Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching.
Valentine’s Day means Valentine’s parties. Valentine’s parties are often filled with all sorts of candy, desserts and delights. Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m not opposed to those things. However, I do like to offer some healthier options. That is why I gave you the idea for the heart pita chips. I also gave you some healthier ideas on my fun with Valentine food day. This healthier item involves juice boxes. We do need to limit our children’s juice intake because fruit drinks can hide a lot of sugar. I try to buy fruit drinks that say 100% juice and no sugar added. These juice boxes are what we will be contributing to the class party at school. Other healthy ideas include the pita chips (as mentioned), sandwiches cut into heart shapes, cheese cut into heart shapes, strawberry heart skewers, watermelon cut into hearts shapes, etc. I’m sure you can come up with many more ideas. Again, I am not opposed to a cupcakes, cookies or bit of candy. However, when every mom in the class is bringing something sweet, it’s nice to have other options.
Where did the idea stem from? I was at Party City looking through their Valentine stuff. Nothing was inspiring me. If it was inspiring a creative Valentine idea, it seemed way too expensive…until I saw the straws. I thought they were reasonably priced and figured there was something creative I could come up with involving them. So, I purchased enough for her class. The juice box idea came as I was driving home. I figured I could wrap the boxes in Valentine friendly paper and add hearts on the front with Valentine friendly phrases relating to juice, and there you have it. An idea was born. The four phrases I used were “You’re Sweet,” “You Pack a Punch” (I used fruit punch juice boxes), “Squeeze Me” and “Love Potion.” I made a printable for you to make replication easy.
This project took a tad bit of mommy prep. I printed and cut out the hearts. Older kids could help with this. I also used a cutter to cut out my paper. I picked out the paper from a craft store. For these juice boxes, I cut the paper just under 4.25″ by a solid 8″. You can measure your boxes for height and add all the sides together for length. Back to geometry we go.
After all the paper and hearts were cut out, the girls were able to help. Let the mass production begin.
We used glue dots and tape to put it all together. In retrospect, we could have easily just used tape, and it would have been cheaper. Glue dots did make it easy, and the girls enjoyed using them. They put two glue dots on two corners of the front, set the sticky side of the juice box down in the middle of the paper, put to glue dots on one end of the paper, wrapped the paper around the juice box (making sure the glue dots land on top of the other), added the heart to the center of the box and then taped the straw to the side of the box. Abby was able to do these by herself. Kenzie and I worked as a team most of the time, although she could do some stuff independently as well.
I love that idea instead of candy. Juice boxes are my favorite so I would have to keep one just for me 🙂 Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much.
WOW, this is a great idea, where did you get the heart shaped straws? I want to make these with my kids for their class valentines. Thank you so much for the awesome idea.
I bought them in the store at Party City. I just looked online there, and I couldn’t find them. I found a slightly more expensive version there at $0.50 per unit. http://www.partycity.com/product/valentines+krazy+straws.do?sortby=ourPicks&size=all&from=Search&navSet=heart+straws
I also found an idea at Amazon that could be replicated with the straws that come on the juice box.
http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Straws-w-Paper-Insert/dp/B00ARC2U8Q/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1359909750&sr=8-13&keywords=heart+straws
These are cute too. http://www.amazon.com/Century-Novelty-146-2118-Tissue-Straws/dp/B00B7R0G7M/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1359909827&sr=8-25&keywords=heart+straws
If you have any problem with the link, you can type in “heart straw” on Amazon to check out some choices.
Thank you Jodi for all the info, I will look into them. I made the Perler Bead bowls with my kids yesterday and they turned out awesome. I will be using the bowls to fill up with candy, wrap them in clear wrapping paper to give to their teachers for valentines day. Such a great idea and so fun & simple to do.
Darling idea — thank you for sharing!
SUch a cute idea… awesome for school lunch! I’d love to have you come and share at Super Saturday Show & Tell today 🙂 xoxo~ Ruthie http://whatscookingwithruthie.com
Thanks so much for the great idea!! I signed up to bring drinks (easy way out)for my daughters class but really wanted to do something special. After a quick search on Pinterest, I found your site! Jackpot! I couldn’t find the cute straws (didn’t think about Party City) but found straws at Hobby Lobby that are like soda shop straws that are still pretty cute. Plus my daughter got to help and when isn’t that a great idea! Thanks again!
Oh yeah! If you take a picture, I’d love to see the results.
Thanks so much for some good healthy party snack ideas, I am the grandmother that goes to the kid’s parties and always am looking for something other than sweets!!! Great ideas!
I’m so glad you found this helpful. You also might like my pita chips: https://meaningfulmama.com/2013/01/homemade-pita-chips-recipe-healthy.html and https://meaningfulmama.com/2014/01/peanut-butter-jelly-valentine-sandwiches.html and https://meaningfulmama.com/2012/02/day-44-fun-with-valentine-food.html. I’m always looking for healthier options also!