Valentine's Day Projects

You know, I never really cared for Valentine's Day. It has always seemed kind of overrated to me...another one of those holidays where there's so much pressure to do something (be romantic, in this case) that really never turns out to be quite what I'd hoped.

But...now that I have kids, I love it. It's a great holiday for doing fun projects with the girls. Well, with Elizabeth. Layla's not really into crafts or baking yet, so she just runs around (screaming, most of the time, because I'm not giving her my undivided attention) while Elizabeth and I make things. And we made a lot of things this week.

Here is a run-down of our week of Valentine's activities:

Elizabeth loved helping me make valentines for the kids in her class. Originally, I planned to give them some I bought at the store, but something handmade is always better.

The finished Valentines for her classmates.

And some for her teachers.

When we were finished making valentines, we moved on to cupcakes. I had signed up to bring cupcakes for the party, and I had all these great ideas for decorating them. Well, as it turned out, Elizabeth had her ideas, and rather than fight her, I just decided to let her do it. I'm such a perfectionist and can tend to be a bit of a control freak (I know that's shocking to most of you, but it's true) that it was hard for me to relinquish control of the decorating, but you know what? She had so much fun. And they were for her 2 year old classmates, who could not have cared less about the lovely nonpareils that I would have used or the designs I would have drawn with red cookie icing (Betty Crocker squeezable tube from Publix - one of the best things I've discovered for decorating all sorts of treats).

So we had sugar sprinkles...lots of sugar sprinkles.

We really didn't have to make anything else, but my good friend Lanie Beth gave me the cutest red heart cookie cutter, and I just couldn't let it go to waste. So...

Elizabeth helped me make sugar cookies too.

I told y'all we were busy. She loves helping with sugar cookies. Again - very hard for me to let go of the control, but I'm learning it's well worth it. Even if it means I have to keep rolling the dough, because only half of hers turn out each time.

I used a basic sugar cookie recipe I found in a Southern Living cookie book that I've had forever and have never used. I really didn't care for the cookies. This is the third recipe I've tried for sugar cookies, and I have yet to find one I like. I am definitely on the hunt for a no fail sugar cookie recipe...one that is TASTY and moist but still works well with cut-outs. If you have one, please post it as a comment.

This time, to cover up the yucky taste of the cookies I made,

I dipped a lot of them in glaze. The recipe is super simple.

Sugar Cookie Glaze

1 (1 lb.) box of confectioners sugar

6 Tablespoons of water

Food coloring paste

*Stir/whisk ingredients together, and voila!

I bought a bottle of rose colored Wilton food coloring paste from WalMart. It's $1.50 a bottle and will last forever. I have to say it turned out much darker pink than I had hoped, but it grew on me. We had fuschia Valentine's cookies, but truthfully, it was a change from the usual red and pale pink. I sprinkled the cookies with nonpareils. I love those things.

In doing all of our projects, we had lots of messes.

When you work with food coloring paste, it inevitably gets on the counter.

And that stuff is a beast to get off, unless you have some of this,

another one of my favorite products.

Honestly, it was a busy week, and I'm still exhausted, but I had so much fun. I can't wait to start a new project with Elizabeth. I have a feeling it won't be long. She enjoys it so much that I bet she will want to do something again very soon.

Oh - my favorite pictures. Our finished desserts. Check out the cloche (pronounced closhe) on my favorite cake stand below. I got two cloches from my sister-in-law for Christmas, and I just love them. Like, really love them. There's just something about a cloche that makes anything you put under it special. Like our cupcakes.

In addition to the cupcakes and glazed cookies, I made two types of cookie sandwiches. Both were very tasty. For the light pink ones, I used a smaller heart cookie cutter to cut hearts out of several of the cookies. Then I spread buttercream icing on one large heart cookie and put one with a cutout on top. For the fuschia sandwiches, I put vanilla frosting between two small heart cookies and rolled the edges in nonpareils. Yum.

Happy Valentine's Day!