Some "Kool" Valentines

    I take part of an awesome group of ladies where we have product and goodies exchanges. It's been a blast and I've lots of fun (and luck) finding things to trade from various subscription boxes. Recently to celebrate Valentine's Day there was a two part exchange. First part was to send a Valentine to everyone in your set group and keep it within one stamp to mail. Second part was to prepare and send a package of goodies to a match within that group. 

    Since T.W is mastering the fine art of writing his name I signed him up for this exchange. What better way to motivate a 4 year old than the promise of mail just for him and an awesome goodies package??! 

    Figuring a number of people would send stickers with their valentines, I wanted to look into something versatile and fun for all the ages within in our which ranged from 18 months to 8 years. After some brain storming searching we decided on focusing our Valentine on a packet of Kool-Aid. 

    This is what we came up with - just a simple one sided 5x7 card with his name (signed on a sticky label so it didn't smudge on the photo paper and he could write his name plenty of times if he had to) and a packet of Kool-Aid double sided taped to the empty space. 

"Ohh yeah! You are one KOOL Valentine!"

That's what Kool-Aid Man would say right? Haha.

    My cards just had one hitch and that was with the paper insert of ideas I needed more than one stamp to send, but I asked the ladies to let me know when they received our card so I could send them the pdf of ideas that T.W picked out. Side note - after searching online at all the Kool-Aid ideas I realize now there is a crap ton of things you can do with a packet of Kool-Aid!! 

    Since I didn't have to condense all the ideas down to one paper I rearranged them and blew up the text for better viewing. Here are a few of the ideas we included on our pdf.

** Add a smidge to plain yogurt or applesauce for flavor.

** Color Easter eggs. Choose your flavor and color of Kool-Aid, all have their own specific color usually matching the color on the packet Add 2/3 cup of water and packet to hot or cold water and stir. Add hard boiled eggs and let them sit in the mixture until the desired color is obtained. You don't need vinegar as Kool-Aid contains citric acid Let the eggs dry completely

** An oldie but a goodie! Make popsicles.

** Kool-Aid Cookies Pack Kool-Aid your choice of flavor 1 2/3 Cups sugar 1 1/4 Cups butter 2 eggs, beaten 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 3 Cups flour 1/2 Cups sugar for dipping Mix Kool-aid with sugar. Add softened butter and mix until fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in salt and baking soda. Add flour in 1/2 cup increments and mix well after each addition. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the sugar. Place them on greased cookie sheet and into 325 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from sheet after 1 minute, let cool.

** Kool-Aid Water Colors
Pour several different packs of Kool-Aid into individual glass containers (Plastic will stain) add a tablespoon of water to each container stir until dissolved. Give the kids paint brush and paper and let them go to painting

** Colored Rice for sensory play Rice uncooked we used about 3-4 cups Kool-aid packet water vinegar 1/3 cup ) How to make: Add 2-3 cups of water, Kool-aid packet and vinegar in a bowl. Stir for couple min. then let rice sit for about 1/2 hour to get the color to set. Drain and let it sit over night on a cookie sheet to dry.

** There are many, many recipes online to make a dough to play with that involves Kool-Aid. We had 2 on our list - one that was "regular" and one that was "gluten free" 

    What fun ideas do you have for mail-able Valentines that only use one first class stamp? Would you send stickers? Scratch offs? Giftcards?