My sweet sister Steph has willingly become our next Guest Make and Taker. She is one of THE best party planners of our time. She can throw something together in minutes, with minimal budget, and it’s always a smash hit. She is also a wonderful wife and mother, always doing great things for her family, especially for the holidays. I asked her to come up with a master list of her fun ideas for Valentines.

A family Valentine scavenger hunt:

• I make an invitation with Valentine stickers and drop it off on the doorstep early in the morning, ring the door bell, then run around the house and go inside. The invitation tells them they are invited to a Valentines Dinner and what time to be ready, dressed up in their favorite Valentine attire.
• Then at 5 o’clock I drop off another invitation with their first clue. My husband takes them around the neighborhood for about 30-40 min. while I furiously make crepes for dinner.
• I secretly try to do a lot of the food prep before hand and then I decorate the table with flowers, fine china, and sprinkled hearts across the table.
• I wrap candy in tulle and put one on each plate for a favor. I have sparkling cider and crepes with lots of different toppings to eat. Of course there is tons of candles to set the mood.
• The family is then lead back to the house and into the kitchen where they are always surprised!
• I have been dressed up as the Queen of Hearts and had a red velvet cape on I found in the dress-ups. The first year I did this, my littlest really thought someone had come into our house and set this all up for us and that it was a surprise who it was.
• Since that first time, we have invited other families to join and send them on a scavenger hunt and they end back at our house to join in the festivities.

A whole day of Valentine surprises for my husband:

• I went to his work and put a love note parking ticket on his windshield and then on the seat of his car, put his favorite candy.
• While he was at lunch, I decorated his office with love notes all over his computer and hung Valentine hearts from the ceiling. I put candy confetti all over the desk and put a present on his chair.
• Then later in the day, I made a huge heart brownie and had someone deliver it in a pizza box. I put a note on the box and said, ‘You’ve stolen a pizza my heart’.
• Later that night I gave him a book I put together from the dollar store. It was titled “Fifty Ways to Love Your Lover”. I wrote one thing on every page that I loved about my husband.

A whole day of Valentine surprises for my kids:

• I made heart shaped pancakes in the morning.
• Their sandwiched were cut in heart shapes.
• I wrote them a note saying ” I can’t bear to live without you” and hid cinnamon bears all through the house.
• I wrote them love notes on sticky note paper and hid them throughout the house in random places so they’d find them all week.
• I made a separate bubble bath for each one of them at different times of the day, where I put purple and red heart shaped sponges in the bubble bath. They felt very special because I included candles, soft music, and sparkling cider too.
• I gave each child bedtime coupons and they could redeem them whenever they wanted. For example, 5 minute back tickle, song of your choice, stay up 1/2 hour late, foot rub.

Thanks Steph for sharing your fabulous ideas. Now I need to get on the ball and put one of them into action. I love the “Pizza My Heart” idea!! (Isn’t her family cute all globbed up in face mud!)