For Valentine’s Day last year, the kids created a door of hearts for my husband. When Valentine’s Day passed this year and the hearts weren’t replaced, my husband assumed they were never going to be replaced. He was wrong! We updated the door of hearts for his birthday surprise earlier this month.

We created 12 hearts divided between two children so each child had 6 hearts. One of hearts was for a drawing of the child and their dad. The other five hearts were for writing down what they love about their dad.

Supplies:

• 12 sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ white cardstock
• printer
• scissors
• markers
• Scotch tape

Instructions:

1. Print out twelve hearts onto white cardstock. You can download my PDF file for personal use here. Twelve hearts were adequate to cover our door but there was probably room for up to 4 more.

2. Have the children cut out the hearts with scissors. When using the hearts later, make sure to use the side that was not printed on so no leftover lines can be seen on the finished hearts.

3. Interview each child and write down 5 things the child loves about their dad. I wrote down everything each child said making sure everything was spelled correctly.

4. Have the children write one thing they love on each heart and decorate it. They can copy the words from your notes. Each of my kids had their own ideas about how to decorate their hearts.

5. Have each child create a drawing of themselves with their dad on their last heart.

6. Use tape to attach the hearts to the door. I put tape in three spots on the back of the hearts to make sure they didn’t fall down.

My husband loved his birthday surprise! I think we will probably update the door of hearts on a different holiday each year to keep him guessing.

I think a door of hearts surprise would be great for Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, anniversaries or birthdays. You can make anyone feel loved with this fun surprise. Kids, moms, dads, teachers, friends or co-workers would all love it.