Valentine's Day

Tim is not a fan of Valentine's Day. In all fairness, he felt this way even before we started seeing each other.

Me, I love every cheesy holiday out there! And I'm making every effort to ensure my kids do, too, at least while they're under my roof.

So we have the requisite place mats and dishes for Valentine's Day, courtesy of Target.

Gabe and I made all the Valentine's for his friends at pre-school with some fabulous foam hearts and heart and glitter stickers from Michael's.

My mom found all my old candy molds and sent them over to us. We melted down our milk chocolate (couldn't find my double boiler, but improvised) and filled them up (after washing out the decade old trays of course) and waited - PATIENTLY - for the chocolate to set.

Finished products:

Next we made a mobile to hang from our dining room light fixture. (The fixture came with the house and I don't love it, but it's not in the budget to replace yet. I think the decorations help me tolerate it much more.)

I had Gabe and Lily name all the people they could think of who love them and who we love. We wrote each name down on a pink paper heart (I consolidated some, like Gabe's friends from school and our friends from church). We decorated the hearts then hung them with red ribbon from the ugly light fixture. Now at each meal, we talk about those people and the things that make them so special to us.

As Gabe says, 'It's like Jesus and Aunt Akia (Nakia) are at dinner with us!!!!'

Or as Lily says, 'Look mommy, hearts, love, love hearts!!!!'

I just saw the CUTEST craft for Valentine's Day. All you need is white construction paper, red finger paint and green markers or crayons. (Plus tons of patience if you plan to do it w/ multiple children and no additional adult help).

Cover your munchkins hand with red paint and do a hand print on the white construction paper. Draw a stem and some leaves with your green marker.

Instant adorable Valentine's Day keepsake. And what I'll be doing tomorrow morning. So if you try to call me, I probably won't answer. I'll be up to my elbows in red paint and pleading with my children to 'JUST SIT STILL AND DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING YET!!!!!!!!!'