Be Mine…

My loves and I have been celebrating hearts day all month long!
AB loved waking up to a Valentine card every morning from her Daddy and me. Mames loved it, too, even though she didn’t really know what it was! :)
We each picked out a box of Valentines (DW’s were Transformers and mine were Disney princesses) and starting February 1st, we wrote the girls a note each day telling them something we loved about them. We left them in their “big envewopes” as AB called them. I made the knock-off Pottery Barn Kids chair-back envelopes back in January…both ideas were Pinterest inspired. :)
We made a Valentine tree one day for the playroom and then decided to add a few more “lovey” touches to it…AB is like her Momma and likes anything festive!! :)We’ve had several Valentine tea parties this month…
AB looks for any excuse to host tea. :)

The week before Valentines, we started something that will hopefully be a monthly thing… brother/sister night with Van & Amber, Adam & Lauren, and Kelsey. DW and I have been wanting to designate a night every month that we try to get everyone together, and we finally made it happen. We had such a good time, and I couldn’t help myself- it was SO close to Valentine’s Day that we had to make it our theme. :) We played a fierce game of “Farkle” and although I’m usually as competitive as the rest of the crew, I was fine with Kels winning…it’s always fun to see a baby sister beat her big brother(s). (Must be the baby sister in me). My brothers-in-law didn’t even, though I’m sure they wanted to, kill me when I explained the last “activity” for the evening. I’d written everyone’s names on a card, then we all randomly chose one, and had to write something we love/or something encouraging to the person whose name was on the card we had drawn. I think I REALLY scared them all when I said we’d all hold hands and sing “Kum-bi-ya” afterward. Of course we weren’t going to do that, but it made the card writing not seem so bad for them after that.
They’re all such good sports, and while it seemed a little silly/awkward at first, I think in the end, it was sweet hearing something encouraging from someone else in the family. I know it was for me. I promised them next month no theme, no decorations and no love notes, so hopefully they’ll all come back! :)
Wednesday, we had our music time at the library and sang some valentine songs and read a Valentine story. That night, we had an Ash Wednesday service at church. How fitting that Ash Wednesday fall that close to Valentines Day!

Valentines Day morning we had a heart themed breakfast and had invited Stephanie and the boys over. After breakfast, we decorated heart shaped sugar cookies for a few of our peeps. It was definitely more like a little cookie and icing to go with the sprinkles, but the kids did them all by themselves.  

For our Valentine dinner, we stayed home. The restaurants are all crazy busy and crowded that night and we’d rather not fight it, so we always cook a good meal at home. It’s a tradition we started with Cooper’s first Valentines Day, although this year was the first year we called it “fancy” – because when you’re a four year old girly-girl, “fancy” is really impressive! AB did call it our “China dinner” several times, too. She got so excited when I told her we were going to use our nice dishes to eat on and that it’s called “china.” I told her that her daddy and I got it when we got married. Anytime I say something about us getting married or about our wedding, she’ll come back with.. “that’s when I was in your’s tummy, right mommy?”  Um, not so much. :)
After our dinner, we  exchanged our Valentines. Uncle Adam & Aunt Nen came over to bring the girls their Valentines and get some kisses, too.
There were Valentine cards, treats and calls from the grandparents, too- One things for sure- we’re all loved from our head to our toes!
How fun to have a special day to celebrate the love we have for each other EVERY day!
~amw~