I like to try to make every day special (but fail most days) so on holidays, I really make it a point to make it a special day for our family. We decided a few years ago to do a family date for V-Day, since it's kinda hard to find babysitters and the kids feel gipped and everything. Then we'd do our own thing another day.
This year, the kids helped me make giant Hershey Kiss rice krispy treats for some neighbors and friends! We wrote individualized messages on each of the strips of paper coming out of the Kisses.
I made one V-Day craft this year, a little wreath made out of felt circles and pins on a styrafoam heart. I got all of the supplies LAST Valentine's Day but never got around to it. So I made the time to get 'er done nd I enjoyed doing it during nap time while watching Anne of Green Gables. Emma even helped me on this one a little!
We have had fun writing love notes and cards and letters to each other and putting them in our little V-Day mailbox throughout the month. And we got some fun letters and Valentines in the real mail! First, a package from Grandma Di! Homemade chocolates, a sweet book that made me cry (and no it has nothing to do with pregnancy hormones), some other fun activities for the kids. Thanks! The kids were thrilled! I didn't take any pics of the kids opening the package because I think my phone was dead from kids playing games on it and my camera is becoming almost obsolete now. But I remembered to take a pic of the last cherry cordial chocolate, mmm! Also, we got a fun card from "the kittys at Grandma Sue & Grandpa Dan's house". The kids got a kick out of it. That came with some money to go get dinner somewhere. Well, we went to the Onion on President's Day. So thank you, kitties (and racoons)! :) We also got some from cousins as well, which were so adorable!
Along with dropping the bomb and announcing our baby news, we sent "long distance hugs" to family members. We traced the kids' hands and attached them to the length of ribbon of their arms and then put this poem in the middle and decorated them with a few paper hearts. I hope everyone knows we love them so much and wish we could hug them all of the time!
For Valentine's Day this year, we used the theme Hugs & Kisses this year! Coming up with a theme helps me to come up with ideas. We had so much fun, like always!
In the morning, our little sweeties woke up happy, Emma even woke up on her own before I went in to drag her out of bed. We made heart biscuits with cinnamon butter and then got ready for school. I did Emma's hair in heart shapes this year, which turned out pretty cute and was super easy to do. Then Emma went off to school for her little party (and a little school work) and the kids and I played and read and cuddled and cooked and cleaned. Cal also had a little preschool party, which he loved! He and Emma loved comparing Valentine's and treats and going through them. They were both good about sharing with Lucy as well. Sweet!
That night, we ate dinner first. We had homemade Olive Garden at home - Pasta e fagoli, never ending breadsticks, OG salad, and the spinach artichoke dip & toasted bread. It seems like most years I end up doing some kind of Italian food for this holiday. It's just so savory and romantic or something. The kids kept busy by doing their activity placemats.
We got visited by the Young Women from our ward. They gave us a "heart attack" on our front door, so that was cute. A couple of our cute neighbors dropped off treats too - some cuties from the Bennetts, cookies from the Gomez's and some cupcakes from Bob & Marie.
Then it was time for the festivities...first, we did a Kissing Photo Booth. I gave everyone a chalk board and let them write whatever they wanted on it, and we had a few lip and moustache props as well. David's caption was "Kiss me, I'm a Cougar!", mine said "Nothing's better than a kiss from mom!" Emma's said "Free Kisses" (she came up with hers herself, so cute!) and Lucy's wrote Kisses (and we colored a pair of lips under that) for Kisses (colored a chocolate Hershey kiss under that). I thought I'd be all on the ball and have the table set in the afternoon and everything ready to go. I scattered chocolate kisses on the table, and I had to run upstairs for a second. When I came down, Lucy was devouring the chocolate! She loves that stuff! So I had to take everything down and wait. :)
We then played a few games. We had the Hug Awards. Everyone gave each family member a hug. I made up certificates for everyone. Then on the certificates, everyone had to write why that hug from each person was the best. We had everything from the best cuddle hug to the best caring hug and the best runaway hug (Lucy kept trying to run away from me thinking it was so funny so I had to track her down) and the best shakey hug. So everyone had four reasons their hugs are the best on there. Then we did a Whose Lips are Whose game. I let everyone choose a lipstick and we planted a smooch on a piece of paper with a number. We had to guess whose lips were whose and didn't have much of a problem guessing everyone elses! After that, we played Pin the Lips on Ms. Valentine. Emma helped make Ms. Valentine, who Emma colored to look like her. We also had a Valentine's Day movie we checked out from the library we never got to and a bunch of Valentine's books, so we read those the next day or two, since it got too late. So we tucked the kids in and gave them extra hugs and kisses and sent them off to dream land.
We also exchanged presents. The kids got a card from Dave & I along with little boxes of chocolates. I made a pillow case for Dave that had a quote by Dr. Suess on it that I think sums it all up for me:
"You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams."
He picked out some tulips (with the help of Emma) and made a sweet note for me talking about my "two lips" and other adorable things. His words always melt my heart! Still. I love when he writes a cute note for me and leaves it on our dry erase board or scribbles cute notes in my planner. He's so sweet!
The love didn't stop there, either. On Saturday night, we had the Bennetts over for Saturday Sweethearts Night. We busted out the chocolate fountain and dipped all kinds of deliciousness in it (oreos, pretzels, marshmallows, brownies, cinnamon bears, and strawberries). Then we watched our wedding videos together (the Bennett's was so adorable and so fit their personalities!). We finished things off by playing the Newlywed Game while the kids played with playdough and heart shaped cookie cutters.
Happy Valentine's Day and hugs and kisses to all of my loves! <3 adorable="" amp="" and="" aunts="" both="" can="" dave="" feel="" friends="" from="" grandparents="" hope="" i="" kids="" love="" much="" my="" nbsp="" neices="" neighbors="" nephews="" of="" p="" parents="" return="" sets="" siblings="" so="" somehow="" that="" to="" too="" uncles="" you="">
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