Since 1971, Kalencom has been designing stylish diaper bags that make life easier by keeping you organized while looking good, too. Kalencom diaper bags have plenty of multifunctional pockets and spacious main compartments so that all of your baby’s essentials have a place, making it easier to locate something as small as a pacifier on those hectic days. Lucky for you, Kalencom diaper bags have fresh new styles with a hip twist that will make you want to use the bag even after your little one has outgrown diapers, bottles and pacifiers. The Continental Flair is an elegant combination that features a matching zipper pouch, large fold-out changing pad and an insulated bottle bag. The AZO-free nylon makes this combo really easy to clean – ideal for the on-the-go mommy. Kalencom diaper bags will always keep you stylish and stress-free so you can enjoy time spent with your little one. 

Many times the first birthday party involves adults attending to wish your child well! Even though it is a gathering of your friends and family, it is always wonderful to include an activity that surrounds the special birthday girl or boy!

One activity that is fun and can also serve as a keepsake or heirloom collectible to capture the special day is to have your guests decorate unique patches that will be placed together to make a quilt.

To make it easy, have squares pre-cut that you can give to your guests at the party. Also, have available glue, sequins, glitter, beads, markers, stencils, etc. that the guests use to create their heartfelt wish for your child.

For those family and friends who are unable to attend your party, a great idea would be to send a fabric square and a few decorative supplies to these people, as well as a pre-stamped envelope that they can return their squares back to you. In this way, although they are unable to attend the party, your family and friends can still be a part of the lasting keepsake memory.

Other squares that you may want to make up are your child’s handprint and footprint, a birthday photo, and a copy of the invitation to the birthday party.

Assemble the squares together after the party, find coordinating fabric for the back of the quilt, and sew together, or find a quilt shop in the local area that can help you complete the project.

This keepsake can be something that you put away as an heirloom, or something that your child uses or is in his bedroom. As he gets older, it will definitely be a conversational piece!

So, your son was born on Valentine’s Day! The first birthday was not a problem, as it was wonderful to celebrate with hearts and the color red to express your love. Now, as your son is growing up, Valentine’s Day feels more “girly” with heart-shaped candy, pink cards, lace, and frills. What to do as your son’s party lands each and every year on Valentine’s Day?

The good thing is, Valentine’s Day has not become as huge as, say, Halloween, where the holiday could easily overshadow your child’s party. Also, everyone will be doing activities specific to Valentine’s Day, so your son’s celebration will be a fun and unique birthday party.

Valentine’s Day often falls on a weekday, so if you are hosting a party, it most likely won’t be on the actual holiday. This will make it easier to plan a non-related theme for the party. On your child’s actual birthday, you may want to send a treat in to his class to celebrate. Be prepared, as there will be a lot of pink, white, and red baked Valentine’s goodies around the classroom. You may want to have a word with your son’s teacher to let him or her know you will be sending in a special treat for your son’s birthday that is not related to Valentine’s. This differentiates the treat from everything else, and the teacher can make a birthday announcement so a round of “Happy Birthday” can be sung as well.

Send in whatever you were planning on making, and don’t give a second thought to keeping it with a Valentine’s theme. By making something completely different, you will help keep his celebration separate from the holiday.

If you find your son’s birthday party day has fallen on Valentine’s Day, the same ideas apply. Go ahead and have your unique thematic party. The kids will have fun celebrating a birthday, and also have their own Valentine’s celebrations with their friends and family.

A Father Daughter dance is always a special occasion, and Valentine’s Day is a perfect holiday to organize a special dance between fathers and their daughters. It may seem like a difficult party to organize, but it can actually be quite simple.  Think about an area in your home that can accommodate a dance floor of several sets of fathers and daughters, perhaps a basement area or a large living room area.  If you have throw rugs, you may want to roll them up for the party and let them dance directly on the hard floor.  If a group organizing this party, take a look at the different homes to choose the best area to host your dance.

Make a traditional Valentine invitation.  Pink and red doilies cut into heart shapes with all of the dance details included on one side of a heart-shaped white card stock – which can be placed on the doily heart would be perfect. Make sure to address your invitations to the father and daughter alike.  Is this a dress up party or can people come as they like.  Given the theme, specifying dress attire would also be appropriate.

Decorate your dance floor with red, pink, and pearly white balloons, banners, and streamers.  Hearts of different sizes and colors may be hung from the ceiling with fishing wire.  It’s essential to have the music lined up beforehand.  Downloading music into a Father Daughter Dance playlist may be the easiest thing to do.  Mix up fast and slow songs, and you may want to do the Hokey Pokey for good fun too. Make sure the music is set and the place is full of Valentine colors!

When the fathers and daughters arrive give each father a small flower to wear and the daughters small corsages.  These can serve as the take home favor. Alternatively, you can hand out a single red rose to each father-daughter couple as they depart.

This party is about dancing, so spin those heart-felt tunes!  Mix up your favorites, and take requests, if you can improvise some new tunes on the fly.  Make sure to include some songs that act as games like limbo, Hokey Pokey, and perhaps a dance contest to see who can pull off the sleekest dance moves. Award everyone prizes if you go the contest route, fastest dancers, slowest dancers, longest, shortest, etc.  Make it up and have fun.

You can keep your menu simple and serve a line up of Valentine sweets like chocolate dipped strawberries and pretzels, frosted heart sugar cookies, Conversation Hearts, small chocolates, red velvet cupcakes, etc. This is a great event to have a dessert buffet laid out that the fathers and daughters can enjoy as they are hungry throughout the dance.

It would also be fun to throw in a Cupcake Walk for good measure to this party.  It’s just like a Cake Walk, but instead of winning cakes, the teams win cupcakes of different flavors.  Set it up with chairs with corresponding numbers to the cupcakes.  Play that music and see who gets which cupcake.  It may be fun for the daughters to watch their dads in this game, which can become quite silly.

As your father and daughter guests depart, the flowers can serve as a favor or extra sweet treats.  Make it simple, and have fun with this special Valentine’s Day party.

For the pre-teen set, Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to host a fun sleepover party, especially for girls. If you don’t mind staying up all night to bond, this is the perfect Valentine’s gathering for you!  Alternatively, if you have a young child that would also like to have a slumber party, but you may think she is too young, incorporate these ideas into a “faux” slumber party that takes place during the early evening and the kids can go home afterwards.

For a fabulously sweet slumber party, check out these ideas:

Given that you have the entire night (or even if it a faux slumber party) make Valentine’s Day decorations at your party. Purchase balloons, red and pink construction paper, glitter glue, markers, pipe cleaners, and cotton balls. Your guests can create valentines, blow up balloons, and make paper chains and cupids to decorate your home.

Play a game of Valentine Charades.

Make up a romantic story, or a fairytale story for young children. Provide writing supplies and have the kids write a number-one-best-selling romantic tale. Have everyone decide on the heroine’s name and then write it on a piece of paper. Fold the paper over and pass it to the first writer. She will think up the name for the hero. Continue to pass the paper along, and ask each guest to take on a different plot point, such as how the boy and girl meet, their first words, what happened next, what action happened to pull them apart, what heroic action took place to bring them together again, what their best friends think, etc. Make sure to have each guest fold the paper down after she has written her part. After the story is done, open the entire piece of paper and read it aloud!

Using boxes of conversation hearts, have the group make the longest sentence possible using the words on the candies.

Play your favorite music and dance! If you have a Karaoke machine or know someone who does, this would be a great time to use it.

Enjoy giving each other manicures, pedicures, and facials – make sure to use pink and red polish.

Have a pair of spiky high heels on hand, and have the kids set up an obstacle course that they must walk around and through with the high heels on.  Make sure this is supervised so no one gets hurt.

Play Musical Sleeping Bags, as you play Musical Chairs. The kid left outside of a sleeping bag is “out.”

Watch fun movies related to Valentine’s Day. Let the kids choose, as long as you agree as the host parent! Serve popcorn with a variety of toppings. Cinnamon and sugar would be yummy for this holiday.

Make mini heart-shaped pizzas for dinner. Have the kids cut readymade pizza dough into the shape of a heart, place their favorite toppings on it, and bake.

Enjoy a full evening of chocolate, with chocolate fondue, chocolate dipped pretzels, hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, and small boxes of chocolates.

In the morning, enjoy a batch of heart-shaped pancakes served with strawberry syrup and a cup of fruit on the side.

Send the guests home with pink and red lip-gloss, nail polish, hand soap, facial scrub, chocolates, and bubble bath placed into a small, red, personalized pail.

Do green beans want to go to the party in your tummy? Do you know that no one wants to be left out? Break it down, and just dance with the whole gang from Yo Gabba Gabba! Get your youngster a fresh pair of Vans Classic Slip-Ons with his/her favorite character. The word on the street is these shoes will be available for adults later this year too, so be patient parents. Check out the video below of Plex skating it up with pro skaters Bucky Lasek and Christian Hosoi skating to the iconic “Freedom of Choice” by Devo (the video is a throwback to Devo’s original video for the song):

Finding fashionable and functional diaper bags can be a tough task for fashionista mothers, but Timi and Leslie makes sleek diaper bags inspired by vintage shapes and fabrics. The baby bags as they are called come in all sorts of fabrics from vintage looking prints to basketball leather. There was a need for a hip yet functional diaper bag, Timi and Leslie baby bags were the pioneers to fill this void. 

Leslie’s latest diaper bag collection is chic and sophisticated, using fun fabrics with vintage-inspired prints, and a small shoulder-strap. The ladylike shapes hark back to a more elegant time when ladies didn’t lug 10-pound sacks filled with life’s many necessities around every day, but still have Newton’s signature whimsical touches. 

The Timi and Leslie Diaper Bags Hannah is a glamorous synthetic leather diaper bag that holds several bottles, diapers, a snack and even has room for a few of mommy’s things. The matching accessory clutch, bottle thermos, changing pad and stroller straps look so fashion friendly that no one would even think you are carrying a diaper bag.  To see the full line of Timi and Leslie diaper bags, head over to Zappos.com.

The Green Hormet is about to come to the big screen this January.  It’s a perfect movie outing for school-aged boys who are interested in regular guys using their talents to become super heroes and defeat the bad guys. The Black Beauty car looks uber cool too.  This movie would not only make a great movie outing, but a fun party theme too.  Keep these Green Hornet party ideas in mind to bring this theme together.

Send a Green Hornet Invitation.  Create a paper Black Beauty car using heavy black card stock.  On the reverse side, cut out green paper that can be placed directly on Black Beauty and write your party details on the Green Hornet side.  Use language calling your party guests, Kato, and inviting them to help fight crime with The Green Hornet:

Think about this, Kato. We’ve been completely wasting our potential. This city needs our help. We could be heroes! We will *pose* as villains to get close to the bad guys. That way, no one will suspect we’re really the good guys. Will you come with me on this adventure?

Of course, your Green Hornet decorations should be green and black. Use these colors for balloons, streamers, and tableware.  Additionally, hang Black Beauty cars with fishing line from the ceiling of the party room and above the party table too.

When the party guests arrive, provide the kids with masks for the kids to wear during The Green Hornet party.  Additionally, paint Green Hornets on their faces.

For a Green Hornet craft, provide the kids with wood block cars that the kids can paint and decorate into their own Black Beauty cars.  These would be perfect to take home as a party favor.

Play Kato Tag.  Have the birthday child play Kato and set out to tag the others.

Provide the kids with green slime and have a slime-throwing contest among the party guests.

Divide the kids into two teams: The Green Hornets and the Kato(s). Set up a relay race where the kids must run to one end of the party area, and dress up as either The Green Hornet or as Kato and rush back and have the next child do the same.  First team done wins.

Black Beauty Race.  Provide the teams with two cars, any type will do, and have the kids race their Black Beauty cars.

When it comes to your Green Hornet party menu, think about the fast food scene where The Green Hornet and Kato try to order fast food and blow up the restaurant instead.  Serve up hamburgers and fries to your guests, along with fruit slices (a healthy treat), and green milkshakes (add in green food coloring!) Additionally, a batch of your favorite cupcakes, topped with green frosting and candies would also be thematic.

For your party favor, have the kids take home their masks and Black Beauty cars as a perfect party take away.