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

For Sentimental Reasons

There are just some things that have to be done on Valentine's day.  We have to have pink, heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup (I have been eating those every Valentine's since I was a child), we have to make pink, heart-shaped rice krispy treats to take to teachers (I even use the same pans that belonged to my mother), and we have to eat a heart-shaped pizza for dinner.  All other details are negotiable.

Barely a year old, and she's already getting heart-shaped boxes filled with

chocolates from a boy.  Well, they were from Dad, so I guess it's alright.

This Valentine's day marked fifteen years since Jason gave me

an engagement ring. To mark the occasion, he found this

lovely photograph of the temple we were sealed in to give to me.

I was just as romantic (not!) and gave him cologne that he had

picked out and even bought for himself.

 
There are just some things that have to be done on a day other than Valentine's day. Jason has to take me out to dinner so we are not competing with the holiday crowds (this year we chose Chili's restaurant), the boys have to sign Valentine's cards for the children in their classes, and I have to listen to Nat King Cole's Greatest hits every day during the entire week previous. All other details are negotiable.

This post authored by Amber

Not To Be All "Mushy" But...

.....Valentine's Day Was Great.

I was helped along by a website that offered this free printable for Valentine cards. 

Add some Pop Rocks and some signatures and they're ready to go.

Each of the boys received a can full of candy and a Hot Wheels Monster truck.  Brevin and

Spencer got tickets to go with Dad to Monster Jam, Dad got a pink necktie and a music

 CD (Men of the MOTAB), and Mom and Dad got new couches

(to be picked out together at a later date).

We did our traditional meals of heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast and heart-shaped

pizza with Martinellis for dinner (even though I didn't take a single picture of that).

More candy and chocolate was consumed than was necessary, and hot pink

Rice Krispy Treat hearts were given to school teachers and Primary leaders. 

Jason came home from work and asked if I had thought to put Ella in her new
red dress to take pictures for Valentine's Day. 
I had not, so I made sure to do that before the day was over.

All in all, it was a fabulous (albeit traditionally routine) Valentine's Day.

This post authored by Amber

Cupid Was Here

With February 14th landing on a Sunday, class parties were scheduled for Thursday and Friday and our family chose to celebrate the entire day on Saturday. It worked out perfectly. After all, you can't "spread all that love" in just one day!T
he Valentines

I found this clever Valentine card idea on another blog and I had to try it this year. We took a photo of each of the boys holding out their arm with a clenched fist. A little bit of work in Photoshop to create a border, a greeting, and a place to address the card was all it took to give these Valentines a finished look. A small slit was cut at the top and base of the hand, and a sucker was inserted. I had to laugh, though, when Brevin came home with two other Valentines from his class with the same design concept. I should have known. The blog I found the idea on is pretty popular. We also delivered our traditional heart-shaped rice krispy treats to Brevin and Spencer's Primary teachers and Garrett's nursery leaders.
tional Breakfast

Another Valentine's Day tradition that comes from my childhood (just as the heart-shaped rice krispy treats) is heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup for breakfast. To the place setting, I added a gift can filled with candy and a small toy for each of the boys. Jason got a coupon book with one planned date for each month for the next year. It's a gift we will both enjoy immensely. The breakfast was a perfect way to start the morning off right. Let the calorie gorging begin!
ntine's "Tea"

I thought we'd make a day of it (you know, all of the celebrating and stuff), so we had a special Valentine Tea. "A what?" Jason kept asking me. "A Valentine Tea. You know...a Valentine Tea!" Basically it was just a glorified lunch of meat and cheese sandwiches on crescent rolls and served on china. The cupcakes and the fruit smoothies made it seem more like a "tea". My family of boys were gracious enough to humor me on this one.
e Traditional Dinner

For Valentine's Day dinner, we've always gotten a heart-shaped pizza from 5-Buck Pizza, but we tried the Papa Murphey's Take-N-Bake this time around and were very satisfied. We'll likely get our pizza from there in the future. And what "romantic" meal would be complete without a bottle or two of Martinelli's? Cheers, darling!

This post authored by Amber