I Love You a Bushel and a Peck (and a Hug Around the Neck)

We stretched Valentine's Day festivities (such as they were) over a whole week of fun.  First on the docket: Music Makers Valentine's Day party on February 8th.  It was just a regular Music Makers day, but instead of marching time, we exchanged valentines with all the kids.  Callie is super into "Big Clifford" on Netflix these days, so I found a couple of free Clifford Valentine coloring sheets that I converted into little Valentines (the finals said "You're my/Be my BIG RED Valentine").  I printed them off and cut them into small cards and Callie colored and colored to her hearts content.  Then we taped on a couple of caramels to each. (I should have bought Big Red gum to go with the theme, but a) kids this age don't really do gum, do they? and b) I had caramels in the cupboard left over from Halloween.  Done.)  Cal loved to make and share them, and of course to eat the treats she got from the other kids.

Next, Heart-Shaped Pizza Party.  Fridays are pizza nights at our house.  And since it was the Friday before Valentine's Day, we shaped our pizzas into hearts and decorated accordingly.  Callie did her decorating entirely by herself and I thought it looked fantastic.  Of course they both tasted delicious!

(Side note: apparently we stayed in jammies
all day multiple times this week)

More Food, More Fun:  On Valentine's morning I did something that is so rare, I've only done it one other time in my life (and strangely enough it had happened just a couple of weeks previous).  I made pancakes.  Because I wanted to.  I know.  What?  I tried Mel's Perfect Fluffy Sour Cream Pancakes that she had posted the day before, and at Cal's suggestion added strawberries to one side while they cooked.  (Not pictured: we also tried sliced bananas and chocolate chips - all fantastic!)  And of course I made them into heart shapes (sort of), because Valentine's!  Unfortunately Gregg was not here for our delicious feast (he was off to Vermont for work), so I sent him a picture like the loving wife that I am.

Because I love my children and I love Instagram, I attempted to get a festive holiday photo of the two of them together.  No luck.  See evidence below.  But I did happen to get a few passable (okay, pretty darn cute) single shots of each of them, so I used my collage skills to put them together and voila!  A darling post to share of my littlest favorite Valentines.  Bonus cute hair day with Cal - she finally let me try something different than her standard request of "one piggie up, one piggie down" (which really is just one sort of side piggie on top and the rest of her hair down (with no other piggies)).  I had to document the event.  I just wish we had two bows of the same color!

Since Gregg was gone, we didn't have any special Valentine's date (not that we would have had he been here anyway, but that's beside the point).  But we got to FaceTime every night and it wasn't so bad.  (Hashtag ilovetechnology.)  The kids and I snuck a special Valentine's letter/picture into his luggage with some homemade granola to snack on.  And he surprised all of us with letters in the mail on Wednesday (the 15th - they came a day late, which just added to the fun of the surprise).

Hooray for love!