Eat, Sleep, and Drink Pink

Since Valentine's Day is a day about celebrating love, I thought I'd show everyone how our family loves to celebrate this day.  Usually it involves eating food prepared in a specific color scheme, loaded in sugar, and generally shaped like hearts.  (It's not exactly our healthiest of holidays, but then, what holiday is?)

At one time, I used to make clever hand-crafted valentine's for my children to deliver to their classmates, often with some small candy attached, but last year I began buying valentines from the store.  As it turns out, it is much simpler to do it that way, it costs much less, and I don't have to fret over which of all the ideas found on the internet is best to try and duplicate.  The boys chose Avengers valentines, and each card came with a matching pencil.

On the morning of Valentine's Day, we had the table set, ready for our traditional heart-shaped pancakes and strawberry syrup.  The children also received their own personal bucket filled with candies.  Inside each bucket was a gift certificate good for a ride with Mom or Dad on a favorite attraction at Disneyland.  The certificates were only redeemable for a specific set of days.  That was our way of letting the children know we would be going to Disneyland for spring break.
 

They were a little confused at first, but once the realization set in, you can imagine how excited they all were about their certificates.

Each certificate was customized to each child, and had offers for a ride on their favorite attraction from our last Disneyland visit.  Garrett's certificate had Pirates of the Caribbean, Ella's had Monsters Inc., Spencer's featured Indiana Jones, and Brevin's listed Star Tours. 

Once everyone had a chance to be photographed holding their plate displaying a pancake, it was time for breakfast.

After the older boys left for school, I prepared to host a Valentine's party at my home as part of my preschool teaching rotation.  At the party, Garrett and his friends exchanged valentines, decorated bags, and made various heart-shaped crafts. Each child received a heart-shaped rice krispy treat from me.

When Brevin and Spencer arrived home from school, we delivered the remainder of the rice krispy treats to Primary teachers and Nursery leaders.
 

The evening brought us together as a family for a candle-light dinner of heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, and for desert, Ella finally got to eat the cake that she had been admiring all day. 

(Jason and I went alone on a dinner date the following night to the Olive Garden.) 

The cake was a concoction inspired by the photos I saw on NIENIE's Valentine party here. I put my own twist on the layers inside and even switched up the colors a bit, and I decided not to display it on a $100 cake stand.  I loved how it turned out, and Ella loved how it tasted.  She requested cake for every meal for three days straight.  I think I did, too.  Gotta love holidays.

This post authored by Amber