, and it had some familiar parts using the glue stick and coloring with markers. Each kid seemed confident and excited with how their valentine’s day craft turned out. I had all the strips cut and hearts punched the crafting time consisted of the assembly and paper folding. I really recommend this craft for this age group 5-6. I especially love getting all the discounted craft supplies after the holidays I’ve really built up a good supply for our homeschool crafting projects.
We didn’t just eat candy and craft. I had a five minute teaching of a scripture and the kids and I discussed love and how we show our friends how we love them (by hugging). Through out the party the kids had little worksheets and activities that were education based and Valentine themed so they were exercising their minds as well as having great fellowship with one another. One of activities that we did which was not included in the Valentine’s Day Printable Pack was to graph their candies. I made a quick graph with the possible colors and they sorted their heart candy by color and wrote down how many of each color they had in their goodie basket. Although the party wasn’t super long it did require the kids to stay focused and tuned in which all three did a great job! I was super impressed and proud of each one of them.
I had the moms bring lunch for the kids which relieved some pressure on me but also guaranteed each kid had something they would eat and meet their specific needs. After lunch the kids each got to decorate 2 cupcakes. One to eat at the party and one to take home in their little containers (another target find).
After the party time the kids did get time to play in our play kitchen and play a couple games as a group. The sun had come out and dried up the back yard pretty well so they got to go outside and expend lots of energy running around playing in our backyard pirate ship.
Over all I think things went really well I know my kiddo got super blessed and I too had a “happy heart” to be able to host and put this little party together.
