We love Valentine's Day here at the circus. Our little people love any reason to decorate, to give gifts, to eat special foods, to celebrate. (In fact, our girls were mightily disappointed that we didn't decorate for the Super Bowl. We had chips and other treats, so it was a party. But they really thought we should have decorated.) And hearts. The girls just love hearts.
Because this is Kathleen's first year in school, this was the first year we really needed to make Valentines. (We've been doing it since she was tiny. But this was the first year it really mattered!) She and I were really excited about making crayon hearts for her classmates. Sugar free, allergy friendly, and basically free -- they were the perfect choice for us! We'd sorted all our old, broken crayons at Christmas time when we dipped pinecones in melted crayons, so a lot of the work was already done for us. We stood together in the kitchen, snapping crayons and sorting them into different molds. (In case you were wondering, we melted them in the microwave and Mama poured them into chocolate molds and set them in the freezer.)
We were so excited to pop the crayons out of their molds! After the crayons were done, we attached each one to a cute printable Valentine card we'd found online. (Ah, the internet. How I love it!) Kathleen carefully signed each one. I was proud of the way she persevered through that part of the project; it was not her favorite part.
Kathleen got to deliver her Valentines during her preschool class's party. Even though Kathleen doesn't usually attend school on Mondays, the preschool director invited her to come for the whole morning so that she wouldn't miss any of the fun. Our grand plan hit one snag -- Kathleen almost didn't go because she hadn't realized that she'd go to school alone. She wanted our whole family to be at the party. We promised a family lunch instead, which placated her.
At noon we picked Kathleen up from school and met Daddy for a special Valentine's lunch. And though we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, we enjoyed the special dessert at Cold Stone even more!
Delighted girls!
The days of being able to share an ice cream with John David are long gone.
He ate his and a good share of mine. That boy loves ice cream!
We continued our Valentine's Day extravaganza with a special dinner at a friends' home. (The girls had been itching to go to their friends' from the the moment they woke. It was the very first thing they said. "Can we go to Evan and Natalie's now?") There we feasted on heart shaped pizzas, watermelon (cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters), and heart shaped cookies, which we'd decorated that afternoon.
It was a full day -- full of food and friends and lots and lots of love. Of course, love always points us back to Love. And that makes our hearts sing.
Since from His bounty I receive
Such proofs of love divine
Had I a thousand hearts to give
Lord, they should all be Thine
A thousand men could not compose
A worthy song to bring
Yet Your love is a melody
Our hearts can’t help but sing! (Samuel Stennett, Laura Taylor)
1 comment:
My older 2 pull that...but I want the whole family to go and I am secretly smug. ;)
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