So, Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I'm a bit of a "Last Minute Louie." There's something about the pressure of knowing that something has a finite time when it must be finished that gets me focused and working. But for Valentine's Day I planned to not be rushing around at the last minute getting everything done. I promise, I had materials for all of my projects weeks in advance. We had no plans last weekend and everything was laid out for a Valentine's Extravaganza. And then, the dreaded stomach virus hit our home and hit it hard. I didn't even escape this time, like I usually do. So my Valentine's plans were put on hold, but throughout the week we've managed to get through our projects as well as lots of laundry and disinfecting. Of course, the foot of snow and two extra days off, did a lot to help me get back on track.

Now, I understand that many of you probably plan ahead and are covered for tomorrow, but just in case you need a little extra or just want to see what we've been up to, here are some cute things we've been working on. You could always save these ideas for next year, right?

First we made heart paper plate hats. This idea was from Pinterest, with whom I have a love hate relationship for many reasons, which I will not go into right now. It's getting late and who knows how much uninterrupted sleep I'll get tonight. This activity is really easy. We painted plain white paper plates Valentine's colors. My daughter painted hers pink and my son painted his red.

We let them dry for about 5 days before we were able to fold and cut them, but really they dried within a few hours. Then I folded and cut them according to the pictures below to get a cute pop up heart hat.

Here's my daughter's hat.

Here's my son's hat.

We also worked on some really cute Valentine's Day votives made from glass jars and tissue paper. This idea was also from Pinterest and I followed the instructions from Homemade Serenity.

For this project, I used liquid starch (which I had to buy), used and cleaned jelly jars (look I'm recycling), tissue paper, and paint brushes.

First, I cut some light pink tissue paper into small squares. You can use white or another light color. Then cut hearts out of pink and red tissue paper. Next my kids used the liquid starch to paint the light pink squares onto the sides of the jars.

I had to hold it for my two year old daughter, but she was more than happy to paint the squares. She actually put too much liquid on some of the squares and they ripped, but we just covered up the tears with more tissue paper. It's kinda messy, so I would definitely recommend putting down newspaper before painting.

After the sides of the jar are covered with the starchy light tissue paper, then you can add some hearts on top. Paint them so that they stick.

When you are finished decorating them, then let them dry. We just finished this project before bedtime tonight so the larger jars are still drying, but the little guy was pretty dry.

They make cute little votives if you stick a candle down in them, but I also thought they might make a great vase, especially if you have a bigger jar.

I also finished up a Valentine's korker bow for my littlest Valentine to wear tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the plan is to finish up Valentine's for my son's class party next Tuesday. His party was supposed to be today, but the snow pushed it off to next week, which actually worked out well for me. The idea for the Valentine's we are making this year came from Parents Magazine. I love the way they are turning out! Here are some samples I've been working on.

I can't wait to spend another snow day with my little and big Valentine's tomorrow. I'm also looking forward to a big plate of heart shaped blueberry pancakes!