♥ Happy Valentine's Day!! ♥

Some people absolutely LOVE Valentine's Day, others might not be such big fans... Personally, I like any excuse for a celebration, but I also think we should show love all year long, and I am super glad that my husband doesn't only wait for Valentine's to take me on a date :)

This year, we made Valentine's Day about the love of our whole family. We spent the afternoon doing all kinds of fun things. Last week, Elise and I went on a date to White Spot and planned our family Valentine party. Here are a few of the things we discussed over french fries and a Pirate Pak:

♥ We should buy paper plates and napkins (which we did in colourful Valentine patterns!)
♥ We should decorate cookies (we ended up decorating 3 mini cakes because I didn't get sugar cookies made and little cakes were just a whole lot less work!!)
♥ We should make Valentines (the boys each assembled 20 treat boxes for their school friends, and Elise chose a random smattering of people she could think of to give treat boxes to, including the girls next door and the Senior Pastor at our church. She is enthralled by him because he remembers her name and visited her Sunday School class in his 2nd week at church!! That makes a pretty big impression on a 4 year old!)
♥ We should watch a family movie. (We watched Evan Almighty, and then I read the real story of Noah's Ark, straight from the Bible so we could straighten out the facts about how it all really went down!!)
♥ We should go on a hike so we could be ♥ Heart Healthy! (We didn't get to the hike, even though the rain held off, the kids ended up playing in the backyard instead. We will hike another day)

It was a day to remember, and Elise said it was the best day of her life! She has said that a lot lately, so I guess 4 is a good age for her :)


Lunch... fun plates and napkins. Pizza, some other goodies and iced tea.


Pencils to attach to the treat boxes for school friends... reminds me of the line from "You've Got Mail" where Meg Ryan's character talks about "bouquets of sharpened pencils in the Spring." I suddenly have the urge to watch that movie (for about the 45th time!) Might just have to do that right after I post this :)

Each treat box has 2 pieces of gum inside and a pencil taped to the outside. The comics are really lame in these, but the gum is yum (for about 2 minutes - then it loses its flavour... but kids don't care!)

Let the decorating begin. They had so much fun doing this, and it was really a treat to watch... but I am not even tempted to share this cake with them after watching them decorate it!!!



At one point, Elise took a HUGE mouthful of cinnamon hearts and there was an instant fire in her mouth. I've never seen her look so panicked! She quickly got rid of them and soothed her mouth with some chocolate chips.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13


A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35