Valentine's Day

Get the kids into the kitchen and create these tasty heart-shaped pizzas for Valentine's Day! They're easy to make, reasonably healthy, and children can have fun customizing them to their taste. We made these in our kitchen and had a lot of fun. And we got to eat them for lunch, too. This recipe was inspired by the great ready-to-use pizza carried by Trader Joe's—you can get all the other ingredients there, too. You can of course make these any time (heart-shaped or just plain round).

Right around Valentine’s Day, I always make a special stop at perrenial favorite See’s Candy to pick up some of their marshmallow-caramel hearts for the kids. If you want to get out there now beat the rush, here are some places to pick up some sweet treats for your Valentines:

See’s Candy

See’s is the old California candy standby, with several locations in Marin. Their traditional stores haven’t changed in years, and they often hand out free samples, too. Their candy is definitely a few notches above your garden variety supermarket boxed chocolates.

Sees is also a great place to pick up your chocolate bunnies and other Easter candy. All their locations are open Monday through Friday 10 am–9 pm and 11 am to 6 pm on weekends. The long-standing location on Fourth Street in San Rafael is closed, but there are plenty of other locations in the county to choose from.

• The Mall at Northgate, San Rafael, (415) 491-9729
• Town Center Corte Madera, (415) 927-4430
• Vintage Oaks Shopping Center, Novato, next to Jennie Low’s Chinese restaurant, (415) 892-0381

February means that Valentine's Day is coming up, and along with it the classroom ritual of exchanging Valentine's Day cards. Since most of us are budget minded these days, you'll probably appreciate the free Valentine's Day cards available at numerous places online, especially since Valentine's Day often seems to be one of those holidays that exists mainly to suck your money right out of your wallet. Simply select the one your children want, download, and print. Pretty nifty.

Tired of the same old boring, cookie-cutter Valentine's Day cards? Create and order custom cards online! As readers here know, one of our favorite places to order cards and invitations online is Tiny Prints.

Tiny Prints' cards feature sophisticated, modern designs, and of course they have a wide selection of Valentine's Day cards, including custom photo cards and really cool kids' Valentine's Day cards to hand out to friends and family. Their selection of kids' cards features cute original illustration as well as popular characters like the Backyardigans, Kai Lan, Spongebob Squarepants, and Dora the Explorer.

They also have Valentine's Day party invitations and stickers, so check them out. They also have quick turnaround and delivery times—we're always amazed at how fast our cards arrive. Take 15% off your order of $75 or more through January 28, 2010 with coupon code JAN2DAY.

These heart-shaped crayons called Lil Scribblers and sold by Lil Boo & Co. on Etsy are so cute and perfect for Valentine’s Day or for gift giving. Developed by a stay-at-home mom and former preschool teacher, Lil Scribblers are Crayola crayons that are melted down and swirled together. Then these redesigned crayons are formed into fun shapes that are perfect for little ones and big kids too! The swirled colors make for some fun artistic possibilities.

This heart set ($9.95) includes nine heart crayons in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, brown, and black. Lil Boo also has a variety of other Lil Scribbler shapes and sizes, including LEGO-style bricks, ladybugs, mice, alphabet letters, flowers, and more, as well as other offerings for Valentine’s Day and many other holidays.