Strawberry Meringue Hearts for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is sneaking up on us again so I figured it was about time I shared the treats that the girls gave out to their classmates last Valentine's Day. I know, I know... always on time!

For her 8th birthday Lola had an emoji themed birthday party (which you can see here) and one of the biggest hits with the kids were the poop emoji chocolate meringues that I made. I totally need to share THAT recipe here too. I'll get there! Anyway, I made up an extra batch of the poop emoji chocolate meringues to hand out to her classmates to celebrate her birthday at school and they LOVED them. I'm talking kids coming up to me every day at drop off asking if I had more of them to hand out. Kids love sugar!

Anyway, when it came time to work on Valentine's treats for Lola's class I just knew that we had to modify the poop emoji meringue recipe into something a little more fitting for the day. What could be more fitting than pink love hearts? With cutesy eyes, of course! Needless to say, they went down a treat. In fact, Lola is keen to make them again this year for her new class.

These tasty little treats are super easy to make and look the part for Valentine's Day, so today I'm sharing the recipe with you.

A Look Back at 2019

2019... It was a year of big changes and adventures for our family. 

We took a few trips across the country and across the world, we took part in uplifting events, we went to so many cool exhibitions, we had fun parties, we celebrated holidays, we experienced so many new things... Oh, and we moved to a new state and bought a house!  

Some of these things I've shared here on Little Hiccups, others I've shared on Instagram and others I never got around to sharing anywhere. So let's take a look back at the past year and everything we got up to. Don't forget to click the bold and underlined links for a dedicated post on each event/trip/part/holiday etc. 

This is a long post, so grab a drink, something to snack on and get comfy. You'll be here a while!

Valentine's Style for Kids

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links

One holiday down, time to move onto the next one. That's right, Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It sneaks up on me every year - probably because I'm still talking Christmas in mid-January!

This year I'm going to be prepared though, and I want you guys to be prepared too, so today I'm sharing some of my favorite Valentine's Day style finds for kiddos. Cute heart and love themed clothing and accessories.

Aww... look at those two Valentine's Day cuties!

First up, here are some of my favorite love inspired clothes for kids. Valentine's Day threads tend to be pretty pink and red, and let's face it, kinda girly, so I've made sure to keep things pretty gender neutral here. As always, clink the links below to shop.

❤️️ Hanna Andersson Sueded Jersey Baseball Tee
❤️️ Molo Love is Real Tee
❤️️ Rock Your Baby Love Is Pullover
❤️️ Hanna Andersson Sueded Jersey Baseball Tee
❤️️ Hanna Andersson Love Sweatshirt
❤️️ Primary Heart Leggings
❤️️ Crewcuts by J.Crew Heart Tee
❤️️ Primary Heart Pajama Pants
❤️️ Primary Heart Pajama Top

Not feeling like decking your kids out completely in a Valentine's inspired outfit? No problem, I've got accessories for you too! Add a little extra love on the big day with temporary tattoos, hair clips, shoes, a beanie, jewelry or a Valentines colored bag to bring home all those goodies from school (these are the best shopping bags ever - I have so many of them!). Don't forget some sweet hair and body wash to send your little love off to school smelling as sweet as they are.     

❤️️ Whistle & Flute J'Taime Beanie
❤️️ Freshly Picked Sweet Thing Moccasins
❤️️ Stance Kids Sucker Socks
❤️️ Tubby Todd Sweet Valentine Hair & Body Wash
❤️️ Tattly Temporary Tattoos 
❤️️ Hello Shiso Triple Hearts Clips
❤️️ Hello Shiso Origami Heart Clip
❤️️ Freshly Picked I Heart Mom Mini Soles
❤️️ Baggu Standard 
❤️️ Yellow Owl Workshop J'Taime Pendant
❤️️ Baggu Mini
❤️️ Vans Rainbow Hearts Sneakers
❤️️ Vans Slip Ons

Looking for the tees that Lola and Mathilde are wearing above? You can find similar Danefae tees here.

Do you deck your kids out for specific holidays? I must admit that I'm a bit of a sucker for it!

Our First Christmas in Colorado

I know, I know... Christmas was a couple of weeks ago now, but I have one last Christmas themed post to share and then that's it - until December!

This time I'm sharing a round up of all the holiday fun as there were quite a few smaller events that I didn't share dedicated posts about. Oh, and our Christmas card, which I never shared on here before - although you may have received one in the mail. There are majestic mountains behind the kids in this pic, but they're hidden behind thick clouds. Clouds that later that very same day brought the heavy snowfall that we experienced over Thanksgiving break. You can see just how much snow we got here. 

Let's go back to November when the holiday fun started - before Thanksgiving, for some reason!)

National Western Stock Show Kick-Off Parade

Let's take a break from all things Christmassy and Wintry and take a look at an annual even that happens every January right in the heart of Denver. I'm talking about the National Western Stock Show and it's kick-off parade.

Every January Denver celebrates Colorado's cowboy culture with 16 days of stock shows, rodeos, horse riding events, bull riding, and animal shows, and it all kicks off with a parade through Downtown Denver.

Denver's Mile High Tree

Just when you thought I couldn't possibly have any more holiday fun to share with you, I'm back with more! And this isn't the last of it!

Remember I mentioned that the holiday magic continues for quite some time in Colorado? Well, one of the most spectacular - and free - holiday events continues all the way through to the end of January. I'm talking about the Mile High Tree, Denver's newest holiday installation.

Standing at 110 foot tall and 39 feet in diameter, the Mile High Tree is a sight to behold. As you can probably tell from the pictures above, the Mile High Tree is not really a tree. Rather, it's a conical structure covered in thousands of twinkling lights that resembles a Christmas tree. The lights twinkle and change color in amazing patterns choreographed to music (holiday music during the the holiday season and local Colorado music throughout January).

ICE! at Gaylord Rockies

It's January, but it's still looking an awful lot like Christmas around here!

Christmas may have been and gone, but the holiday fun continues a little longer here in Colorado with many Christmas themed displays and events on until next week, or in some cases, even longer. One such Christmas event that is still on for a few more days is the ICE! exhibition at Gaylord Rockies. We visited yesterday and it was such a fun experience.

Gaylord Rockies is a huge hotel and convention center located close to Denver International Airport. It's a popular spot with families, both visitors and locals alike, due to their large range of on site activities. There's a water park there that the kids are keen to check out, but that will have to wait until Summer! For now, the attractions that got our attention were more on the frosty side of things.

Ice Castles

Happy new year! Can you believe that it's 2020 already? Doesn't that sound like some sort of distant future date? You know, when we'll all have flying cars, or something like that!

Well, we don't have flying cars but we do have plenty of pretty amazing things that go beyond imagination, and we spent the last day of the last decade checking one of them out. No, nothing computerized, electronic or robotic, but something that does require science to build - along with a healthy dose of imagination and creativity. I'm talking about Ice Castles! 

Not sure what Ice Castles are? Read on... you're in for a treat! 

Every year since 2011 the team behind Ice Castles have been making magical creations one ice crystal at a time. Well, more than one a time, more like 5,000 to 12,000 icicles harvested by hand and sculpted individually into formations. These icicles grow and grow taking shapes formed by the wind, water volume, temperature and a little human assistance until they become the 25 million pound structures the public gets to see and explore. Isn't that amazing? To make these structures even more magical, there are thousands of twinkling lights inserted into the ice that glow in a range of colors and sparkle to music when the sun goes down. 

There are six Ice Castles locations around the US and Canada including Midway (Utah), North Woodstock (New Hampshire),  New Brighton (Minnesota), Lake Geneva (Wisconsin), Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) and, luckily for us, Dillon, right here in Colorado. Just like snowflakes, no two Ice Castles are the same.   

We took a trip to Dillon on New Year's Eve to experience the Ice Castles for ourselves again (we also visited last year when we visited Colorado during Winter break - you can read about that here). It was just as magical as our previous visit. Last year we visited late in the day so that we could experience both the stunning blue and white colors of the ice as it sparkled in the sun and also the colorful lights when the sun went down. Our California bodies weren't accustomed to the cold and while we had a blast, we all left feeling rather chilly. This time around we decided to just visit during the day and I made sure to choose the warmest and sunniest day in the forecast. Our bodies have also become somewhat accustomed to Colorado Winters so we didn't leave with feet feeling like blocks of ice like last year!

Okay, enough of me blabbing on, you want to see pictures, right? Prepare yourself, because I took a ton - no surprises there! Here's a look at our visit to Ice Castles...