Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband and I have never really been a couple that has celebrated Valentine's Day - and to be honest, I think the whole "holiday" is really the retail world's way of making some money in the lull that is February, after all of the Christmas-shopping mayhem has ended. But this year, partially because Little A is spending time with us during the days and also because I'm always looking for new crafts and things to do with the kids, I decided we'd celebrate a bit!

So Wee Man I both donned red shirts today (we're celebrating a day early because Little A won't be here tomorrow) and we've had a 'heart' themed day.

I was going to be all super-mama and do heart-shaped pancakes with red berries, but Wee Man wanted nothing to do with pancakes this morning and was adamant that 'bet-ist' (breakfast) was going to be 'cet-al' (cereal) and he desperately wanted Mini-Wheats and 'nanas' (Bananas). So there went that idea. Maybe we'll attempt it tomorrow and I'll remember not to ask him what he wants for breakfast --- he'll eat anything pretty much put in front of him, but when you ask he has his opinions! ;-)

Our morning activities centred around Valentines - we made some heart shaped cards for our loved ones and read some books during storytime that centred around love, friendship and Valentine's Day itself.

The kids loved picking out stickers and different sized hearts to glue onto their cards, and they turned out so well, too!



On the weekend I decided to make some heart-shaped cookies. We gave most of these away in our weekend adventures to see some family and friends, wrapped in little bags covered in hearts, but for snack today the kids were lucky each got to eat one special heart-shaped cookie! Since Wee Man (and now Little A as well) had a bad cold late last week and over the weekend, I opted not to have the kids help this time (which is part of the reason I made them ahead of time, too) - but I think we'll  bake and decorate cookies again around Easter since we did these at Christmas (in shapes of snowmen, bears and Xmas trees) and they both loved decorating it. I just love these sugar cookies. They bring back so many wonderful memories of holidays from when I was little - my grandma used to make animal shaped sugar cookies and decorate them with colourful sugar and sprinkles and every time I eat them I am transported to those happy memories!

For anyone looking for a quick and easy Sugar Cookie recipe, this is the one I use:

2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tsp. baking powder
flour to make dough soft (approx 3 cups, added gradually after all other ingredients have been mixed together in the order given above)
- Note: These tend to  roll out easier when the dough is chilled for at least an hour; they use less flour in the rolling-out process when that is the case. Bake at 325F until lightly golden at the edges.


And finally, this year in our house Valentine's Day will have another special meaning, our two kitties Henry & Che will be one year old! So tomorrow we'll wish an extra-special Love Day to the newest members of our family:

I hope, however you celebrate Valentine's Day, that February 14th is one filled with much love and remembrance of the special ones in your life! I look forward to having dinner with family (we're making homemade heart shaped pizzas for dinner), a quiet day at home with Wee Man and knowing that I am fortunate to have so much love in my home and my life! <3