V-Day Celebrations

Preliminary Activities

The Sunday before Valentine's Day, I got Cat started on making her Valentines.  I instructed her on the process, typed and printed the message, cut the colored paper for her, and filled some of the bags with pretzels.  She did the rest, and was quite put out with how much time it took, haha.  But I love that they turned out cute, and appropriately imperfect, since they're from her, not me, and she's old enough to do much of it herself.

At the same time we had Cat's Valentine project covering the kitchen table, I was also making Valentine boxes for our family.  (We crush our boxes and immediately throw them in with the other recyclables when they're empty, so I had to use boxes that were still being used, which is why I could only find 4 and Ben and I shared.)  That night we began writing little notes to each other and putting them in our boxes.  We added to the boxes during the week leading up to Valentine's Day.

Jack's school mandated "store-bought" Valentines, which I completely understand with food allergies being as prevalent as they are.  So I scrapped my original plan to make pretzel Valentines for him (the pretzels were store-bought, but I thought they should also probably be in their original packaging..?) and the Monday before V-Day we browsed at the store with the goal of spending less than $3.  He wanted printed Hot Wheels Valentines, but even though the idea of buying ready-to-go cards was appealing, it also made me a bit twitchy.  So we kept browsing, and when I saw Hershey Nuggets, I was sure we could find an easy way to make them into a car Valentine for Jack to give out.  He loves chocolate, so he agreed pretty easily, though he really wanted the Hot Wheels too.  When I got home I found this printable school bus and Jack agreed.  They were quick and easy to put together, and I just made a simple card on the computer, leaving room at the bottom for Jack to write his name. He wrote his name on about 10 cards before he was fed up with it, but he never got bored of playing with all of the little buses.  He got out his Tonka bus as the fleet manager.  And he was really upset that I made him put the buses away, for fear they wouldn't survive until Valentine's Day.

The day before V-Day, I took Jack and Eliza to our ward building to decorate sugar cookies with our playgroup.

On the Big Day

We had a fun Valentine's Day, though it was toned-down a bit from last year's (which is a good thing.)  The kids were ecstatic to find candy hearts strewn on the table when they woke up.  "Can we eat these??"

So as they enjoyed their appetizer, then made their way over to empty the dishwasher, I made the real breakfast.  I have a heart-shaped waffle maker that was a wedding gift, so I just made waffles and (pink) whipped cream with strawberries.  Mmmm.

We didn't do anything exciting the morning of V-Day.  Ben didn't have classes in the morning, so he stayed home with J & E while I went to an OB appointment, then I sneaked in a work out and shower before we had lunch together and Ben left for school.  I took Jack to school, and he was simply giddy at the thought of bringing his Valentines to school.  Eliza has been trying to give up her nap lately, and on this day she came upstairs after not napping, and wanted to wear all pink clothes, with a twirly skirt.  She found the clothes herself and got dressed mostly independently.  Notice the inside-out skirt. I thought her color theme appropriate for the day-o-love.

The kids had a great time going through the Valentine loot after school, and Cat and Jack were kind enough to share with each other and with Eliza.  Here they are enjoying Fun Dip and showing off the resulting colored tongues.

Then the kids and I tried to clean the house before Ben came home (we didn't completely succeed) and Ben and I made our traditional fondue dinner and dessert.  Mmmm.

After dinner, the kids got ready for bed, then we read the notes we'd written to each other.  It was really sweet to see how excited the kids were about their notes, and to hear how much thought they'd put into their notes.  (Jack and Eliza's were mostly scribbles, but they took them very seriously.)

Happy Valentine's Day!