An Emoji-onal Valentine's Day!

This year, we had a very #emoji-onal Valentine's Day.

#CreativeValentineBoxes  - The kids made their Valentine boxes the Sunday before the big day.  Emma came up with a Princess Leia idea, which turned out super cute.  Better yet, she did 99.9% of it on her own, I just helped her glue for a couple seconds.  It's hard to believe this is her last year in elementary school, last box.  So sad, but exciting at the same time.  Cal wanted to make a Minion, Stuart the one-eyed Minion to be exact.  He's not the biggest arts and crafts guy, but I gave him an oatmeal box and he had fun slapping it together.  Lucy's idea had been formulating in her brain for weeks.  She wanted to make "Lucy's Sweet Shop", so we bought a bunch of candy from the store, and she designed it and we hot glued things where she wanted it.  She said it looked so good she wanted to eat it, but luckily she didn't, wouldn't want any glue in our systems.  Cov wanted to follow suit and make one too, and decided to do a sugar coated one like Lucy so he used her leftovers and we glued them where he wanted it.

#Beoursmail  We got some fun valentines from Grandma Di & Grandpa Scott.  Lucy loved the glass heart stones, and said "it's raining!"  We got some sweet treats, a cute Peanuts book and some decor for mom.  Thanks!!  Love you back!

#LovelyTreats  We made a few fun snacks to get us in the valentines mood.  We made a veggie bouquet for after school snacks one day and also used graham crackers, frosting and candy hearts to play tic tac toe.  Super fun!

#Beautiful Morning  We started out the morning with the kids looking in their valentine mail bags on their doors, which they usually look in there most mornings, but I usually only get something in there once a week.  I was lazy the night before watching too much Olympics, so I was finishing their cards as they were waking up.  They loved them and their new shirts.  We ate some red velvet cinnamon rolls shaped like hearts for breakfast, which were a hit.  Later, we took some to a brother from our branch, and a few other neighbors.

#HeartyParties -  Cov had some fun, first at preschool the week before at our house. We did all kinds of fun things that were heart related, and they liked the candy heart experiments and games best! Then, during the day on Valentine's Day, we went to the library for Story Hour, where the kids made valentines for loved ones and decorated cupcakes. What a goon!  He also enjoyed his preschool party, which was the day before V-Day (and I think we hid his shirt...getting too small but he's in denial).  It was quite epic and he couldn't say enough about it.  After lunch, we went to the nursing home and passed out secret heart message hearts we made and chocolates to the residents.  Cov was so fun, and especially liked Andy and told me he smiled biggest at him because he had a fun laugh and was so happy.  Cov was very sweet to the people there.  Cal, Emma & Lucy had fun parties at school too.  Cal and Emma made cotton candy from our machine for their classes and I got to help out in Lucy's, where we played minute to win it games, ate chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, fruit, little sandwiches, and cake bombs.  Lucy was quite proud of the fizzy Sprite heart ice cubes we put in the cherry punch.  She was very specific about what she wanted.  Cov loved tagging along, too.  

#FirstVDaySweetie  Sydnie was so cute and everywhere we went, everyone commented about how adorable she went and how sweet she is.  

#VDayDate - The kids thought an emoji themed family valentine date would be fun, so even though the emoji thing kind of drives Dave and I crazy sometimes we went with it!  We made some valentines for all of the family the week before and made heart face emoji valentines.  My favorite was the Voldemort one they made for their cousin Steven, which was an inside joke. They were quite proud.  Emma talked about love at FHE a few weeks ago and our valentine traditions got brought up, and I was surprised by how excited and how much these kiddos look forward to our family date. The kids got some new emoji shirts from us in the morning along with some cards I made.  First, we took some pictures before shirts were stained and kids were tired and we didn't look too terrible. ;) We decorated with some cute banners and plates from Hobby Lobby and started out first with dinner.  We had pizza with a heart emoji face made out of pepperonis, salad, fruit with dip and cherry punch with sprite heart ice cubes.  We didn't do a dessert this year, as the kids got plenty that day.  Our friends the Geottles two littles came over, we watch them on Wednesday nights while they teach religious ed classes at their church and so they joined in on the fun.  First, the kids got to color cute emoji heart puzzles.  Then we played memory matching game with emojis on the bottom of some Hershey hugs. After that, we played "hot potato" but used the emoji pens the kids just got.  We were going to use Cal's smiley sunglasses emoji pillow "Bob", but we couldn't find it anywhere.  So we made it work.  During the game, Cov got cranky and was being rude and hit, so he got to go to bed and miss the rest of the party.  Then our friends went home and we played our last game for the night.  Create your emoji was the next game we played I came up with.  I cut out six circles for each person.  We had to design an emoji for ourselves and for each other.  We started out with our own, making our very own emoji and then passed them to each other.  We shared them at the end and had some good laughs!  They were great!  Cal even said that was his favorite part of the whole day.  Lucy asked if Valentine's Day was really over, she had such a great day and couldn't wait until the next one and then remembered her birthday was coming up soon and then went off on a tangent about that. 

We ran out of time to watch the Emoji movie so we did that and another game after. We each drew a name and got to write a love letter for that person using our own words and emoji stickers.

#JustThe2ofUs  - Dave and I went on our date later that weekend.  We checked out the Bum Steer restaurant in Flaxville and went on a drive around that area and towards White Tail.  It was impressive food actually, and there were only a few that were drunk there.  ;)  Sure love my sweetie.  He's been under a lot of pressure and high stress situations lately at work but he doesn't bring home his problems.  He is kind and loving and makes time for us.  He's such a sweetheart.  Always great to spend time with him.  He gave me a sweet surprise box that had lots of fun goodies in it, and I got him a Dave's 4 Wheeler fund jar and am going to put all my piano/babysitting money in it from here on out.  He was super excited and loved it!