We {Heart} Love Day!
A few years ago when my main squeeze was unemployed, we decided to tone down Valentine's Day. Ava was around 20 months old and we decided to do a romantic dinner at home rather than go out to a crowded and expensive dinner. Plus we didn't want to have to pay for a babysitter or worry about inconveniencing family if they had plans. From there our Valentine's tradition has evolved into the fun Candlelit dinner we do now.
Since Valentine's Day isn't just for sweethearts, but for the people you love we decided to involve our kids in the activities. I still want to implement a few activities in the weeks leading up to Valentine's but I am happy with our ritual evening.
The night before Valentine's Day, Tyson helped me write descriptive words on hearts that related to our children and we hung them on our kids doors to surprise them in the morning with a
HEART ATTACK!
They were ecstatic to find their colorful doors and just blushed with pride when we read what their hearts said.
Valentine's was a short day at school and Ava made this cute Penguin Sack in her Kindergarten class to hold the Valentines that all the kids exchanged. She loved trying to read each card to tell who each one was from. She was all sugared up before it was even 11 o'clock.
We ran a few errands to get some last minute Valentine's treats for Daddy at the London Market and then I took the girls over to deliver a Valentine to Papa. I wish I would have taken a picture there. The picture below is just one of my favorite pictures of Claire and Grandpa. She basically snuggled with him like this on the couch so I thought this picture would be appropriate.
By then all the little bellies were starving so we hurried home for some heart shaped PB&J sandwiches.
Here is a cute Valentine's Card the girls gave their dad!
They were excited because they know dad is a Bigfoot fan!
When our Valentine got home from work, the festivities really began. We got to work decorating the table to make it "fancy" and got the candlesticks out. This year we decided that instead of fixing something gourmet that the kiddos wouldn't touch, we would make something they loved: pizza.
We made personal pizzas and had salad with Ranch Dressing and croutons (a must).
For our drink, we had raspberry lemonade slush with sprite in "fancy glasses".
When dinner was done and on the table, we shut the lights down and lit the candles to create our romantic mood.
Talmage was mesmerized by the flames and Claire kept asking when it would be time to blow out the candles. It was so much fun. I live for these little holiday traditions. As we sat around the table eating we each took turns going around the table and telling one another the thing we loved about them the most. Ava was so sincere as she told me that she loved that I was a nurse and that I always knew what to do when she was hurt or needed help.
Tyson and I kept stealing glances at each other and I knew what we were both thinking.
Our hearts were bursting with LOVE.
Love for one another, love for our life, love for our children and love for the wonderful time we were having making this Valentines the best so far!
We know we need to treasure these years because soon enough our little ones will prefer to spend Valentine's Day on dates. {tear}
We ate our desserts compliments of So Cupcake and Cafe Normandie with a little story around the table. It is called Never Too Little to Love by Jeanne Willis and Jan Fearnley and it is one of our Valentines favorites.
We gave the girls their Valentine gifts which were new spill proof water bottles filled with some candies and we gave Talmage his Sofie the Giraffe teething toy.
The girls had as much fun playing with Sofie as Talmage did. He started chewing on her and would squeal with delight when the girls would squeeze it and make it squeak.
We ended the night by taking a Valentine to my in-laws and we had them leave briefly so the girls could surprise them with a Heart Attack on their door. The girls helped come up with descriptive words and reasons they love grammy and grandpa while we ate dinner. They were good little helpers when it came time to tape the hearts to the door and were so happy with how surprised Grammy and Grandpa were. When we got home, I caught this cute pick of two of my Valentines who were tuckered out from the days events.
Hope everyone had a wonderful day full of LOVE.
I know we did!
They were excited because they know dad is a Bigfoot fan!
When our Valentine got home from work, the festivities really began. We got to work decorating the table to make it "fancy" and got the candlesticks out. This year we decided that instead of fixing something gourmet that the kiddos wouldn't touch, we would make something they loved: pizza.
We made personal pizzas and had salad with Ranch Dressing and croutons (a must).
For our drink, we had raspberry lemonade slush with sprite in "fancy glasses".
When dinner was done and on the table, we shut the lights down and lit the candles to create our romantic mood.
Talmage was mesmerized by the flames and Claire kept asking when it would be time to blow out the candles. It was so much fun. I live for these little holiday traditions. As we sat around the table eating we each took turns going around the table and telling one another the thing we loved about them the most. Ava was so sincere as she told me that she loved that I was a nurse and that I always knew what to do when she was hurt or needed help.
Tyson and I kept stealing glances at each other and I knew what we were both thinking.
Our hearts were bursting with LOVE.
Love for one another, love for our life, love for our children and love for the wonderful time we were having making this Valentines the best so far!
We know we need to treasure these years because soon enough our little ones will prefer to spend Valentine's Day on dates. {tear}
We ate our desserts compliments of So Cupcake and Cafe Normandie with a little story around the table. It is called Never Too Little to Love by Jeanne Willis and Jan Fearnley and it is one of our Valentines favorites.
We gave the girls their Valentine gifts which were new spill proof water bottles filled with some candies and we gave Talmage his Sofie the Giraffe teething toy.
The girls had as much fun playing with Sofie as Talmage did. He started chewing on her and would squeal with delight when the girls would squeeze it and make it squeak.
We ended the night by taking a Valentine to my in-laws and we had them leave briefly so the girls could surprise them with a Heart Attack on their door. The girls helped come up with descriptive words and reasons they love grammy and grandpa while we ate dinner. They were good little helpers when it came time to tape the hearts to the door and were so happy with how surprised Grammy and Grandpa were. When we got home, I caught this cute pick of two of my Valentines who were tuckered out from the days events.
Hope everyone had a wonderful day full of LOVE.
I know we did!
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