Hearts and Flowers

We have made a bit of a tradition out of doing something fun with the kids on Valentine’s Day, and that’s worked out because it fell over a weekend for the past few years. But, because the calendar works in funny ways, Valentine’s Day was on a Tuesday this year.

It wasn’t until late Monday night when I finally made plans with a friend to go to the park for lunch. We spent three glorious hours outside, and aside from an incident with an off-leash dog who ran rampant through the park and managed to pop Bub’s ball, eat a cookie directly out of Bubette’s hand, and chew straight through one of our sand toys in under ninety seconds, we all had a great time.

We gave the kids little treats: a bubble blowing gun for Bubette, and a coloring book and new crayons for Bub. I blew his mind with the pencil sharpener on the back of the crayon box and he spent the morning digging through his box of crayons for flat ones to sharpen.

Dinner was heart shaped ravioli with pink frosted cupcakes for dessert, and every single person ate their dinner without complaint – perhaps the best gift of the day. The husband and I exchanged small gifts after insisting that we weren’t going to be getting anything for each other, and then he watched all of Something Borrowed without whining once. I guess he figures he owes me since I’ve made it through five Star Wars movies and I needed a break. He went so far as to compare Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker to Harry Potter and I need to think about that one for a minute before we finish the series.

I know the holiday is overdone, and I’ve always sworn that we won’t give in to overpriced dinners and meaningless gestures, but I love taking a day to shower my little family with love and cupcakes.