Family Traditions #5: Valentine's Day

"Family traditions give identity and belonging to each member." - James Dobson

So my goal for this year starting at the boys' birthday was to get a wreath on the door and bunting over the kitchen table for each holiday that our family wanted to celebrate together. I thought I could build on these decorations and traditions as the years go by, but this would at least get me off to a good start. Here is our Valentine's wreath and bunting. I got it up by February 1st.

1. Valentines for Their Sweethearts: Their #1 Sweethearts for the next several years are going to be their grandmas! I thought it would be a fun way to kick off the month of love by making something together to mail to their grandmas. They don't have their coloring skills down yet, so we chose something they are already very good at... grins! We made a photo card.

I was inspired by Martha. We had so much fun taking pictures of these jokers. They knew they were suppose to stay in the shot, but before I could snap the picture they would make a run for it, giggling the whole way.

2. Valentine's Mistletoe: It works the same way. We hung a smooch sign over the doorway to our kitchen/dining room. Jimmy and I had fun with it of course, but the boys did too. I like the boys seeing their mommy and daddy be affectionate. We gave them tons of smooches too!

3. Heart-Shaped Chocolate Chip Pancakes for Breakfast: If we don't have eggs, we usually have waffles, so pancakes will probably be a once a year thing... especially ones with chocolate chips. (This is a very unhealthy holiday!)

I had never made pancakes before and Ms. Paula Deen didn't let me down. We skipped the toppings this year.

These pancakes even got an applause from Silas. That means he really likes it!

4. A Valentine's Sweet: I want the boys to look forward to some extra sugar on Valentine's Day. This year we had bite size smores.

I don't know how they make it so messy, but I'm sure it's more fun that way.

Jimmy taught Silas how to lick all the chocolate off his fingers afterwards!

While we were eating these I had the idea of using one of Jimmy's family traditions. Each year Jimmy's grandma makes all of her grandkids a chocolate chip cookie cake for their birthdays.

{Jill, Jimmy's sister, with her b-day cookie cake from Grandma Jim}

I think this tradition would fit perfectly for Valentine's Day. Maybe I could even write them a little lovey dovey note on it. *Make a note for next year - ask for recipe from Grandma Jim* As I am typing this Jimmy just told me he misses his cookie cakes and wants me to make him one for his b-day (in 3 days). He'll be 28 and he still likes it... so sweet!

5. Hidden Messages: A couple weeks ago I told Jimmy about a tradition I wanted to do when the boys got older. On separate pieces of paper we all write down one thing that we love about each person in our family, nothing long, just one liners. Then we hide everyone's notes in places we know they will go during the day. We were so busy and tired last week, that by the time Valentine's Day got here, I was ready to skip the whole thing. Well Jimmy really did it and I found my notes! Here are some of them.

He used a dry erase marker. I found one on a lid on my pot rack...

and another on a storage container on my desk. They were all over the house. He's sweet! This will be a fun tradition. Maybe by next year I can help the boys write something that they love about their brother and then we will hide it. It will be a hoot!

We actually received some Valentines in the mail this year.

Becca was really thoughtful and sent the boys a Valentine along with a bunch of other goodies.

We also got some heart shaped candies from Grandma KS (that we can't get here), some Valentine's chocolates from Becca, and on Valentine's morning my lilies bloomed for the first time in forever, so that was a sweet little Valentine from God... perfect!