Family Valentine's

We always have a special family night to celebrate Valentine's Day. It was a little more challenging to work around dance schedules and Bill's evening Boy Scout meeting but we did it! The boys are hilarious, they could really care less about Valentines but as Ethan says, " I know, I know, someday I will have a wife and she will love Valentine's Day". It's never too early to raise them to pamper the ladies in their life!

Our dinner table was festive with flowers for the girls from their Daddy. Every year he sends them something, this year he brought arrangements home from a florist at work. Totally surprised us all!

After dinner we exchanged Valentine's. The girls spend so much time making mulitple cards for everyone. It is very sweet to see everyone take the time to open everything. Kyle's cards were so funny. He always has a theme and this years theme was the "top 5 quotes" of each family member. Guess what the first one was for me? "We are going to be late!" #2 "What did you say?" (I am really hard of hearing!) #3 This is the last time _____ #4 From now on we are keeping the house Clean!
#5 Kyle, I need your height! (he has to get sick of me calling him to get things down!



Ethan's Valentine's were special drinks for dinner with cute notes. Erin had 7Up "Everything looks up when you're around". They were all so Ethan and perfect for him to give out since he loves certain sodas.

Ethan's top 5 quotes from Kyle with Oliver.

Erin loved all her treats so much! Her favorite card was from Lindy and was shaped like a dress. So cute!

Love this one, Lindy made this for Paige. I love when they draw or in this case stamp pictures of themselves being twins!

Erin's trip to Pet People Barkin' Bakery where she selected "truffles", "Peanut butter cups" and "chocolate bones". Its amazing how they can make these look like the real stuff but made out of dog safe ingredients. The puppies loved them!

Valentine Daisies

With a couple of our girls sick today we had a small Daisy group but we still had fun! With Lindy and Paige helping and Eva's sister, Skylar, we had almost as much help as girls. Not that the little ones have a problem with that, they love having older kids around.
The highlight was the valentine exchange. Love the creativity of these girls! Then it was on to a crafty snack, Bingo, and freeze dance. A very fun Valentine's celebration!

Filled with Love

Besides my new wreaths I made for Valentine's Day this year, I finally got my act together and got some other decorations put up. Thanks to Pinterest for some inspiration and motivation!

Girl Scout Valentine's Day

The Juniors had an awesome Valentine's Day celebration. Everyone exchanged cards and we played Valentine bingo. It was so busy at Christmas time that we postponed our annual cookie exchange and did a Valentine sweet treat exchange which was really a hit.
As the girls get older their baking skills get more involved and they really had beautiful treats.
Below are some of the highlights.

Lily and Erin reading Valentine's together.

Thank goodness for my stamp club! Our project last week was a cute little lip gloss holder which I thought the girls would love.

Tons of fun patches! 

Paige had little containers of treats and valentines. 

Lindy made iced cut out hearts.

Paige had iced Brownie hearts.

Lots of pretty cupcakes and lots and lots of chocolate!

Valentine Wreaths

I am determined to have more Valentine's decorations. I only have a few and its a pretty sad assortment. Every year I have all these ideas of what I'm going to make and I never get to it. So this year I'm doing it! I stayed in my pajamas most of the day Sunday and got both these wreaths done with a little help from the girls. They nick named this one the Tutu wreath since its made from Tulle. Super easy and I found it here with instructions (thank you Pinterest!). It's on my front door now, looking very festive. I asked Bill how he liked having a huge mass of pink tulle on his front door. He said it was cute! (typical response, if I love it, he loves it!) Can't beat that!

This one I came up with on my own. We made similar ornaments at stamp club before Christmas. I just switched Christmas paper to doilies and made it wreath size. I did hot glue the coned doilies to each other to help fill in the empty spaces. It was a little tricky but overall it turned out pretty cute. I have it hanging right by the kitchen and living room. Slowly its starting to look lovey, dovey around here!

Sweets for my Sweets

Every year I make these molten lava cakes for Valentine's Day. The kids love that they all get their own individual cake! I get so excited each year when they actually turn out and look good! I get way too impressed with myself.
This year they were beyond perfect. All the chocolate oozed out and I added a chocolate sauce drizzle on top. Even the raspberries were in at the grocery store and I didn't have to substitute with strawberries like some years.
I am in the process of gathering all of my favorite cookies and desserts for a Miller Family Cookbook and this has to go in the book. I even think it photographed well!

Love is in the Air, Along with Pizza and Dance!

I really do love Valentine's Day! It's a great craft holiday and time for simple fun and love. Girls especially love making valentine's for their friends and it is probably their favorite party of the year. My valentines to the girls are the ones above. I have had so much fun making these flowers! Believe it or not this is flat ribbon that when heated takes on this ruffled look. I stuck a glue dot on the back and put them on little doily cards so they can be removed and used. You can put a pin on the back and wear them, stick them on bobby pins and put them in your hair, there are limitless possibilities.

After hosting the Cookie Rally last month, we decided to celebrate with a pizza party. Celebrate they did! Not one piece of pizza was left, we decorated heart cookies, exchanged Valentine's cards and treats, and then moved on to Just Dance on the Wii. What an awesome group of girls!

Mackenzie stitched this for me!

Loads of glitter everywhere!

Kyle and Cynthia who both helped out! Cynthia is loved by all these girls!

Faith is so sweet always including Kyle in her cards.

I love every Valentine I receive here are some.

I think this needs to be framed in my house. Every day is  heart day at the Millers.

Skylar has made me some of the most creative cards. I commented on the paper heart when she walked in the door. I just love the paper she used. Skylar promptly told me that was good because it was for me, yeah!
Included is a poem (she is a wonderful poet):
To a great fun person
to who? you say
My 120 troop leader
I want to thank you and hug you
for every thing you've helped and cared.
Thank you Happy Valentine's!


Brought tears to my eyes!

Dance Party!