Valentine's Day

I love holidays and I love making them fun. It's one of my favorite parts about being a mommy. Some holidays have rock solid traditions we've established, others are flexible. Valentine's Day is one of those flexible ones. We always do something small to celebrate, but it changes from year to year.

This year, the kids woke up to some Valentine's treats at the breakfast table and then we had a fun breakfast of heart shaped French toast and bacon. Normally, these are breakfast favorites at our house, but there didn't seem to be much of an appetite.

By dinner, it was obvious that all of the girls in our house were sick with the flu, so Ryan chose to show his affection by making runs to the Dr. and the pharmacy. I had planned that we might have some fun food and a family game night, but none of us had the energy, so instead, we sacked out on the couch together and watched "Secretariat" while sharing pieces of the giant heart cookie I had baked the night before, when I felt better.

One fun thing we did was go around the table and each of us shared one thing that we each loved about one another. It was neat to see each child choosing to affirm their siblings and it was fun to hear what they came up with. It was especially fun to see each child beam when it was there turn to be commented on. I am so blessed to have such a loving family.

We couldn't help but wonder what our Valentine's Day might look like next year. I'm not sure if it will be something that is celebrated where we're going, but even if it's not, I expect they'll be something pink or red or heart-shaped at our house!

Valentine's breakfast

One sick 12 year old. It's been a long time since she's asked Daddy to hold her like that! She was pitiful.

Yummy heart boxes of chocolate- just the right size for these little guys!

The dinner table, complete with roses that Ryan purchased on a Tamiflu run. We've already given away all of our vases, but this jar was a great stand-in.