Valentine's Day Fun

I never really was one to celebrate Valentine's Day. I didn't want someone telling me I had to show love on a certain day, that I had to buy gifts, I had to spend money. Yes, I know Christmas comes with the same idea, but that's different since we're remembering the birth of our Lord. And birthdays and anniversaries celebrate 1 or 2 people, not the entire world. Besides, I never liked chocolates (before having kids), flowers die, and spending $5 on a card seemed a bit steep.

Then I had kids. 

Now, I realize it's fun to celebrate any sort of day. I mean, I never observed Dr. Seuss' birthday or National Nothing Day or half birthdays before either. I never took the time to set aside an entire day in honor of peanut butter. But it's fun. Kids find joy in the little things of life. If making cupcake that look like George Washington make them laugh, then I want to laugh too. I want to soak in all the fun and excitement while my babies are still young. I want to truly enjoy them, life, and our homeschooling journey. 

So, yes, we celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday. 

I made the kiddos heart pancakes for breakfast. I started with regular batter and added accents with pinkish-red dyed batter. They were so pretty - until I flipped them oven to cook the other side. Then you could barely see the color. I ended up adding red to the rest of the batter and just making pink hearts. Not quite what I was going for, but they didn't seem to mind. Maybe next time I'll try coloring the majority of the batter and accenting with regular-colored batter.

For lunch, they had heart-shaped pb&j sandwiches with a fruit roll-up heart, a cup of strawberry applesauce with sprinkles, and a cup of raisins & craisins.

 Of course, we stuck to the theme for dinner as well - heart-shaped personal pizzas!

We all love homemade pizza. It's much cheaper than buying it, and you can customize it to your liking. Alyssa likes just about everything - and a lot of it.

Yum! I was going to use the rest of the dough to make a heart pizza for Leighton and me too, but I just spread it out in my stoneware pan from Pampered Chef in whatever shape it went. I hope he still knows that I love him, heart pizza or not.

And what better to eat with your personal heart pizza than heart strawberries!

As you can see, I definitely embraced Valentine's day this year. We also completed many Valentine themed worksheets, made cards, created yarn hearts, and baked shortbread sandwich cookies. We read books and played with blocks. Leighton even brought home flowers for me the day before, though one rose found its way into a vase in Alyssa's room. We exchanged cards yesterday and he stopped at the video store to pick up a movie for the kids. 

I still don't believe I have to show my love for them just because it's Valentine's Day (because I should be doing that every day), but it is fun to participate.   

How did you spend your day?