Happy Valentine’s everyone! To me, Valentine’s is about the kids and homemade craftiness. It’s silly, it’s fun and they’ll take any reason to celebrate. On the fly last night, at about 11:30, I decided to set the table for a surprise Valentine’s breakfast, with tulips, heart doily’s, a tablecloth, red placemats and lots of stuff reused from our box of Valentine craft supplies.
And finally, I hung up our Love banner (shown up top) that I made several years ago.
I crashed before getting a picture of the table, sadly enough. But it was most impressive.
It all started because of the evils of Facebook. I was on there last night posting about our Valentine’s Day cards. I had thought I was going to go to bed early, before midnight. But I noticed that I had all kinds of friends posting about their special pancakes they were making in morning, and husbands who were going out at 5:30 in the morning to pick up heart shaped donuts.
This made me feel like a slacker mom. Because I NEVER wake up before my kids. Unless it’s Christmas or their birthday. My husband does morning duty. Don’t hate me, but he wakes me up every morning with coffee in bed, while he is feeds the girls their breakfast of yogurt, granola, cereal or his homemade biscuits on the weekend. This is wonderful. I appreciate it greatly and I it scores him a get-out-of-buying-me a Valentine’s Day present card for the rest of his life.
SO, for the first time ever – I set my alarm on my iPhone. It took me a second to even find the clock app. My kids are always up before me. They were shocked to wake up and see me standing at the stove making hot chocolate – at 6:30 AM!
“Mommy, come look. It’s a party!” My two-year-old said running to me with her eyes all lit up this morning after seeing the dinning room.
We had hot chocolate in our heart-shaped mugs with sticker decorated straws, heart-shaped pancakes (thank goodness for that left over batter I had in freezer) and raspberries. Everyone was most impressed with the festiveness. And now I need a nap!
My only reasoning for all this crazy, over-the-top Valentine’s fun we’ve been having is that my birthday was two days ago, and my parents brought me home from the hospital on Valentine’s day. So it’s almost like a continuation of my by birthday. Birthday celebrations for my kids definitely linger a few days. I’m sure it was the same for my mom. Now, I guess I’m doing the same thing.
For many years I boycotted Valentine’s Day because of the commercialization of it. I even broke up with a boyfriend once because he bought me roses on Valentine’s Day, after I tried to politely hint that I thought people should be more original, thoughtful – seeing that was not what I wanted.
After my husband and I had kids, I decided to bring back Valentine’s Day. Maybe I’m making up for those years now. Maybe it’s both. Maybe it’s just fun.
But for me, it’s still about the kids. My coffee in bed everyday is WAY better than roses once a year.
What about you? Did you do anything special at your house this morning?
