A Day Filled with Love

My Valentine's

We had a wonderful day together as a family celebrating with a little love! Due to 3 basketball games and a cheerleading game on Saturday we postponed our celebration to Sunday. Aunt Gretchen came for dinner between games and brought heart sharped pizzas, they were quite the hit!

Sunday's are our family day and we have really worked hard to make sure that they are not filled with errands, chores and work. It sounds sad but this can be hard at times. I'm getting school ready for the week, Bill is working, and before we know it, it's dinner time and we have not done anything together. We put our foot down a month ago. We don't have friends over to play, Bill's laptop stays off, and the laundry piles up! And we all love it! The kids keep us on track. If we start doing something we are quickly called on it, "it's family day mom!"

After church we went to the nursing home in Canal Winchester to deliver Valentine's. Erin had a ball. She walked around with her hand full of cards and went right up to people and wished them a Happy Valentine's Day. The residents were all so appreciative and I could tell that the kids could see they were putting smiles on peoples faces. It was a wonderful way to start the day.

After our brunch we went downstairs and watched Horton Hears A Who. How much fun to hole up in the middle of the day and watch a movie, or in my case nap. I promptly fell asleep on Bill's shoulder and "supposedly" snored the entire movie. I can't believe I snored, Bill said it was cute - hmmm.

Our annual "dinner in the dining room" that has been happening weekly now was followed up by our traditional Valentine dessert of Molten Chocolate Cakes. During dessert we passed out our Valentine's to each other. This is by far the highlight of the day. The kids make all of their Valentine's for each other and they love seeing each other open their creations. I love watching them give to each other and exchange hugs and kisses. That is my Valentine gift!

The Great Backyard Bird Count, the kids kept watch and recorded our participation for Sunday.

Lindy made cut out heart cookies for her cheerleading snack Saturday. They were quite the hit, she had them in cute little Valentine bags for all the girls.

Molten Chocolate Cake

There is nothing like homemade Valentine's. I treasure these forever. Bill and I make our own to exchange too, he writes wonderful poems!

Ethan and I have had some special time working on his Ipod valentine's. We stayed up late in his room for a few nights making these together. We had so much fun! He thanked me for helping him make a cool Valentine to give his family. No, thank you Ethan for spending some time with me alone, that's a rare thing in this house.

This little girl got lots of little cards and made twice as many to give to everyone!

Erin proudly shows off her Valentine for Kyle.

I know this is blurry but it was such genuine surprise. My mom gets the kids little treats for Valentine's Day. She got the boys I-tune's gift cards but gave the girls crisp $5 bills. She felt bad giving them cash. Since they rarely receive money they were most excited! Into their little saving boxes it went!

On the way home from the nursing home it dawned on Kyle that he did not have any valentine's made for anyone yet. How he missed the craft table covered in glitter, paper, glue, and stickers is beyond me! Crafts are not his thing so I'm sure it was partly avoidance! I got him set up with some cardstock and showed him the stickers and he got started. I was working alongside him finishing up my own and we had a great time. He had little jokes that he put in all of them and really spent some time on his. We had a good time together talking and laughing.

Not one goes unappreciated by these girls. They love cards and this holiday!

Erin likes M&M's and Hershey bars, other than that she is a vanilla girl. I need to remember this next year as her dessert went untouched!

Kyle hands our his valentine's and Lindy appreciates his sense of humor.

Reading a card from MiMi.

This is such a girly holiday and Lindy loves it!

Silliness at the end of the photo shoot!