Cousin’s Day Valentine Style

You will want to read this if you need last minute Valentine’s Party ideas.

Ah, yes, the 3 week rotation of cousins. It was my turn again this week. I wasn’t going to do anything big because I’m worn out. But I couldn’t help it. I had all the stuff except for one thing. It just came together. Here’s what we did.

The day before I made some cookies. These are called Chocolate Waffle Cookies. My mom made these for us when we were growing up. I just turned them Valentine style.

Chocolate Waffle Cookies

• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. butter (the original recipe said oleo!)
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. flour
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Cream the sugar and butter. Add the eggs, then the rest of the ingredients in order listed. Mix together. Drop by spoonfuls onto hot waffle iron. Frost when cool.

Chocolate Frosting

Melt together:

• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 3 Tbsp. shortening

Then add:

• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 c. powdered sugar
• up to 1/3 c. milk

Beat until smooth. Add enough milk to make slightly thinner than usual cookie frosting.

The waffle cookies come out kind of thick. Or at least mine did this time. Just add sprinkles to turn them into something really fun.

The special drink (which I especially don’t do all the time) came from my friend Angie, who got it from Lisa. We asked Lisa what was the official name of the drink and Lisa said they call them “Drinky Drinks”. So here is my version of Lisa’s Drinky Drinks!

Drinky Drinks

For each glass:

• 1 lime slice
• 1 Tbsp. raspberry flavored syrup (like Torani)

Add ice, fill with Sprite or other lemon-lime flavored soda.

That’s it. It’s tasty and fun. Get the raspberry flavored syrup in the coffee aisle or at World Market.

For a craft, all I had to buy was clear contact paper, which I picked up at our Hardware Hanks! If you decided to do this for a class project, you need quite a bit, depending on the size of your hearts. I got the idea from her who got the idea from her. I am not a creative crafter. I am a copy crafter.

This was a fun project except for wrestling the contact paper; separating the paper from backing was a little exercise in patience. And some hearts came out bubble free and others not. All the kids had not cut a lot of hearts free-hand so I had to draw the half heart on one side. It is very good practice in cutting without having to be accurate. (I didn’t bring up symmetry- I was busy monitoring 6 pairs of scissors.)

I am not normally this crafty with my kids. I really liked this one because I had everything except the contact paper, it could cover a wide range of ages, and the directions were very easy. The finished product was something each one could be proud of because it was their own and there was no ideal that they could compare it to.