VALENTINES DAY

Holidays are so MUCH fun with kiddos to celebrate.  This year I stole an idea from a post a friend put up...mailboxes with daily love notes and a piece of chocolate for the kids.  They LOVED it.  Each morning after breakfast they were so excited for their candy to see what their notes said!  We would then tape them up on the door so they could see how MUCH they are loved.  Taija didn't have preschool on the 14th so they had their party on Wednesday.  She was so excited!  We worked hard on her Valentines to share.  She wrote each of her classmates names and signed it with hers.  I made the mistake of taking ALL of the kids with me to the store to pick out which ones she wanted - so, Luke ended up getting some too.  The day of the party arrived and Taija helped me bake some cinnamon rolls to share (we had signed up to bring a baked item).  We even shaped them into hearts!  Poor Luke and Mika wanted to stay and play too.  Taija was such an awesome big sister.  On the way home in the car she told Luke he could have one of her suckers.  She pulled out each and EVERY Valentine she received and had me read her the names on it.  Taija even gave Luke the Ninja Turtle card since she was sure he would LOVE it.  It warms my heart to see how much she loves her siblings.  Luke tripped (and may have been eating his sucker) and broke the candy heart that Taija had given him.  He was so upset, but Taija was right there to give him another one.  And since he didn't like the new one, she found another one for him - no worries it wasn't wasted, just given to Mika.

On Valentines Day we hosted a fun HEART party for our friends.  The previous day was a CRAZY blizzard and we were worried no one would show up.  Luckily overnight it cleared up enough.  So the PARTY was ON!  We frosted heart shaped cookies, with enough sprinkles for an army; made cards; had a cupcake walk; and visited with our friends!  Thanks to Stephanie for taking such awesome pics and letting me steal them!

 

Cupcake walk (a few of the kids, including two of mine, decided to dress up before the cupcake walk, hence spiderman, the police officer, and princess)

Thanks to everyone who came...we sure had A LOT of FUN!

That evening we decided to have pizza (I was going to make a traditional 'red and pink' dinner, but totally failed making sure I had all of the ingredients).  Justin came home with cute cards for each of us to open.  The kids HELD on to theirs the rest of the evening!  I sure do LOVE all of my Valentines!