Celebrating Valentine's Day

We are not big on celebrating valentine's day in this house.  Once upon a time (before children) we went on a real valentine's date to a fancy restaurant, with a fixed menu, and a steep bill. Since then we've realized that a steak dinner at home with a bottle of wine is just our style.  No fancy gifts, cards, or flowers.  Well, sometimes chocolates.

Then I remember that we have kids and I should probably put a little more effort in to celebrating.  Or at very least put up a few pink paper hearts and bake a special dessert.  We made a chain of hearts and my little helper helped hang it. Oh and Phil got some marbled red velvet cheesecake brownies for dessert

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com.  The theme is hearts.  Visit their blog to check out the other entries.

Valentines Day | DIY Crayon Hearts

We've been stuck inside a lot.  I can't remember how long its been since the ground wasn't ice or snow covered.  We been busying ourselves with projects and way too much Wii.  We needed to do Valentines for 20 classmates and I've always wanted to try melting crayons to make new ones.  I found a silicone mini heart shaped mold and thought heart shaped crayons would be perfect for Valentines this year ~ I just hope none of the kids thinks they're candy and tries to eat them.

Supplies needed:
Crayons (we have tons of broken cans, restaurant crayons, etc)
Muffin pan (mini works best, any shape will do, but this project may just ruin it for future use so choose wisely)

Peel the wrappers from the crayons (I used an exacto knife and slit down one side to make it easier for them to get the wrappers off).  Break up the non-broken crayons and place in mold.  Put in a 220 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Let cool.  Some of the darker color combos just mixed into a solid dark color but most made great color mixes.  We had fun popping in bits of gold, silver, and white from the few crayons we had in those colors.

The kids (my niece joined us for the day) put the crayons in little baggies (I think they are candy bags) and decorated them with punched out hearts and circles from old paint chip samples.

There is a layer of cloudy wax that forms on the top - it doesn't have color and makes the one side of the heart concave.  I shaved this off using the slicer/grater.  This was a very easy project and a good way to use up those broken crayons - my crazy kids won't use crayons if the tip is broken off.  The decorating the baggies and getting Evan to sign his name 20 times was the hardest part.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!