Backtrack - Valentine's Day

I'm often kinda stumped when it comes to Valentine's Day.  Nehemiah's birthday is also on Valentine's day.  I want to celebrate both but struggle finding a balance.

This year I made the kids little heart shaped cupcakes

for breakfast. 

Gasp!  :)

They had to sit on the couch and wait for me to give the "all clear" before they could run into the kitchen to see their treat. :)

Backing up even further though ... before Valentine's Day I had the kids make some Valentine's boxes.

They painted up a storm.

And put special care into the design on their boxes.

Nehemiah with his favorite color, green. It's a surprise when he reaches for another color.  :)

Mr. Perfectionist at work.

So after they made their boxes (and after they dried) their job was to write special notes to each other and fill up those boxes! 

Some took this job more seriously than others.  Hannah was making special little notes almost daily.  Joseph would disappear into his room with some paper and crayons and make a bunch at a time.  The other two occasionally dropped a note into someones box, but not as often. 

I cut out a BUNCH of little construction paper hearts and wrote special things that I love about each child.  (ie: Hannah is self conscious about the fact that her eyes are blue and the rest of the kids have brown eyes, so I made sure to point out that I LOVE her blue eyes!)  (Nehemiah's dimples save him from trouble more often than they should... I let him know that I love his dimples.)  Anyway, just stuff like that. 

By Valentine's morning their boxes were full.  It was like opening a stocking on Christmas morning, the kids were so excited to rip into those boxes! I LOVED IT!  Seeing their smiles as they read notes from their siblings.  Seeing their smiles as they read the little things that I love about them... so precious.  This is one thing we will be doing for every Valentine's day from now on.