Welcome to the Valentine’s Day edition All Things Family Blog Carnival. The weekly roundup of some of the best family friendly articles, tips and ideas from around the web will be hosted at a different site giving you the opportunity to find plenty of new reads! Along with all the great stuff below, don’t miss all the ideas here at FreeStuff4Kids!

Eatables

Heather Mann presents Valentine Treats! | Croq Zine – The Blog posted at Croq Zine – The Blog, saying, “A couple simple treats to make with conversation hearts. Great for v-day parties or lunchbox or classroom treats.”

Char Polanosky presents Quick Valentine Dessert ? Cupids Cloud posted at Raising A Healthy Family, saying, “Here is a simple Valentine’s Day snack or dessert that the kids can make themselves.”

For a giggle, Heather Mann invites you to check out CraftFail – Failed Valentine’s Brownies & CraftFail – Valentines Day Macadamia Nut Brittle Hearts posted at CraftFail, saying, “Giggle along with CraftFail at these Valentine’s Day treats that fell short.”

Printables

Char Polanosky presents Free Valentines Day Coloring Pages posted at Celebrate It, saying, “These free printable Valentine coloring pages are perfect additions to your Valentine celebrations.”

Wendy Piersall presents Valentine’s Day Activities, Crafts, Coloring Pages and Printables posted at Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network, saying, “All of our Valentine’s Day fun in one place!”

Wendy Piersall presents Printable Masks for Carnival, Halloween, Mardi Gras and History Lessons posted at Classroom Jr., saying, “The international “Carnivale” season is now through spring!”

Jen presents Valentine Freebies by JGoode posted at JGoode.com, saying, “Share some love with a fun grin by JGoode”

Makeables

Wendy Piersall presents Valentine Treat Bags posted at Craft Jr., saying, “Free printable Valentine’s Day treat bags!”

Shannon presents Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids posted at Partyelf.

Heather Mann presents 3 fun ideas from Dollar Store Crafts.-  Make a Fabric Heart Yo-Yo, Buttoned Valentine’s Day Card and Make a Valentine’s Day Candy Centerpiece.

Valerie presents Will You Be My Paint Chip Valentine? posted at Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Other Valentines Day Ideas

Shannon presents Valentine’s Day Party Ideas for Kids posted at Partyelf.

June Tree presents Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas: Use Ebates, Get Cash Back posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Valentine’s Day gift ideas for your loved ones.”

Madeleine Begun Kane presents A Valiant Guy’s Guide To Valentine’s Day posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

Other Family Fun

Amanda CMJ presents Day by Day Pregnancy Tip #13: Have a Children’s Book Baby Shower posted at Extra (Hour)dinary Parenting.

Joanne presents Make Stuff Your Kids Can Play With posted at Simply Saving.

Sarah Clark presents The Mother Load: Choosing battles posted at The Mother Load.

Katie Hoffman presents How to Motivate Yourself to Clean and Organize posted at KatieHoffman.org.

Selina Johnson presents CAPTURING MEMORIES: A Yearly Review For Your Family posted at Tips and Snippets.

Andy Hayes presents Have Baby, Will Travel posted at Sharing Travel Experiences, saying, “Just because you have a child doesn’t mean you can’t see the world.”

Khan Ben presents Caring for Twins posted at Women Weblog, saying, “Your feelings are perfectly understandable. After all, caring for one child is daunting enough for many new parents, and having two at the same time can be a real jolt.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of all things family using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Pink Pancakes (of course)

You can make these by simply adding red food coloring to regular pancake mix, or you can make really healthy and suprisingly tasty pancakes following the recipe from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Here’s a direct link to the recipe. If you have a Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter, you can set it on the skillet first and then pour the pancake batter inside for pretty shapes.

Pink Eggs, Toast and Milk

A little red food coloring makes these breakfast items special. Kids enjoy using a pastry brush to paint the food coloring on the toast! Pink milk sounds a little gross to me, but tell them it’s Cupid’s Love Potion and even your non-milk drinkers may enjoy it. You could also use Strawberry Quik. After you put a little red food coloring into the egg and whisk it in, you could either just scramble as usual or pour the egg into a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cook.

Heart Shaped Biscuits

Make your favorite biscuit recipe and instead of circles, cut them out with your heart shaped cookie cutter. Use strawberry or raspberry jelly of course!

French Kiss Toast

Make your regular french toast and then lay a heart-shaped cut out on the top of each piece and sift confectioners sugar over the top. Then carefully remove the paper to see the pretty result.

Any other ideas you’d like to share? Please leave a comment!

Here’s an easy microwave fudge recipe.

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 14-oz can condensed milk
4 T. butter
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. salt

Line an 8×8 pan with aluminum foil and spray it withe nonstick cooking spray. In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips, condensed milk, and butter. Microwave one minute at a time until melted, about 2-3 minutes. Stir until all the chocolate is melted, then add the vanilla and salt. Stir until the candy is smooth and well-mixed. Pour the fudge into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Place the fudge in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours. Once set, cut into 1-inch squares and serve at room temperature. Store excess fudge in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Baskin Robbins – a free scoop of ice cream (who can say no to that?)

Moe’s Southwest Grill – for kids 10 and under, your child will receive a  birthday greeting for a free kid’s meal during the week of his or her birthday

Sonic – for kids 13 and under, a birthday greeting for a free Wacky Pack kid’s meal during week of birthday, plus a $1.99 Wacky Pack with the purchase of a combo meal coupon on their 1/2 birthday.

Cold Stone Creamery – a free Cold Stone ice cream creation on your birthday

Bob Evans -  for kids 12 and under, a free kid’s meal

Brigham’s -  for kids 12 and under, a free kid’s meal including a kids sundae

Denny’s – for kids 10 and under, a free kid’s entree and sundae

Easter Birds Nests

• 1/3 cup butterscotch morsels
• 1 cup chow mein noodles
• candy robin eggs or jelly beans

Melt the butterscotch morsels in a medium microwave safe bowl. Add chow-mein noodles to melted butterscotch and mix. Shape the mixture into a circle on wax paper. Use a large spoon to make indention in the nest’s center. Let it harden and then put the jelly beans or chocolate eggs in the center of the nest. Enjoy!

Two more tasty Easter treats:

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

Brownie Eggs

 What you need:

•  12 mini cupcakes
• White icing
• Scissors
• 6 rolls of Fruit by the Foot fruit leather in Cherry Rage or strawberry flavor
• 1 roll of Fruit by the Foot fruit leather in Color by the Foot flavor

Instructions:

1. Frost 12 mini cupcakes with white icing.
2. To make a rose, unroll a piece of the cherry or strawberry fruit leather and divide it in half along the wavy perforated middle line. Take one of the halves and roll up about 5 inches to form the flower’s center. Set the rolled strip wavy side up in the middle of a cupcake, as shown, and continue to loosely wrap the remaining fruit leather around the center at a slight angle until the flower is completed.
3. Repeat this process for the remaining flowers. (You should be able to get 2 mini roses out of each roll of fruit leather.)
4. Cut leaf shapes from the wavy edge of the Color by the Foot strip as shown, then tuck the leaves under the roses.

More cupcake ideas:
Valentine’s Day Cupcake Cards

M&M Valentine Cupcakes

Printable Pattern to Make Your Own Driedel

Hanukkah Mazes

Delicious Hanukkah Recipes

Oreo Cookie Turkeys – Turkeys made with oreos, peanut butter cups, candy corn, and malted milk balls. I remember making these adorable turkeys with my sisters when I was young, it’s definitely a favorite!

Pilgrim Hat Marshmallow Treats – Marshmallows dipped in chocolate to look like pilgrim hats.

Teeny Turkey Sandwiches – Little bite size sandwiches decorated with peppers, peas, cheese, pepperoni, and nuts, to look like turkeys.

Hairy Daddy Longlegs Cupcakes – This creepy crawler of a cupcake would be fun and tasty for kids of all age.

Monster Toes – These ‘toes’ are filling and fun at the same time!

Black Halloween Punch – A ghostly frozen hand floating in creepy black punch.

Eyeball Ice Cubes – My personal favorite. What could be more fun than scaring your siblings with an eyeball floating in their drink!

Trim the stem and root ends of a radish (make sure it’s small enough to fit the individual section of an ice-cube tray), and use a paring knife to scrape off most of the red skin. Leave just enough red to give the radish a veined appearance. Rinse the radish off, and use a small melon baller to cut 1/2-inch-diameter hole into the radish. Fit an olive, cut side out, into the hole, and place the radish in the ice-cube tray. Repeat this process until the tray is full, then pour water over the eyeballs, and freeze.