2.14.2015

I think now that we've had kids, we've actually upped our Valentine's Day celebrating a bit.  It is so much fun helping them make cards, seeing how excited they get about heart shaped cookies/pies/brownies, etc, and hearing about the things they love.  I love sending fancy mail, so mailing out beautiful Valentines with the newest LOVE stamp every year is one of my favorite things (I have limited my stamp collection specifically to love stamps, and can't wait to see the newest one each year). 

Kind of like an elf-on-the-shelf, we had Valentine to keep us company this week.

This year, (as you know if you follow me on instagram) we stretched Valentine's Day into a three-day holiday.  First, Theodore celebrated with all his classmates at their party Thursday.  Theodore was very excited to make his own Ninja Turtle cards that he picked out on pinterest, and was quite a serious worker.  I traced the hearts for him, and cut the edges off the bandanas, but he did the rest.  On the back I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day!" and he signed his name (most correctly).  I also signed up to bring cookies, so of course broke out the cookie cutters and pink tint for heart shaped sugar cookies with sprinkles.  Theodore said they tasted the best because they had so much love in them (can anyone name that Mercer Mayer book?).

Theo did his own chalk art complete with hearts.

On Friday, we actually got to go out alone for I think the second time since moving to Virginia.  Our church offered babysitting so parents could go out, and we were able to leave both of them there with no crying from Eli!  We walked around the outside mall just a bit while waiting for our reservation, and got to explore the sides of Wegman's I never get to see with two kids and a grocery cart.  I am even more in love with that store now than I was before.  Brian couldn't believe my excitement to be exploring a grocery store on our date (we discovered they have Friday night family movies, so we'll probably be back for another family date night soon).  We then had a very tasty dinner at Not Your Average Joe's, and enjoyed splurging on dessert since it is Valentine's after-all.

Saturday, I woke up early (not by choice) and finished the strawberry pie I decided to make this year, (from here), that Theo and Eli helped me prep the day before.  Theo cut all the strawberries, Eli helped cut the crust hearts.

We had that for breakfast (pastry and fruit, that's an okay breakfast, right?), and then spent most of the day in pajamas fielding skype, texts and calls from our parents, grandparents, and siblings as they opened their Valentine's Day card from us (a modification of last year's photo), pictured below. Almost everyone was pretty surprised, and it was fun to share our news finally!