Happy Valentine's Day!!

What a fun day we had today. I had fun taking some Valentine's Day pictures, although my pictures are not nearly as awesome as these. I would love to be in Apple Valley this week to see for myself, but thank you Tracy for sharing! :o)



I just love Family Fun magazine. There is almost always an easy, do-able project or activity that we can do. Eight years ago there was an idea in the February issue that I decided to try. We made streamers to hang in the kids' doorways after they went to bed on Feb. 13, so that they saw them first thing in the morning on Valentine's Day. Attached to the streamers were hearts with messages for the kids--simple "I Love You"s, "thanks for being a great helper", "you are so great at _______", or whatever else we wanted to say.

They loved it and it has become an annual tradition. As we were making our hearts last night Matt wondered if any of them actually even read what we write to them. He wrote on one of Zane's "Can I borrow your DS?" Zane came into our room first thing and said "Yes, Daddy, you can play my DS!" I guess they read them!!

Six years ago, Valentine's Day just happened to fall on a Saturday. We had only lived in Minnesota for a few months, we had a brand new baby, we were cooped up in a rental town home, and needed something to do. We decided that we would add to our tradition! We hung the streamers and then placed a sign in the hallway: "We're going to IHOP!", which just happened to be their favorite breakfast place in Apple Valley at the time. We had a great day, and it must have been pretty memorable because the next year rolled around and they asked if we were going to IHOP again. So we did, and the tradition was born. We have had several years when we had to get up extra, extra early in order to get to school on time, but we haven't missed a year. This year was no exception.