Valentine's Celebrations

Even though I was still recovering from surgery, I couldn't bare to let go of the valentine traditions I started.  

We enjoyed our love notes leading up to Valentine's Day.

And I still threw the fun cookie decorating party.

It was a little nuts of me to do this still not being able to stand on my feet for long but we kept things simple.  I had most things on hand.  I have this party down to a science since I've done it for 5 years now.  

The kids love this party and I felt like they needed it after I had been consumed with my recovery.

Taking one for the team is what we do as moms, right?

First MaryJane's friends while the older kids were at school.

Sadie's friends.

I wish I could have made them necklaces like last year but things needed to be simple, right?

Since Cole didn't have a cookie party at home this year, I got to help in his class on Valentines day.  

We played these two fun games I found on One Charming Party. It was a lot of fun! 

Thankfully I got to sit the whole time.  Off of the feet. :)

Love Day 2011

Valentine's Day was great this year, full of our favorite traditions.

My hutch was my favorite ever this month.  I love the pink in there.

The kids valentines.
We ordered 50 ( just enough for both classes) Valentine silly bandz from Oriental Trading Co. for $4.99.
Each pouch had a Silly band, Mini Chocolate Bar and a sticker.  

That evening we had a yummy family dinner, read our love notes, and revealed our secret pals to each other.  Do you want to know what I love about Secret pals?  It gets my 5 & 7 year old to think of someone else other than themselves.  The whispering, the planning and the anticipation of waiting for your pal to discover what you left them.

During the week, Cole had an incident with a ball and my glass lamp.  Shattered all over the floor.  I tried my best to keep my cool and remind myself that yes, it's just a lamp but I must have let my disappointment show too much.  While I was out that evening,  I came home to a replacement lamp (from the garage) in place of the broken one with a cute note from my secret pal (Sadie).  She thought of it on her own to do that for me.  My heart was so warmed by her thoughtfulness and I was beaming with pride for what this secret pal tradition has created.

Following dinner, we had yummy

"Fundue!"

(as the kids like to call it)

We look forward to this evening all year.  We need to do it more often!

We always spend Valentine's Day together as a family.  I can't think of a more perfect way to spend the day with the ones you love.  

I also love the fact that we avoid all crowded restaurant craziness.  

Our Anniversary is in March, we celebrate alone then.

I asked Cole what he was doing when I found him like this and his reply was,
 "I'm trying to close my eyes so I can really taste it."

Great suggestion Cole!  We all gave it a try and you're right.  It tasted much better!

.

Not bad for being taken by a 5 year old.  

I have to laugh because I look so tired here.  The truth is, I was really tired here.  

It was a great 14 days of celebrating Love.

Blog header 2011:

Valentine Cookie Party 2011

Look at all these darling little girls wearing their Valentine colors and cute gum ball necklaces.

What a fun group these girls are!  MaryJane loved to put herself right in the middle of all of it too.

Sadie so badly wanted to invite her kindergarten friends this year.  

I love kindergarten!  I loved hearing them sing all their fun kindergarten songs.  

"Bubble gum Bubble gum in a dish..."

So cute.

I love to see their personalities come out in their decorating.

Some are creative or delicate and some just pour on the toppings.  It's quite entertaining to watch.

 Cookies-To-Go all in a decorated box.

This year I did the girl party separate from the boys.  And what I'd forgotten from last year is that Cole has out grown this Valentines party :(.  You'd think he'd be fine for a one hour cookie party and games.  His friends had fun but Cole was just to excited and rushed through everything. 

I kept this group small.  It's not a birthday party.  

 Maybe Cole was so excited because I let him invite a girl.  Elle.  Which Jack informed me that she is Cole's girl friend.  Wow!  This second grade is serious stuff.  Cole has been interested in girls since he could talk and there is no slowing him down!  Thankfully he is 7 and this girl stuff is pretty innocent.

  

Happy Love Day!

Love is in the air at our house today!

I'm so excited for our family dinner tonight to read our Love Notes to each other, reveal who our Secret Pal has been all week,  and my very favorite  "fundue".

  I hope you get to spend the day with the ones you love!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Invites

The invites have been delivered for our annual Valentine cookie party!

I saw this darling Bubble gum necklace idea from One Charming Party and had to incorporate it into the invite.  So cute!

I'm so excited this week is here, I love to celebrate this holiday!

It all begins tonight after dinner, first we'll draw the names of our Seceret Pal for the week and then begin our chocolate/love note tradition.  

Bring on the love!

Valentine Chair Back

Its that time again!  

One of my favorite holidays is near and Pottery Barn Kids has done it to us again.

They love to put this picture on their website with the cute chair backers, but they are no longer available for purchase.

(At least I've never seen them for sale in the last 3 years)

Doesn't that picture make you want some?

We'll if you haven't seen my tutorial yet, your in luck.

Make some to surprise your little ones at breakfast on Valentine's Day morning.

Click here for my original post on these Valentine pouches.

We have loved this tradition year after year!

Click here for my tutorial or link from my side bar.

Those of you who have made some, I'd love to see them!  Upload some pictures in my new flicker pool group on my side bar and share the love!

XOXOXOXOXOX

A special dinner

For Valentine's day, Nana and Grandpa helped the kids plan a little surprise dinner for Kevin and I.

We showed up to a candle lit festive table.

Sadie and Cole were SO excited!  They both helped Nana and Grandpa prepare the meal.  Cole worked on valentines for us most the day and Sadie could hardly contain all her excitement!  She made us close our eyes and led us to the dinning room for an extra big "SURPRISE!"

Thanks Nana and Grandpa for such a fun idea!  What a treat!

I had to throw in this cute pic of the girls.  They are become such cute friends!

Valentine Cookie Party 2010

 I don't know what has gotten into me this pregnancy. I just don't have the steam for these celebrations.  Ever since Christmas.  But don't you worry, I can't let a good tradition go to waste.

Creating memories comes first.  It's all about a good cookie party .

My 3 little loves.

Couldn't resist the Valentine photo shoot. :)

The invites:

The kids had a lot of fun!  The boys had a lot of energy! (not surprising)  And the girls were very quiet and into their project.  It was fun to have some of Cole's school friends come.  I about fell over with laughter when I caught Cole and Frankie doing chest bumps!  It's started a chest bump frenzie! Hysterical!

Secret Pal

I know Valentine's Day is long over but I didn't want to forget some of the cute things that happened during our Secret Pal week.  Our Valentine week was eventful!  Hope you are not board of still hearing about it all.  The Sunday before Valentine's day, my mom (Nana) gave the family a little lesson about serving one another and random acts of kindness.  We all drew names and had the whole week to do fun things to our Secret Pals.  She sent us home with this heart to put on our fridge as a reminder. 

It was such a blast all week!  Cole popped out of bed the first morning just dying to do something for his Secret Pal!  He drew Kevin's name and came up with some pretty funny ideas of things to do for him.  My favorite was his idea to leave the toilet seat up for his dad. LOL.  I helped him empty all the trash, write love notes to put in Kevin's planner, hide treats and other little things.  Cole was just ready to burst all week to tell his dad that he was his Secret Pal.  Sadie even got the hang of it too.  But mostly loved getting things from her Secret Pal.

And just to document my two favorite memories of the week.  When Cole discovered his bed had been made and a chocolate left on his pillow, he just couldn't get over it and kept demanding to know who it was.  He asked everyone, "Was it you?"  To which we would reply, "I can't tell you!"  He couldn't stand it!  It was so fun at that moment to see him grasp the concept of a Secret Pal.  And then later in the week I over heard Cole trying to help Sadie come up with some ideas of things to do to her Secret Pal (which was me).  Some of his suggestions were to do the dishes for mom or put away my make-up.  He was so excited to help!

It was so fun on Valentine's morning to reveal who had who as their Secret Pal.  We all got to first guess who it was before we were told.  This really added a lot of extra love around our home during the week.  Such a fun thing to do within our family!  Thanks Nana for spreading the LOVE!

Love Day 2009

Valentine's Day was just a fun relaxing day spent with these people that I love so much!  

We ate a simple breakfast with the most yummy homemade Magleby's Fresh syrup!  A staple in my home.  

Sadie loved her new Fancy Nancy book and cupcake jewelry box, Cole LOVED his new Webkinz Dragon, and MaryJane was just so happy to sit on daddy's lap and eat everything in sight!

For dinner I made the family's favorite.  Sesame Chicken.  After which we ate "Fundue", as the kids like to call it.  Brownie Bites, Strawberries, Pineapple, Pretzels, and mini heart shape sugar cookies that I had saved from the cookie party the day before.

Thanks Marilee for the fun idea!

The kids had brought the frosting out from the fridge to decorate the mini cookies.  They just wanted more of that cookie decorating!  MaryJane couldn't resist the urge and thought the frosting was a bottle.  She was sooo happy!

I have loved celebrating every minute of this holiday this year!  Our home has been filled with lots of love!  Hope you enjoyed the holiday as well! ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Love, me... at Our Scoop! ;)

Love is in the Air!

Every year I have a little Valentine cookie decorating party for the kids. 

Cole and Sadie each got to invite a a couple of friends.  The card reads, " Love is in the Air!  Come celebrate with Sadie (or Cole) and decorate cookies!"

The sweets at the sweet table.

The supplies at the craft table.

Let the party begin!

Busy. Busy. Busy. 

The kids really got into it and all worked so diligently.

While the cookies dry, the kids decorate their "take home" boxes.

Stickers and stamps.  Keeping it simple.

I was real worried about the boys being nice to the girls.  But there was no need.  Everyone got along great!  I think it was because they all were just so into it!

And what's a party without a little gaming?

Tied with the ribbon of their choice, a box full of personalized cookies for either themselves or a Valentine.

And a little shot of the Hostess with the Mostest.  Just so you know, she was there!  Minus all her make-up.  You know how party planning days are! ;)