Wild About You!!

As you know by now, I love Valentine's Day!  And I feel bad because a lot of people out there don't, but I do!  I don't think it's about consumerism and materialism or only taking one day out of the year to show love.  I mean, I guess it could be about those things, but only if you let it, just like anything else.  I think it's a fun holiday with love and affection at the heart of it.  I think like other holidays, it inspires creativity and celebrations centered around the people we hold dear.

We got to start our Valentine's Day by going to a special tea at Madi's school.  I wasn't feeling too hot, but there was no way I was going to miss this!!  The kindergartners had been working so hard on 4 songs to sing to their parents and grandparents and I couldn't help but tear up as I watched my daughter sing at her first school program, standing tall and focused and carefully doing each and every motion right.  I loved how she caught our eye between each song and smiled just enough for us to see that dimple crinkle.

After they sang, the students got to have some snacks and spend a few minutes with their special guests.  It was a lovely morning.

When the tea was over I went home and rested a bit.  Then I got to work in the kitchen.  Madi had requested some homemade chocolate chip cookies, and I wanted to make some as gifts for my family anyway.  Then I did some more baking for our Valentine's dinner.  Many times on special holidays and birthdays I do a big breakfast.  It's fun, festive, a great start to the day, and very inexpensive to prepare.  Any leftovers can be used for breakfasts for the week.  My kids love it!  But with school and Madi's tea, a Valentine's Breakfast would have been rushed.

So we had a Valentine's Breakfast For Dinner instead!  I gave Madi this coupon when she got home from school...

And got to work preparing a "Wild About You!!" Valentine's Breakfast For Dinner!  It fit our budget far better than all four of us going to a restaurant, it was nice to stay in since I was still under the weather, and it was a sweet time as a family!  These are the plates and napkins I found at Target a few weeks ago that inspired my little theme...

I picked up a few matching decorations the other day...

I figured if we were at a restaurant the kids would get crayons and an activity booklet, so I left a plain piece of cardstock, some stickers that matched the paper products, and crayons at each of their places...I had no idea how exciting they would think this was!  They set to work on this right away!

Everyone got little treats at their place - just small gifts, but little things that said I love you....and each person got their own box of homemade chocolate chip cookies!

I made ton of food - homemade banana bread (that sunk in the middle because I took it out too early and had to put it back in, but oh well!); cinnamon rolls since we do those on birthdays and special occasions; animal and heart shaped pancakes; blueberry muffins made from a fat free Krusteaz mix; eggs and bacon; strawberry and vanilla dipped strawberries with sprinkles; and orange juice.  You can eat a lot of breakfast food on a little budget!  And as I said, you will be set for breakfasts for the week thanks to leftovers!

I made everyone a place card and after we ate we used the inside to write reasons why we were "wild about" each person.  Some of the kids' answers were funny and cute, in their sincere way!

My parents had dropped off a few treats earlier, including the Charlie Brown Valentine Special. My kids are crazy about the Charlie Brown holiday specials, and we watched this together before we tucked them into dreamland.  I loved hearing those belly laughs as they watched it!  We ended the day with lots of laughter, actually!

It was a good Valentine's Day for our little family. Thank you, God! And today I'm feeling much better, which is a praise too.  I hope you had a good day today. And I hope your Valentine's Day held something special and sweet, some demonstration of love, whether large or small.  Because you are loved, that I know!