Pack a Valentine Lunch

This Valentine’s Day, send your heart to school with your child.  Instead of packing her usual brown bag lunch, surprise her by creating a miniature Valentine’s Day celebration for her to enjoy.  (Remember that even though Valentine’s Day is typically a “pink” day, boys enjoy celebrating the day of hearts and love too!  Simply adapt these instructions for a more masculine feel…use a blue bag and maybe a blue napkin.)

If your child carries a lunch box to school, skip it today.  Use a white lunch sack instead, or find a pink or white colored gift bag.  Write your child’s name in bold letters with a thick, red marker.  Decorate the sack with cute Valentine stickers.  Using red card stock, cut out a pair of identical hearts.  Make sure the hearts are the same width as the sack.  Hold the hearts on the top of the sack, one in the front and one in the back.  Punch two holes in the middle of the hearts, using a hole puncher, about an inch apart.  Be sure to punch through to the sack as well as the hearts.  Set the hearts aside.

Now you can begin the Valentine lunch.  Try to pack only pink-colored foods.  Begin with a carton of strawberry flavored milk or a strawberry flavored smoothie.  If your child likes to eat sandwiches, cut the prepared sandwich into a heart shape using a heart-shaped cookie cutter.  If your child dislikes sandwiches, try cutting cubes of hard cheese and ham or turkey with a cookie cutter.  Add a container of strawberry yogurt or strawberry gelatin.  Fill a plastic container with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for dipping.  For dessert, pack a heart-shaped brownie or cupcake with pink frosting and sprinkles, or pack a few cookies frosted with pink icing.  (Grocery stores have a variety of individually wrapped snacks for Valentine’s Day if you are short of baking time.)  For a healthier dessert alternative, simply sandwich a few graham crackers together with strawberry flavored cream cheese.

Include in the sack a large pink napkin folded into a rectangle.  Write the words “TABLE CLOTH” on the outside with the red marker.  Write a sweet Valentine’s Day message on a white plastic spoon.  Wrap the spoon in a small pink napkin and tie with a piece of red curling ribbon.  For a finishing touch, throw in a small box of conversation hearts.

After packing the lunch sack, attach the hearts to the top with a long piece of pretty ribbon.  Simply tie the sack closed by lacing the ribbon through the holes and tying the ends into a pretty bow in the front.  Your child will be delighted when he opens his Valentine lunch and you will be admired by his classmates and teachers.

Treva Bedinghaus is a freelance writer and webmaster of www.partiescometrue.com.  She is a busy mother to three young children for whom she enjoys throwing fabulous parties.