Good morning!  We have had the strangest weather this past week. Last Monday, it was so foggy here, we had several big accidents on a nearby freeway. Thankfully, there was nothing serious, but lots of crushed vehicles. On Wednesday, it was so nice, we could wear short sleeves outside in the sunshine. On Thursday, it rained. On Friday, there was so much rain, some areas flooded and on Saturday, it was back to short sleeves again. Whew! It’s pretty hard to know how to dress each morning!! First world problems, right!?

Here we are, just a week before Valentines! Do you have your plans yet? I thought I would share some fun games for the kids of all ages to play. Even my grown kids like a little adventure now and then.

1. Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts can be done a couple of different ways. I made this one for my preschool class for a fun Valentine Day activity and it’s great for the younger kids who can’t read yet. This can be made with all different kinds of things in the squares, depending on what you have in your home. I made this on Microsoft Word and added in the different pictures.

You can also make a scavenger hunt with written clues, which works better for older kids. The clues can be a easy or hard as you want. I have made simple ones, such as ‘look where the movies are’, to harder ones like ‘this is where we go each day to talk about our work and play.’ I hand the child the first clue and then they have to go search for the next one. The second clue leads them to the third and so on. There is a special gift at the end of the hunt.

2. Yarn Treasure Hunt

I did this one for the girls a couple of time at Easter. Each girl got their own color of yarn. I tied the end of the yarn on their doorknob and then wound it all through the house, over and under furniture and all around. There would be little treats at various places and then their basket at the end. We even took it outside through the doggy door! The girls would have to follow their color string all over until they reached the end. I didn’t have any pictures of this, but here is a very similar one from handsonaswegrow.com.

3. Mad Libs

We love Mad Libs! We play them when we travel in the car. They always bring on a good laugh. Haley gave these to her friends in her Senior year of high school. She wrapped them around a piece of chocolate and gave them out at lunch time. Then the group sat around the table and had lots of laughs together.

Haley also mentioned using Conversation Hearts to fill in the blanks. I’m sure some of those answers would be hilarious!

4. Heart Hunt

How about a heart hunt? Similar to an Easter Egg Hunt, but the kids can look for hearts instead. This could be heart shaped candy, heart gift certificates, or bags filled with candy.

Just try and remember how many you hid them or you will be finding candy long after Valentine’s Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with love and lots of chocolate!

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