Love Garland

A few minutes before scrambling out the door to begin a 2-hour car ride, I grabbed soft yarn and doilies left over from our Valentine cards. While Tim drove and Ava slept, I mindlessly laced the doilies. It took longer than I expected, but it turned out really cute. The next day, I hung the garland while Ava was taking a nap. When she awoke and saw it, we got lots of "Oooooo!"s. To get young children involved, you could try one of these variations:

• Cut hearts out of construction paper and then hole punch the edges. Little fingers can then lace the hearts with yarn/ribbon/string, and you can join them together later.
  
• Instead of joining the hearts together to make garland, make ornaments to decorate a "Valentine Tree". Just leave the ends of the string at the top of the heart and knot them to make a loop.
• Make the garland to give someone who is sick and could use some cheer in their hospital room or nursing home room.
• With a colorful marker, have your child write on each heart the name of someone they love.

If you have other variation ideas, feel free to leave a comment below!