Valentine's Week

Valentine's Week we did so much this year.  I honestly don't even think we did any crafts last year for Valentine's.  But this year, we read books about Valentine's, made crafts, made gifts to give, baked heart cookies, and had fun at playgroup.  It was a busy week!  

For Harper's valentine's to give to friends, we did the pinterest project of melting crayons into a heart shaped mold.  Then, she colored on each paper that said "You melt my heart."  Cheesy but funny.  So we sent some to friends in Lewisville and of course to Grayson and Reesey, and then we saved some for our friends play date on Valentine's Day.  She had fun with the crayons and did ok coloring.  She just scribbled and tried to get done as soon as possible, she's not a huge fan of coloring.  But I learned my lesson that if you make something cool like heart crayons, make sure and have an extra for your kid, because they will REALLY want one.  

Early in the week, we have a play date for Valentine's.  They got to eat lots of goodies, play "Pin the heart on the Dinosaur" and run around like usual.  Jack and Aaron got sick that morning so they weren't able to make it, but we got to play with Anna, Leah, and a few others.  There was also a little 3 week old there and all the kids thought he was so cute!  They even learned to play volleyball with a balloon but each kid ended up wanting to just keep the balloon to themselves and it was more of a game of chase in the end. It turned out to be a fun morning!

Valentine's morning was pretty normal.  For the last few years, we have always gone to get donuts as a family, but with Harper's allergy, we thought it would be mean to take her to a donut shop and tell her she couldn't have one.  Instead, Cody and I went out the night before and had a nice dinner all to ourselves.  That morning, Harper got to open her Valentine's cards from her Mimi and Pop and Nana and Papa.  Then, we frantically searched and ended up finding a cute shirt with a heart on it (I'm that mom who doesn't buy shirts for one time events...lame I know).  She looked so stinking cute in her neon pink shirt with her denim jacket and cowboy boots.  I just love her!  She of course was shy at first when I asked to take her picture, but she warmed up pretty quickly.  

Normally, Cody and I don't care much for "fake" holidays.  But I realized this year (yes, I know, it's obvious but I just figure it out) that Valentine's Day is a great day.  So what if Hallmark makes some money on forcing you to be nice and kind and loving.  At least for one day, most people are loving and kind to each other and strangers.  It seems like a day that Christ would love too.  So I decided to forgive Valentine's Day and embrace the day of love this year.  And it turned out to be a great day.

We had a Valentine's party that morning and instead of coming home for naptime, we decided to stay and play with our friends for a little longer.  Mostly, it was for the moms, but it was fun anyways.  So on the way home, we stopped and got Cody and drink from Sonic and visited him at his school.  Harper loves to run around and draw on his smartboard.  We said hi to friends and just enjoyed playing with Cody during the school day.  It was a fun surprise!  In the end, we each made a homemade card for the other and it was a fabulous, love filled day with family.