Today officially marks the beginning of the month of love, otherwise known as February. If you talk to my 7-year-old, though, you’d think Valentine’s Day is the only day in February. She loves celebrating everything about Valentine’s – love, friendship, pink, red, chocolates, flowers – you name it, this holiday was made for my girl! In past years, we’ve picked out Valentine’s cards so she could hand out to her classmates. This year, I thought we might try something a little different and test out Brach’s Create Your Own Conversation Hearts, a new product exclusive to Walmart.

Using the kit that we were sent by Walmart and Brach’s, my baby girl and I sat down to create some nice hearts for her friends and write encouraging messages using the food-safe pen that’s included. She decided to write her classmates cute messages such as ‘U are the best,’ ‘U R my BFF,’ and ‘U R #1′ – she also made her teacher a special heart, as you can see in the photo below.

I really like that the hearts are large and have ample room for kids to write their messages, since they typically write bigger than an adult. I also like that these Create Your Own Conversation Hearts take a long-standing fun Valentine’s tradition and adds an element of personalization. Now you can write whatever message you want for your Valentine instead of digging through the standard conversation hearts to find an appropriate message. No more awkward moments of handing your classmate a heart that says ‘Be mine’!

My girl decided to try a few of the extra hearts in a home-made ice cream sundae to see how they’d taste. While she didn’t think the conversation hearts mixed well with her ice cream, she did have a lot of fun writing her friends special messages for Valentine’s Day. In turn, I enjoyed spending a little one-on-one time with my girl and talking about each of her friends as we created the hearts. We even made a couple of extra special hearts to give to her daddy and baby brother!

How do your kids usually celebrate Valentine’s Day with their friends?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received a sample and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™