Tines-Valen Day!

I posted a little survey on Valentine's Day, but now I need to post about our actual day! Celebrating Valentine's Day is just so much more fun with kiddos! And this year, we actually celebrated "Tines-Valens Day" as Jackson called it.

My amazing hubby helped the kids pick out some flowers for me on Tuesday while I was at class. It was a total shock because it was two days early. I love fresh flowers and I love them even more when my little boy is beaming with pride as he tells me that he picked them out. Oh, the love!

I had all sorts of fun things for the kids on Valentine's that I had been planning for awhile and was waiting to put it all together on Wednesday night. It didn't even dawn on me that the kids would have a party, so when their teacher reminded me on Wednesday-- well, it made for a crammed evening! Oops!

We converted Halloween buckets into Valentine buckets with construction paper, stickers, and foam letters.

Thankfully, my mom had picked up some Transformers valentines. Jackson wrote a letter J on one, and then Derek had to write his name on the rest. Jackson did apply the stickers though. 

As for Belle's valentines, I just cut out some hearts, gave her a marker and a few stickers and she went to town. 

The kids had painted some hearts on some would-be-valentines several weeks ago. Unfortunately, that didn't quite happen. Maybe Grandmas will get a valentine for St. Patty's day.

Jackson did use one to make a note for Miss Beth though! (You can tell by the M that he was pretty entertained by leaving the marker on the page, so it would bleed into large circles... I had to get him to refocus!) That's his name on the bottom along with a heart (above the A). 

I made some Fruit Loop marshmallow treats for the kids to have for breakfast and for them to share as treats.

Their lunch had heart PB&J tortillas and cheese. They had candy hearts with pretzels and some pink fruit salad. Belle ate all of her candy hearts, but Jackson thought they were gross. (Me too, buddy!)

I picked up some items for the kiddos to open in the morning. They both got books (Transformers for Jackson; Alphabet for Belle) and cups with crazy straws. 

All of that was accomplished on Wednesday night. Did I mention that we don't get home from church until 7:45?!?! Whew! It was a busy night.

I left work a little early to spend some times with the kids before Derek and I went on a date that evening. Jackson was SO excited about his valentine party! He emptied his bucket on the table when we got home and told me about every single one of them. Belle was pretty happy too-- that girl loves her some candy. We even had some valentine's in the mail (thanks Gram-Gram, Grammy, and Aunt Mary!) and when Grandma Linda came over to babysit she brought cards too! The kids are loved beyond belief. :)

Derek and I carried out our Valentine pizza tradition. This year, we ventured to Minski's on the South Plaza. Loved it! We even got a heart pizza (with Bacon and extra cheese). And because some movie exec somewhere in Hollywood thought it'd be a funny joke to have Die Hard released on what is supposed to be a romantic day, our after pizza activity was watching Die Hard 5. (side note: I should get some awesome wife points for not insisting on a sappy love movie.)

So our day was great. Even though I know that Valentine's is a commercially driven holiday, I really enjoy celebrating and taking the time to make people feel special and loved. Hope your day was great!