Love is in the Air

I love family traditions and I love holidays. With that said, we traditionally don't do much with Valentine's Day.  Dan and I have always exchanged small gifts and we usually try to fit in a nice dinner but that's about it. 

Last year after Valentine's Day a friend of mine posted pictures on facebook of this fabulous Valentine's Dinner she made for her husband and three boys.  It was so adorable and she had also made this Martha Stewartish valentine for each one of them telling them 10 things she loved about them.  I commented on the pictures telling her how adorable it all was and she responded saying "I know that the years are limited when I get to be their Valentine and they actually want to spend time with their Mom so I am trying to make it special."  Something about that really tugged at my heartstrings.  It's just so true!!!  Right now Mama and Daddy are the center of their universe but the days are all too quickly coming when Valentine's Day will be about some little hoochie/hoodlum:-)

So...I have been looking for a way to make Valentine's more memorable and meaningful for the kids.  The fancy dinner is not really an option because Valentine's falls on ballet night this year (which automatically makes it chicken nugget night at the String household).  The Martha Stewart Valentine's just won't work for me because...well let's face it, there is very little Martha in me.  Fortunately, I stumbled across another friends post on facebook wall this year which sparked a sort of combined idea.

I found foam mailboxes at Walmart for $2.50.  The kids decorated them with little sticky foam pieces and we placed them on the table.  Every night Dan and I cut a heart out of construction paper (this is as Martha Stewart as I was able to go) and on the heart we each write something we love about the kids.  We then put the heart and a little piece of candy or some other kind of trinket in their mailbox.  When the kids wake up, they go to there mailbox each morning and check to see if they have mail. 

Decorating the mailboxes

We are going to keep doing this up until valentine's day when they will each get a toy in their mailbox.  We are only on day 2 of this but it has been a lot of fun for the kids so far.  Colton is all about the treat in his mailbox but Brynn just adores the heart.  She loves to hear the things that Mama and Daddy love about her.  I wonder if they will still love this when the are 30?

The other bonus is that this little project seems to have inspired Dan too:-)  On Tuesday while Brynn and I were in ballet he left a flower in each of our seats in the car, yesterday he surprised me with a picnic lunch, and today when I woke up he had written me a message on our bathroom mirror.  Major brownie points have been earned:-)