Happy Saint Valentine's Day

February 14, 2011

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

Ever notice that everyone refers to March's "holiday" as St. Patrick's Day, but the "Saint" part gets dropped from St. Valentine's Day? Why is that? (That's a rhetorical question.)

The story often gets a little lost in the "buy-your-sweetheart-a-big-expensive-gift-and-don't-forget-the-chocolates" commercialism. I admit, we pretty much get caught up in it too, but we try to make a point to remember where/why this celebration began...with the story of St. Valentine.

St. Valentine: Patron saint of LOVE, YOUNG PEOPLE, HAPPY MARRIAGES. It is an easy holiday to enjoy.

Celebrating festively with Little Flowers.

Making Valentine greetings with Great Grandma and Grandpa.

...and then eating "Pasgetti" with them too. (My Grandma can't say "spaghetti" the right way, so whenever we eat "pasgetti", we know we'll be eating with her.)

I'd say that when referring to LOVE, these two got it right. They just celebrated 64 years together!

My Gran has always been a classy lady. They're all three lovely in their hats. We have been so lucky to spend extra time with my grandparents. The little kids and I took advantage of Tim having to work out west and we went along and spent much of our time there with them.

Of course, you can't very well have a house full of children and not expect there will be lots of Valentine greetings to be made. This is fun for me...I love it when my kids want to create. It's also hard for me, because I tend to want to do it for them instead of letting them do what they want. Why shouldn't a 1st grader's Valentines LOOK like a 1st grader made them?? Well, there you go...they had way more fun with me letting them make theirs while I made my own!

And then there are the cookies. Of course there are! Did you really think we would skip that opportunity??

I must remember to invest in sprinkles in bulk next time!

SOO busted! She wasn't frosting cookies, she was frosting her face!

Can this be done neatly? Maybe...or probably not. I don't want to know if it can in anyone else's house. I'm just fine with the aftermath. It usually means it was well-enjoyed.

Hmm. Not bad. I did make sure to reserve a few for myself to decorate. :)

Mathilda's Valentines. Ben's are the same, but he chose to stamp pink on white and use Scooby Snack graham crackers. No fingers where stapled during this project! Whew...we came close a few times!

Jon's look much like this, but with candy hearts in bags stapled to the back. He had them all packaged away already! I'm not sure if anyone noticed me collecting all of the various shades of reds and pinks throughout the paint swatches. :)