Valenhearts

February . . . the month of love and hugs and kisses and pink and red and hearts and sugar. And we did it all!

First of all: books (you know me!) I loaded up on all the anything-even-remotely-related to Valentine's Day (or hearts or love or hugs or kisses or pink or red) books and had them sitting out on the  bookshelf all month long for some festive reading.

We didn't have class or music makers valentines exchanges, but that didn't stop us from some Valentine crafting. We tried to spread the love by sending these little heart-shaped sun-catchers to a handful of friends and family. The best part were all the pics that they sent back of their hearts in their windows saying thanks. Full circle love exchange going on this month!

I wanted to make cookies, but couldn't decide on what kind of "valentiney" cookie to make. Gregg mentioned raisin filled cookies and Callie suggested making them heart shaped and that's what we did. Way fun, way yummy! Happy heart cookies for days!

Callie has started making pancakes every Saturday for our family and it's the best thing ever. The Saturday before Valentine's Day was her first attempt at a start to finish cooking project entirely by herself. Her heart-shaped (somewhat) pancakes were delicious and filled with love.

Gregg has been making special construction paper Valentines for the kids for the past few years, so they were happy to see he had kept up that tradition with a fun little pull-tab action this year.

I wanted to make Mel's Triple Chocolate scones since I saw them posted on her site, and I figured Valentine's Day was the perfect day to splurge on breakfast. They were rich! And oh-so-chocolatey good. We had her "egg cups" to balance things out a bit. ;)

On Monday after Valentine's Day we didn't have school or work because it was President's Day and that was the day the kids suggested we have a family Valentine's party. A few days before, I found a gallon zip-lock bag full of conversation hearts stashed in the cupboard saved from Cal's kindergarten class party a couple years ago so I told the kids we could play some heart games and they were so excited. We had relay races, bingo, tic-tac-toe, stacking challenges and sucking-with-a-straw challenges. (The only bummer was that I made them promise not to eat any since they had been pawed by all the kindergarteners for these same games back in the day. Eeew!)

Throughout the month we had some fun mail and even a visit or two to drop off Valentines and treats. They're not all pictured here, but they did brighten our "holiday door" in the kitchen all month long.

And how's this for a little flashback to days gone by (specifically 2019 - you know, when we could craft at Grandma's house without a thought in the world)?

 

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you felt some love!