Tutorial- Chocolate embellished cupcakes

This year for my little lady's birthday party I decided to go with cupcakes.  Her birthday is a few days before Valentine's day (which is one of my favorite holidays) and since I love extending this holiday I decided to go with a red, pink, white and heart shaped theme.  I wanted to do something simple, unique and elegant. Its hard sometimes to do it all especially when cupcakes are involved but I thought hey lets give it a try.  The idea of using melted chocolate to create hearts popped into my head.  At first I tried to melt re chocolate and cut it with metal cookies cutters.  Then I put some squiggles on top with pink.  It looked cute but it wasn't really what I was going for.  Then I decided I would create hearts as if it was piping.  It was awesome!  It really worked out exactly how I pictured it would!!  I love them.  This will not be the last time I use chocolate to create edible shapes.  Wanna give it a try?  Alright!!

First:  I melted my chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.  First put it in for 30 seconds then stir, continue doing this until the chocolate is completely melted- or until there are no more than 1 or 2 bumps left 0 you don't want to do too much or you will burn the chocolate- YUCK!
*While this is in the microwave- lay out some wax paper.

Yum!!

Next: I put the melted chocolate into a small ziplock baggie and cut one corner.  I cut it very slightly so the hole wasn't too big.  Make the hole the width that you want your lines.

Next: I began drawing little hearts with my baggie on the wax paper.  I probably made about 100 hearts.  Way more than I needed but it took me a while to get the hang of it and figure out what I wanted them to look like.

Finally: Let the hearts dry and then place them on the cake or cupcakes or whatever you plan on putting them on.

Ideas:
I made a bunch of little dots the same size.  This might be fun to do a polkadot cake and use it instead of fondant.
You could write someones name right on the cake with chocolate.
You could do stars, squares, dots, peace signs- whatever you want.  SO MANY OPTIONS!

These cupcakes were so fast and so easy but got SO MANY COMPLIMENTS! 

Go create your own!

Leftovers....more Valentine Fun!

 So I created a bunch of these hearts as you saw on the previous post.  I thought about making a few more banners for different locations but then I decided I had a better idea.  Although my little guy isn't 100% ready for this I figured I might as well create it now- A FUN MATCHING GAME.   I laminated a few matches that I had cut out to create a fun festive matching game!  He just liked holding the hearts. I didn't even try to see if he would match them! Note: This is more of a "next step" skill as the patterns can be harder to discriminate between because the colors are similar and typically matching is started by only having one difference -ie different colors but all the same shape or all the same color but different shapes, usually you don't throw patterns of similar colors in until later so if you kid is ready bring it on.  If not let them just have fun with the hearts and they just might surprise you!

 You could also throw one of each match on a file folder and throw velcro on the back of the rest to create a quick and fun file folder game for the car or church or just to keep all the pieces nice and close!

Simple Valentine Decor on a budget!

 So on Jan 28th (Yes not even February yet- as you see I just love Feb and Valentines day) I just couldn't take it anymore.  I had no idea where the valentines decorations were but I needed to take matters into my own hands so I created a little banner for the fireplace.  It was all made of old scrapbook paper pieces that were left over from previous projects.  I was able to get a bunch of these hearts out of them.  It was quick, free and simple but made a huge difference in getting the house in the Valentine mood!

Bonus: If you have a child who is in the sissor stage (old enough to cut but still needs help) this would be an excellent fine motor skill (cutting) and if you have a child who is a little younger and the hearts wouldn't look like hearts punching out the holes and stringing the hearts would also be fantastic fine motor skills.  So think of it as an academic decorating party!  Get going!!!

Whats not to love?

Tonight I made Valentines Sugar cookies.

I love Valentines Day.

I always have.

Whats not to love?

It use to frustrate me that people thought it was all about having a significant other.

Other people would say, "why do you need a special day to tell people you love them?"

I just always liked having that extra day full of pink, red and white- chocolate, valentines and love.

I think there were a few significant things that made it this way for me.

1. My parents and grandparents always gave me a special gift on valentines day with a note telling me why they loved me.

2.  My sisters were sealed to our family on this day (adopted and sealed in the LDS temple)- thats a true definition of love right there

3.  I was a school teacher and what is more fun than making Valentines decorations and handing out valentines- seriously

So to those who don't like it, I am sorry. But I love it.

Maybe you should give it a try.

Send someone who doesn't expect it a valentine.

Make sugar cookies.

Decorate your house

Put hearts all over someone front door

Buy some chocolate

Make your kids feel special

Make your parents or other relatives feel special

Get in the mood, we all have so much to be grateful for and many people we love and who love us so spread it.
And if all else fails wear some red heels- you can't go wrong with that!
All year round!

I have a few more Valentines posts so stay tuned!

Valentine Bingo and Memory

 So in honor of Valentine's Day.  Heres a little Bingo game I created for my students to play at a center during the week of Valentine's Day.  We had three different boards (so they couldn't all win at the same time).  It also allowed for them to have to find the pictures on their own-which was a little more difficult for some students than others. 

 I had all the pictures on individual cards so that I could show the picture to the students who needed a little extra help or whose goals involved matching.  If I had a more advanced group I would say the word and wait for them to find the picture.  Then I would show them the picture and ask if they found the right one!

I made two sets of the cards so that we could play a memory game if we wanted to.  They really enjoyed this as well plus I figured if I was going to go through all the effort to find the pictures in the first place I might as well use them for two different games.  Both games were good because it allowed the students to learn words they might be hearing around the Valentine's Day holiday.  It helped them build up their vocabulary and associate specific things with the holiday.    You might also notice that each child has all the pictures.  Bingo doesn't always work like that but since we weren't just playing for fun but to learn as well, I wanted each child to have all the words and need to find all the pictures.  After we were done we would take off the candy on each square one by one and repeat back the words that were paired with the pictures- a little extra review of the new words! Oh how I love making learning fun and so nicely disguised. 

Just a little fun and basic activity- I think I might be playing either memory or bingo tonight with my little family for valentine's day.  I figure I might as well.  Does it surprise anyone that today is one of those days when I miss being a classroom teacher!  Oh I loved holiday themed centers.

Happy Valentine's Day!