When the Third Grade Teachers called and asked if I would like to plan the Third Grade Valentine's Day Party, I happily accepted. I love that kind of thing, but like most things that I throw myself into it consumed my life for three weeks straight and the day of the party, I still wasn't prepared.....Again, I learned my lesson and next time I will do better. The First thing that I had to do was to figure out how to incorporate Manners into the Party...it was a requirement. I thought Manner Bingo....then I thought Manner Simon says, but then I started thinking how much the kids like to listen to music so I came up with a game called Musical Manners....it was a lot like a cake walk, but every kid eventually won a prize. I apologize for the lack of pictures on this game....I got so busy that I actually forgot to take pictures of a lot of things.
These were some of the Hearts I used for the Musical Manners...I laminated them before the party and added some more colors....but of course I forgot to take pictures. Anyway, we laid the hearts on the floor and had each kid stand on a heart. We started some music and the kids walked in the order of the hearts until the music stopped. When the music stopped the kids stood on the heart that was closest to them and then a manner was drawn out of a box and read aloud. The kid that was standing on the matching heart got a prize. So, they got a game, got to listen to some music, had a lesson in manners and won a prize. Win, Win all the way around!
we played until they all had prizes. In order to try and save a little money, I made some coupons to go along with some of the other prizes for the prize box.
Two weeks prior to the Party, we sent out a flyer to all of the Parents asking them to email a love note for their child.
There were a couple of Parents that didn't send love notes, so I wrote sweet little poems, put their names on them and signed them..from Mom & Dad.
They never knew the difference.
For the craft, I typed up a poem and had the kids put their handprint on the same page. Needless to say, I pulled an all nighter the night before the Party getting all of these premade Parent gifts together, but they turned out really cute and it was worth it. 
Let the painting begin....
A work in progress.....
The Finished Product
of course we had cupcakes
and centerpieces....
Not bad for dollar store materials...I filled the centerpieces up with conversation heart candies and the kids at each table wrote down on a paper heart how many candies they thought were in the centerpiece. At the end of the Party, we went around to each table and the child that was closest to guessing the right answer got to take home the centerpiece at their table.
Colton's class
Bailey's class
Earlier in the week, I asked the Teachers to have the kids trace their hands and send them home with Bailey. I cut around their handprints onto scrapbook paper and put them aside until I decided what I wanted to do with them. The night before the party, I decided I would try to make some kind of card for the teacher out of them. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but this is how the first one turned out.
of course, I got in such a hurry that I forgot to finish it.....
I think the Party was a success. I had other Home room Moms that stepped in on Party Day and did an awesome job!!!! It's times like these that I wish Colton and Bailey were in the same class because one kid always gets more of my time than the other....in this instance, Colton got more of my attention because I was helping out with his class.
I think all of the kids had a good time and I really did have a great time planning it for them.
Needless to say by the time I got home from the Party, I was exhausted!!!! I fell asleep on the couch about 5:00pm and didn't wake up until later that night when my husband was waking me up and telling me to go to bed. My kids were already sound asleep and I fell into bed and was asleep again before my head hit the pillow.
