"You Make My Heart Glow"

Can you believe it's already Valentine's Day?! Valentine's Day takes on such a different meaning when you have children in school. It no longer revolves around date nights, chocolates, flowers or romance. As a parent, I now have to also find time to sit down with each of my children and help them sign their names, as well as their friends' names a billion times over. Does it sound like I'm complaining? Maybe I am a little:) I think I just get frustrated with how holidays have been commercialized over the years. So, instead of purchasing cards this year, we decided to make our own (which the girls' school prefers anyway). These are the ideas we came up with!

A Heart Cake Pop....

and, glow stick bracelets with a cute message!

We originally saw the idea of using a glow stick and message on Pinterest.

We just altered it a bit to make it easier and more of our own.

"You Make Me Glow" Valentines

Time to Complete: Approximately 20 minutes for 25 Valentines

Materials Needed: 

• Markers (we used permanent)
• Hole punch
• Heart-shaped Foamies from Michael's - $2.99
• Glow sticks (we found glow bracelets in Target's Dollar Bins - 35 for $2.50) Plus, the bracelet size works GREAT! 

Things I Would Do Differently:

• Place more paper under the Valentines if using permanent markers...oops!
• Let the message dry a little longer before having my child sign his name (a couple of them got a little smudged). 

Glow in the Dark Bracelets

Choose your color and write your message on your hearts! 

Then, punch two holes diagonally on the heart to

pull your bracelet through.

Next, bribe your child to sign his or her name 25 times! 

(Carson received a bracelet upon completion:)

Carson thought he was pretty funny when he made

the "o"in his name around the existing hole punch.

Heart Cake Pops

Time to Complete: 1 1/2 hours

Materials Needed:

• Cake mix (I used Red Velvet)
• Can of Frosting (I used Cream Cheese)
• Heart-shaped cookie cutter
• Wilton's Melting Candies (choose any color you like!)
• Wilton's lollipop sticks
• Wilton's candy bags
• Ribbon

Servings: Greatly depends on size of cookie cutter, but we made around 40.

Step One: Bake cake following directions on box.

Step Two: Dump baked cake into bowl with frosting.

Step Three: Mix together.

These are the cookie cutters we used.

Step Four:

Press your cake mixture into your cookie cutter.

Step Five:

Gently remove cake from cookie cutter and lay on

a pan lined with waxed paper. Once your pan is full,

place in fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Step Six:

 Open your bags of candies and separate into three

different bowls to melt in microwave. Be careful to follow 

directions...it can burn! 

Step Seven:

Dip your lollipop stick into melted candy.

Let excess drip off. Push into cake heart.

The melted candy will help it adhere to the cake.

Step Eight:

Once the candy on the stick is dry,

dip your hearts into the melted candy!

TIP: If your candy seems to be getting thick, 

microwave it again and stir so that it doesn't

break your cakes during the dipping process.

Step Nine:

Lay out to dry (or put back in fridge).

Step Ten:

Once they are dried, place into candy bag and tie with ribbon!

So cute! We will also be adding name tags before handing them out!