The other day we wrote about sharing Valentines Day with your children with a Valentines Day living room picnic dinner. In this post we're sharing an idea that lets you turn your children into the sweetest Valentine I can imagine receiving. It's a super easy project you can do in minutes using adorable vintage Valentine images and your even more adorable little sweetheart. Check it out.

Our new 2009 Summer Camp Guide is up with over 70 New York City Day Camps, Suburban Day Camps, Sleep Away Camps, and Camp Services. Whether you're looking for a program for your preschooler for a couple of days a week, a week-long program to explore a special interest like science, the arts or a favorite sport, looking to stay in the city, or bus them out for some country air every day, or even a great sleep-away camp, we've got lots of great camps for you to choose from. Check it out.

Yes, keeping the romance alive with your spouse is important even after you have kids, sometimes more so. But, I've never been a big fan of the forced romance of Valentine's Day. We love celebrating Valentine's Day with our kids, who get much more pleasure out of chocolates and flowers than I ever have.

Our tradition starts the night before when my husband cuts paper hearts out of construction paper and sprinkles them all over my daughter's bed and bedroom floor while she sleeps so that she wakes up to a sea of love. And the day concludes with the four of us enjoying a candlelit picnic of delicacies spread out on the floor of our living room. Again, our kids love the romance and I think we have our own kind of romantic moment from being a young family all happy together.

Plan your own romantic Valentines Day dinner for four at home and make it even more magical by not having to lift a finger. Susie's Supper Club is a new service that will deliver a complete dinner ready to heat up and serve. Not only is the food delicious, but it is much healthier than restaurant food, made from organic ingredients purchased from local farms practicing sustainable farming.

I think the holiday hang-over is finally over and the family events machine is gearing up again. This weekend there are too many great events to list so make sure to check our calendar for lots more fun activities we just couldn't get to here. But, below are some super winter festivals, kids day at the comic conference, free museum programs and stay tuned. Later in the day I have some cool film events to share.  

Got a note from Emmanuel who wanted to know about Winter Vacation Camps so we rounded up some cool ones. There are vacation camps for every kid from preschoolers to teenagers with lots of variety; science camps, arts camps, sports camps, even a week-long skiing and sleep away camp in the Berkshires. Cool.

Last Spring the lovely people at Universal Studios Orlando invited us to visit their park in Florida for a VIP tour. It's not something I might have sprung for normally, but after having the most amazing theme park experience ever, I am completely sold that this is now the only way to ever see a theme park. And after doing a little frugal mommy math, I think I can even justify it as paying for itself.

So here's the deal with the Universal Studios VIP tour. I haven't been on any Disney World or any other theme park VIP tours so I don't know if they are all the same, but basically it works like this: You meet your guide and he chats with you about what kind of stuff you want to do. Then he takes you through the park, completely picking out the itinerary so you don't have to think about it at all. But the most amazing thing about the VIP tour is you cut every line (except like two rides that are too popular to let people cut without instigating a vengeful mob scene.) and move through the park at lightning speed, which not only is super cool and fun, but takes all the stress out of visiting a theme park, eliminates fights between siblings about where to go next, and completely eliminated my own exhaustion and fatigue.

Some people think life is just one big party. If you are one of these un-serious people who's always looking to have "fun" and likes to be "cheerful" and "happy" then perhaps you would also enjoy going to a cheerful, happy party that was "free." Thanks to Moey, the New York City musician who is perhaps responsible for more cheerful happy, partiness than any self-respecting grown-up should be, there's going to be lots of free cheerful happy partying going around in New York this month. So grab your toddlers and preschoolers and go, but be sure to talk sternly to them afterward so they don't get the wrong idea about life.

Moey's going to be partying at these New York Public Library Branches:

This weekend is jam-packed with fun Chinese New Year Activities. Find the best ones in our previous Lunar New Year activities round-up. In our Free Friday round-up today we've got the best activities for this weekend, mostly free, including a couple new Chinese New Year events, a real PowWow, budding architects can learn about sustainable design, and a new series at the Museum of Natural History that will get your little scientists excited. Have fun!