It's all about L-O-V-E, love!

God is L-O-V-E--LOVE! The kids sang that song in a little musical last year & it has been playing over & over in my head this week with all the Valentines festivities. I truly love celebrating Valentine's Day, and I'm so thankful that we have LOVE because He first loved us!! (1 John 4:19)

Thanks to Pinterest, we had so much fun this year looking at so many fun Valentines ideas & choosing the perfect ones to make for each class. After great deliberation (& much searching on Pinterest,) Jack decided that these Valentines would be, well, dynamite!

We made sticks of TnT out of Rolo candies wrapped in red cardstock. This would have been a bit simpler if we had been able to find the long packs of Rolos, but I could only find them individually in bags!

After I made a prototype (by wrapping 10 Rolos in the cardstock & securing it with tape) my dear, long-suffering husband helped make the rest of them...did I mention there are 25 kids in Jack's class?!! That was our Sunday night...making Rolo dynamite!

 But even though they were a little labor intensive, I think they turned out great! And Jack said they were the hit of the class & all the kids & teachers loved them!

 For the girls, we decided on the adorable photo Valentines where you hold out your hand like you are giving a friend a lollipop. I was at the drug store with Drew to get meds for his ear infection on Friday, so I picked up a few packs of the heart shaped suckers.

 On Saturday afternoon, I snapped a few pics of the girls & was surprised to get a fairly good photo pretty quickly. I used Picnik to jazz up the photos & add a Valentines greeting. I then uploaded the finished product to Walgreens & they were ready for pick-up in less than an hour! At home, I used a scrapbooking grommet tool to punch two little holes for the lollipops on each card. We were really pleased with the adorable finished product & I was happily surprised at how quickly they came together! (Jeff said the boys' complicated ones more than made up for the girls' more simple cards!)

Since Drew is all motion & action & energy, and since he loves balls, I chose to give his classmates a little bouncy ball. I packaged them up with a few Hershey kisses (you can never have too many kisses!) & a little caption that said "you make my heart bounce!"

Once again, I have to give my own dear Valentine his props...while I was working on other Valentine related tasks (like assembling the treat bags for Darcy's class) he used his fancy penmanship & wrote the caption on all of the Valentines for Drew's class! (We still don't have word processing software on our new Mac, or I would have printed out little labels.)

I had signed up at the beginning of the school year to help with the Valentine's Day party in Darcy's class. This worked out well because her teacher is awesome! Basically she did everything & just needed the other mom & I to show up & help set-up/servet the food. She also asked us to provide a little treat bag for each child.

Since I had seen SO many fun ideas on Pinterest (I need more kids just to make more Valentines...HA! I'm just kidding, Jeff! I tried to get Jeff to promise that if anything ever happens to me that he would continue the home-made Valentine tradition...I could get no formal agreement.) Anyway, since I had seen all these fun ideas, I volunteered to put together a little treat bag with some goodies...

The only thing I dislike about Valentine's Day is all the candy...I know that sounds crazy, but we seriously still have Halloween candy, and candy canes from Christmas. I won't get started, but suffice it to say that I think kids get way too much candy these days (says the mom who gave 10 packs of Rolos to a class of 4th graders...shhhh!) So, for the goodie bag, I chose the great non-candy stand-bys...bubbles, Play Doh, glow sticks, and, okay you got me, a couple Hershey Kisses! 

I had wanted to wrap each item in the bags in cute Valentines paper, but since I was starting on them at 11:30 at night I followed my husbands advice of keeping it simple. 

I put everything in a clear cello bag, topped it with cute paper & a little poem...My heart is all aGLOW, So I KNEAD to let you know. I'm BLOWING lots of KISSES to you my sweet Valentine! They really turned out to be pretty cute if I do say so myself!

 As is our tradition, I also got out the big bin of Valentine foam stickers & papers & let the kids have fun making cards for each other.

 More than anything, it gave me a few partially uninterrupted moments to work on dinner while the kids were busy crafting.

And I'm a sucker for sweet sibling moments when they actually work together & share! 

 They even Valentined themselves!

 Isn't he the cutest little Valentine!

 Lucy took the opportunity to have a little play time of her own with no big brothers or sisters trying to sit on her or carry her or grab her toys!

 Yet again, thanks to Pinterest, I tried to give Sophie heart hair for school on Valentine's Day. If you know me, you know that I am NOT a morning person, so this actually turned out great considering I was doing this through half closed eyes.

 One sweet & precious Valentine!

 I had my Bible Study class as normal that morning & then I headed off to help with the party in Darcy's class. Each of the students brought in a flower for the teachers that morning & they all made up the most lovely bouquet!

 After spending the morning in the nursery, Lucy was getting pretty sleepy, but she was a trooper. Enjoying her very first sugar cookie with frosting helped!

 Enjoying a Valentine's feast of red & pink foods...red apples (with caramel sauce!), pink lemonade, strawberries, red jello & of course the iced sugar cookies! 

 The hallways at the preschool were SO festive & lined with such cute crafts, decorations & Valentine Boxes! Love was in the air everywhere!!

 After Darcy's party, we  headed down to Drew's party already in progress. When we got there, Drew was working on a little craft & Darcy jumped right in to help him.

 Lucy was happy to get out of the stroller & crawl around a bit! There was plenty of chaos in a room full of 2 year olds & their parents...but Lucy rolled with it.

A super sized Valentine balloon guy was lots of fun to chase around

 Drew was running & playing & laughing with his friends!

 Trying to get a group shot of some sweet buddies!

 My speedy little Valentine slowed down long enough for me to snap one picture that wasn't blurry! Boy, I love that sweet face!

 And he's off again!!

 After leaving Drew's party, we headed over to the big kids school to check in on their classrooms...Jack's party was already finished up, but the teacher told me that his Valentines were quite the hit! Sophie's class party had also just finished & they were watching a movie. Everyone was excited & on a bit of a sugar high! And, of course, as soon as we got home, first up on the agenda...going through the bags & opening all the Valentines!

Drew asking me, why is there a girl candy in there? Because the baggie had a pink Hershey kiss!

 Jack helping Drew open a Valentine.

Darcy & the adorable flower pot & card she made us at school.

I guess I was busy all afternoon because I realized I don't have any photos of the rest of the day, but we wrapped up our great Valentine's Day with a yummy red dinner of Spaghetti & meatballs. As a special treat I also made our favorite red smoothie punch to drink. And for a super sweet ending, Mrs. Linda's famous & fabulous chocolate chunk cookies...and then everyone had sweet dreams!

Little Helper!

We were in the thick of Valentine making this weekend & I can't wait to share the cute ones we did this year, but this is too cute not to blog. Since winter has finally arrived here in the Carolinas (albeit after the trees decided to started budding) we have had a nice roaring fire going for most of the weekend. Our wood rack outside the back door had dwindled to literally sticks, so Jeff went out to the barn to bring more wood up to the house. I stayed home from church yesterday morning with Drew because we were both feeling a little under the weather, but after lunch the sun was bright & Drew was most eager to get outside. I was cleaning up the dishes when I glanced out the window. The sight outside had me running to get my camera, I even left the water on at the sink!

 It took me a minute to grab the camera, so they were almost to the barn by the time I could snap this, but there goes Drew with his little red wheelbarrow following behind Jeff with his big one.

 I knew it would take them a few minutes to load up their carts, so I went back to the sink, but kept my camera close at hand. When I saw them head back up, I was ready to snap away!

 Daddy & his little helper

 Jeff waiting for Drew to catch up a bit...Drew doesn't go anywhere fast!

 Heart melting at this point!!

 Slow & steady! (Actually it was a bit like watching a bumble bee with a wheel barrow! Drew didn't exactly take a straight path!)

 Made it! 

 Time to unload!

 Now for the fun part...riding back down to the barn for the second load!!

 Wheeeee!

 See ya Mommy!

 {Heart melting again}

 You hear people talk a lot about not having a good example to follow growing-up...about proper respect, values, behavior, manners, kindness just not being modeled by parents or grown-ups.

 It is sad that so much hurting today is the result of what was sown a generation ago. It is humbling to think of the immense influence we have on our children & the people they are becoming. (Now, I do believe that we all make our own choices in life & that not all 'problem' adults are the result of parenting mistakes. Conversely, I know that through God's grace bad patterns can be broken & replaced with good!) 

 I'm just so incredibly thankful to have a husband who follows Christ, who serves his family, who leads & encourages his children, & who models kindness, compassion, justice, hard work and love. He is involved & engaged in every aspect of parenting. And he realizes that our children are watching, they are following!

 Even when they lag behind a bit, they keep him in sight & hurry to catch up! And he is there waiting, ready to lend a hand or offer advice & instruction.

{Here Mommy, more wood to keep the fire going!}

Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,

   and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

for I give you good precepts;

   do not forsake my teaching...

Hear, my son, and accept my words,

   that the years of your life may be many.

I have taught you the way of wisdom;

   I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

When you walk, your step will not be hampered,

   and if you run, you will not stumble...

 My son, be attentive to my words;

   incline your ear to my sayings.

Let them not escape from your sight;

   keep them within your heart.

For they are life to those who find them,

   and healing to all their flesh.

Keep your heart with all vigilance,

   for from it flow the springs of life.

Put away from you crooked speech,

   and put devious talk far from you.

Let your eyes look directly forward,

   and your gaze be straight before you.

Ponder the path of your feet;

   then all your ways will be sure.

Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

   turn your foot away from evil.

Proverbs 4:1-2, 10-12, 20-27