Valentines in 2009

Being a hopeless romantic I've always loved V-day.  I'm sure there were past V-days that were harder than others but honestly I don't remember them right now.  In fact one of my very favorite V-day memories was when I was single.  I won't get into that story here but I'm sure you could find it in my archives somehow.  For some reason I'm inept at posting links right now.

One of the best parts of having pre-school age children are the holidays.  Kids love to embrace a celebration so we have been celebrating around here for awhile.  Almost two weeks ago Rhett decided one day to have a spontaneous V-day celebration.  We donned red clothing, used heart napkins and used our one and only heart dish towel as the base for our red flower centerpiece.  We dined on pink yo-go's, strawberries and heart shaped pancakes.  Emmie had her pre-school Valentines party this past week and proudly brought red tulips in for her teacher along with valentines for her classmates.  Rhett wrote out all of his own valentines this year along with planning the "valentines park party."  We invited his friends from church and had brownies and rolled tacos.  Rhett put plates and napkins out along with heart suckers for each attendee.  The funniest moment was the night before V-day when Rhett said to me, "mom, I can't believe V-day is tomorrow already!"  You would think it was Christmas around here.

On the actual day we spent lots of time together as a family.

Of coarse Rhett had Valentines made for all of us when we woke up.  The one above is one of at least five that he had made for Emmie over the past week.
After heart shaped English muffins with strawberry jelly the kids opened their valentines from us.  They even got to eat their PEZ candy at 10 in the morning.
I wrote my sentiments on the kids bathroom mirror.  The kids seemed to like it and were impressed I could do this with lipstick. Rod was afraid it might be encouraging some naughty behavior but we decided it was worth it to take the risk.
Emmie decided not to refrain from her usual craziness on V-day and decided to try and wash her hair all by herself with dish soap.
Rod wanted us to celebrate as a family and took us out to lunch at Cheesecake Factory.
After lunch Rod and the kids were taking a break in the mall while I checked out H&M.
After shopping we took the kids to a great park by Mike and my Moms house.
We went on a great walk and took in the crisp air.  Rhett shot most of these pictures.
All in all we had a great day of family fun celebrating our love for each other.  And just when it seemed things could not get any better we dropped the kids off at Nana and Papa's to spend the night.

Rod did not give me flowers or chocolate this year.  Instead I got lots of quality time with the best husband and father I could ask for.  We ate yummy food, watched great romantic movies and talked about this and that and everything.  Some gifts cannot be wrapped up but they end up being the best kind.  Valentines Day was FINE in 2009!