A HEARTfelt Post

I remember when Valentine's Day used to be a romantic holiday. Where candles and a dinner for two were the norm for such a night. Where love notes were slipped into my car and anticipation of the evening to come mounted all day.

Gone are the days.

Yesterday was definitely full of love celebration alright, but not quite in the same way as days past. It was more centered on my three little valentines. Each year on this day, we always give them a little surprise and a small share of candy to enjoy. They all have been wanting new crocs, so that's exactly what they got. All wrapped up in shiny red paper and topped with some little boxes of chocolate.

After our annual heart shaped pancake breakfast, all the little people in our house headed out the door with their Valentines that they had prepared for their friends and teachers. They were sooooooo excited about their parties and the Valentine exchange.

I spent the morning doing the normal household stuff. And preparing sandwiches for Miss Priss's class party to be delivered at party time. Oh, the sandwiches.........

We were given a note that listed items that each child would need to bring to the celebration. A Valentine feast, if you will. We were lined up to bring "6 cheese sandwiches, cut in half." Hmm...that sounded easy enough. Until my festive nature kicked in, and I came up with the idea that heart shaped sandwiches would be sooooooo much cuter than plain ol' sandwich halves. When I set out my heart cookie cutter and explained my plan, Miss Priss gave me the look of disapproval. She then launched into the speech of how "the note said" that the sandwiches were to be cut in half. Not in hearts.

Whatever.

I pleaded my case whole heartedly for quite some time. After a long, energy draining discussion with my seven year old anal retentive child, I finally won her over to the dark side and she agreed to go against the grain and let me prepare heart shaped cheese sandwiches. Which turned out to be a big hit, I might add.

This is the same child who had a meltdown the night before her first Kindergarten field trip. Her teacher had mentioned that they would "brown bag it" for lunch, which obviously means to take a disposable sack lunch. At the time, I had white paper sacks left over from some craft thing and a Wal-mart sack. Neither one was brown, so she freaked out and shed tears for an hour. My neighbor, who happened to be a mother of four, stopped by during the cryfest, and offered to give us a brown paper bag from her house. It was much appreciated. And I will note that the next day, on the field trip, her little best friend had her lunch in a Wal-mart sack, which I quickly pointed out. Hmph.

Anyway, after a crazy sugar rush from the Valentine parties, we headed home to chill out a bit.

And I found a Valentine surprise from my hubby that he had snuck into the house and displayed while we were out. It was a pink and red heart handbag, filled with some of my most favorite goodies. Oh yeah. He's the man.

Today, it was back to the same old normal daily routine.

Only tonight, after the small ones are in bed, we are going to watch a movie and order from our favorite Asian diner. And enjoy some chocolate chip cookie cake, that of course is heart shaped too.

I can hardly wait.