All Seasons Sweet to Me: Valentines Day

Ah February, the month of love!

I know many of you have awesome Valentines Day traditions, but I'll still share with you some of what my family does to celebrate during this month.

MAKE HOMEMADE VALENTINES

No store bought ones for us! Each year since I was a little girl, we would always make homemade valentines and this is a tradition I want to carry on with my own children. I loved when my mom would bring out her box of valentine stickers, heart-shaped doilies, and red and pink construction paper. We would set to work cutting, snipping, pasting and folding our way to the perfect valentine.

I had my little boy make his own this year (with my help of course!) He did a good job placing the stickers on the paper, although the temptation to then peel each one off and rip it in half got too tempting at times ;) Alas, complete with darling crayon scribbles, traced hands, and glitter globs we made a batch of the cutest valentine creations to send to grandmas and other loved ones.

And of course we had to read The Day It Rained Hearts, one of the cutest books about making special valentines for friends.

MAKE VALENTINE LUNCHES

Every valentines day my mom packed a festive lunch for us with a heart-shaped sandwich, red juice, a red bag of chips and other fun valentine-y things. I'm not packing school lunches for my toddler yet, so we enjoyed lunch at home. One day I made grilled cheese with heart-shaped carrots and radishes . . .

And another day peanut butter sandwiches with strawberries and thin-sliced apples cut out like hearts.

On Valentines Day I sent my husband to school with a "red" lunch. I knew I might embarrass him too much if I sent heart-shaped sandwiches for him to pull out in front of his dental school buddies, but I still stuck in some things to make his lunch a little more festive than usual: red cherry fruit snacks, 'red' Doritos, a red Chobani, an apple, and peanut butter with red jam, and of course a little love note ;)

MAKE VALENTINE GOODIES

Before you start worrying about how much sugar I'm feeding my son, no, we did not eat all these ;) I might have tried a little of each, but he didn't get any ;) I know, such a mean mom.

But Valentines is the month of showing love, so what better than to whip up some Valentine goodness for others! I even sent some of the brownies to my husband's study group.

I especially love this tradition because of the lasting impression one Valentines Day left on me when I was a little girl. I was still in elementary school, and my mom told us that besides the little valentines we were to take to school to pass out to our class, she wanted us to make a special valentine treat that we would leave on someone's doorstep. However, the one rule was that this person had to be someone in our class that either we didn't really get a long with, or someone that we felt just needed some extra love.
As a young girl, I was surprised the impact this exercise in love had on me. As I thought of one girl in particular, a child who didn't make friends easily and got picked on a lot, I wondered what my "popular" friends would think if they saw me taking a valentine to her house. Would I get made fun of too? What would others think if this little gesture of mine resulted in a friendship between us? Would I suddenly be "uncool" too? It seems so trivial now, but as a child these were heavy matters, and although I was generally a kind little girl, I was surprised how much I was tempted to take the valentine to someone else . . . someone less "risky" than this girl.

I'm thankful for my mom's powerful Valentine lesson though, because I will never forget the incredible warmth and joy that burned inside my chest that afternoon as I walked a plate of red, heart-shaped Jello Jigglers to this girl's doorstep and rang the doorbell.

No, that small act didn't mean we automatically became best friends, but it taught me to put another's feelings before my own. And, I always had the courage after that to say hi to her, sit by her, and be kind to her, even if it was the unpopular thing to do.

I hope when my little boy is in school years from now, I also teach him the power of a Valentine.

Martha Stewart Heart Brownies!

CUDDLE UP WITH HOT COCOA
and VALENTINE BOOKS

We would also, of course, sing Valentine Songs:

"Knock, Knock, Knock" and "I Love You" by Jeneen Brady

HEART CEREAL and VALENTINE BINGO

Okay, these weren't around when I was little, but I thought they were perfect for February when I saw them at the store. This heart-shaped cereal by Quaker is perfect for my toddler's little hands and is especially good with milk and some fresh blueberries and strawberries on top.

I mean, how cute is this cereal!

When my little boy is a bit older, I thought it would be really cute to use this cereal to play Valentine bingo!

(Bingo printables courtesy of preparenotscared.blogspot.com!

Or if this cereal doesn't stick around, I could always use Sweetheart candies or just plain old cheerios to play with :)

( Free printables at libbiegrove.blogspot.com! )

MAKE VALENTINES MORNING SPECIAL

We would always wake up on Valentines Day to a table spread with love and cheer. The table would be set with a pancake breakfast and at each place we would find a special valentine for us from mom and dad.

Our Valentine table this year!

My son's little Valentine goodies.

Stauffer's brand Cheddar Whale crackers

Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chip Graham Goldfish

Red Duckies for the Bath

He loved putting the duckies in and out of the little mailbox :)

For breakfast on Valentines Day, my mom would always serve us pink whole wheat pancakes with strawberry syrup, pink milk (just add a couple drops of red food coloring to pancake batter/milk), and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

Instead of pink milk, to make things a little more nutritional, I served raspberry Kefir (a probiotic yogurt-like drink). Plus its already pink!

HAVE A FUN VALENTINES DINNER

I got the idea for this soup from The Gathering of Friends cookbook Volume I. However, I didn't like their tomato soup recipe, so I just got some organic tomato soup from Trader Joes and added a touch of worcestershire sauce, half and half, basil and oregano. Then, just like in the cookbook, I used sticky rice and a heart shaped cookie cutter to make a rice heart for the center. I served it up with a green salad, parmesan toast, and sparkling cider!