Love is in the Air

Well, it's V-Day. People have mixed feelings about this day. My feelings are not mixed. It's a good day. A day to celebrate love and kindness and where people go out of their way to do nice things for others is a good thing. Whether you have a romance or not.

This year, my Valentine is in Alberta, so it's all about the kiddos this time. I usually try to make the day special for the kids because they LOVE it so much. Seriously. Valentines Day is like Christmas at this house, the way my kids go on about it. Lucy and Max have been making Valentines for about 2 weeks now. The house has been decorated for about as long too. Max loves Valentines Day because Lucy loves it and it's hard not to catch the love-bug from her.

This day is the biggest holiday for her. She loves Christmas and gets super excited. She loves her birthday and also gets super excited, but there has to be a bigger word than love for how she feels about Valentines Day. And it makes me perfectly happy to indulge her in her love, because if she loves doing nice thing, and drawing pictures, and writing notes for people to make them feel special, then I'm all for that.

Every day is practically Valentines Day for her already, because we get love notes and gifts and drawings all the time, but she definitely kicks it up a notch in February. Plus, everything is heart themed in February.

My Valentines morning started out with a sweet message from my hubby, and then a chatty 4-year-old visitor in my bed. He just couldn't sleep ANY MORE. So I crossed my fingers that my full day wasn't going to get trampled by grumpiness.

Lucy got all pink and heart-ed out for the day. She's wearing a pink heart necklace too. It was not hard to get her out of bed today. Not when there was so much Valentine love to spread. She had her tote of Valentines ready to go for her classmates and couldn't wait to pass them out.

Breakfast and surprise Valentines from Dad. The kids had snuck Valentines into Tyler's suitcase for him to discover today, and so he reciprocated with some Valentines for them. Created by me. Last night. But from him. They were thrilled, and that's the point.

After cleaning the bathrooms and getting ready, we headed out. I know it's Valentines Day today, but that doesn't mean the bathroom's don't need cleaning. It's still Tuesday. And Tuesday is bathroom day.

The boys and I had things to do at home to get ready for our special day. We also had a trip to the dollarstore to make for balloons, and the grocery store to get ready for baking.

On the way to the store, we stopped to check the mail and were surprised to find a letter from Grandma Bourne with Valentines enclosed. The boys were stoked.

Logan also got a birthday card, which he loved as well.

After lunch we got sugar-cookie dough ready for some fun later today and then it was time for a nap for Logan. And time for Max and I to chill for the afternoon.

We headed to the park for a while after we met Lucy at the bus stop. It was fun. The kids got a quickie phone call from dad in between meetings and we played hide-and-seek with some other kids.

We got home to discover that some friends had decorated our doorstep with a 'heart-attack'. It was so cute. They left treats and hearts and the kids were so surprised.

Once we were inside I ushered them downstairs so they couldn't see my big surprise dinner that I had planned for them. It was seriously SO fun to make it and get it ready for them, knowing how excited they'd be. I was nearly giggling.


Pink waffles, strawberries, red juice, hasbrowns, eggs. Breakfast for dinner, which they always love, and everything was Valentine coloured.



They were all giggles and happily surprised to see what I had created for them. Max stood on his chair and said, 'MOM! I love you! This is awesome!" Worth it. In that moment, it was worth it.



After dinner we tidied and then rolled sugar-cookies, cut them into hearts and decorated. The kids also debated back and forth over what treat they would indulge in for dessert. My plan was for sugar-cookies, but now they had so many things to choose from. And just when we thought we had made up our minds, there was a knock at the door.

Surprise! And edible arrangement from Grandma and Papa! So exciting.

The kids helped themselves to cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes, and pineapple. This is MY type of Valentines Treat. Grandma knows me so well. I would prefer my kids to have fruit then cookies and treats. Plus, now they get exciting treats from Grandma in their lunch tomorrow too. Great surprise.

Of course, they all had a real dessert too. Logan had his first jello-jiggler. Max had a REALLY hard time deciding, but finally went for a sugar cookie. Lucy had a sugar-cookie that her friend had given out at school.

We also made a plate up for our neighbours as a surprise. My kids love our neighbours. There was no answer, so we had to leave the goodies on the doorstep, but they were excited for the trip next door either way.


The kids had a great time playing with the balloons we got from the dollar store. Logan surprised me by being really upset that the balloons were floating instead of down on the ground by him. So we found an old balloon that Lucy had leftover from a birthday party she went to and he played with that one.

Since Max didn't have school today, his class had a Valentines themed day and party yesterday. He came home with his bag of Valentines and was telling me all about it. I asked him in joking if he got any kisses, expecting him to protest with a resounding, "NO!" but instead what I got was a very disappointed and disheartened "No. No one wanted to kiss me!" Haha. That kids surprises me. I told him I did, but that didn't seem to console him.

I love my kiddos. I love Valentines day. I love making it special for them. Don't get me wrong, I would prefer it if my husband were here and we could spend Valentines together, because now they're sleeping and I'm blogging, watching lame tv, and avoiding the pile of laundry that needs to be folded. Not very romantic. But I do love showing love for my little Valentines.

Oh, and I painted my toenails and fingernails today. Big news! I know it's not, but I deserve a Valentine moment for me too. Hot pink toes and light pink fingers...in honour of the day.