A Valentine party
Every year we have a Valentine party. It started when we were in married student housing and I realized how silly it was for everyone to be sitting home on Valentine's Day because no one had a babysitter and we might as well spend the holiday together. Now we live in the real world, so we don't have the party on Valentine's Day anymore, but my kids don't want to decorate Valentine cookies UNLESS it is with their friends.
Some years we've done dinner, some not. It just goes with the flow. This year it is open-house style: come when you can and stay however long you'd like. We'll be decorating cookies (the one MUST have), I'll have a craft for the kids and some finger foods/snacks. And we'll just visit and enjoy the fun of the holiday.
Valentine Surprise
On Valentine's Day morning the kids wake up to a special Valentine from Mom and Dad by their bed. It was one of my favorite traditions growing up and I just had to continue it. It was so fun to wake up to a balloon or a bear or some chocolates from my Daddy and wonder how he got it there without me waking up! In our family Mom gets the boys Valentines and Dad gets them for the girls.
Valentine Boxes
You can check out this tradition by clicking here.
Valentine-y Food
On Valentines Day I usually try to theme the food a little bit. I cut the girls sandwiches into a heart shape and give them some candy kisses or something in their lunch boxes with a Valentine note (once the boys are in school I'll do it for them too!). We have heart-shaped pancakes or toast with strawberry flavored milk. Dinner is usually heart shaped pizzas or something with some red jello and strawberries on the side, red colored juice for a drink....simple, but special!
Heart Attack
On Valentines Day, or sometime during the week before (don't want to be too predictable!) I take the younger kids and we give Daddy's car a heart attack. They tape hearts all over the windows and sometimes we put balloons or a special treat inside. We leave him a note telling him all about how much we love him, you know - all that sappy stuff :0)
Candle-light Family Dinner
This is a tradition I'm going to try for the first time this year. On Valentines Day we'll all dress in something nice, like we were going out to a fancy restaurant and then we'll have a candlelight dinner. Honestly, I don't think it matters what we eat - I just know they are going to love eating by candle-light. And they seem to love the whole 'going on a date' thing, and I think they'll like getting dressed up for something other than church. I'll let you know how it goes!
*Update* - As predicted, my kids LOVED the candle light. We ran out of time for the whole "get dressed up" part. Maybe next year. They still ask every once in a while if we can have dinner with candles like on Valentines. My oldest described it as "so peaceful". I'm all for candles if it makes it so dinner can be described as any semblance of "peaceful"!!
Thats all that I can think of right now. I'd LOVE to hear some of yours favorite traditions too!
1 comment:
We really don't have ANY. Sad...I know...but it's true. So...thanks for the ideas.
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