I feel pretty good about how this Valentine’s Day went down.  Valentine’s Day at our house is definitely a family holiday and we love our traditions!

Let’s start with the Valentine Boxes.  Blake was, once again, super creative with his “Feed Me” Monster.  I was a little worried his class was going to get high off the spray paint fumes, but it all turned out just fine.

Josh reused his Basketball box.  The actual basket is long gone, but he didn’t care a bit.  I love this practical kid!

And…I rocked being a boy mom this year.  These are the Valentines they handed out to their classmates.  Perfect, right?

I got to attend Blake’s fun party where they made cute little bookmarks, played some fun games with conversation hearts and had a snack.  I tried my best to get out of going to this party, but he insisted that I come. I guess I’m just going to have to enjoy that while I still can.

I’m the room mom in Josh’s class this year and I had a great time coming up with some fun activities for the 5th graders to enjoy.  We played a Valentine left/right game with a bunch of prizes from the dollar store.  But my favorite was a guess who/matching game we played.  You first had to guess the character on your back by asking classmates yes or no questions.  Once you knew your identity, you had to go search for your Valentine.  It could be a romantic couple (Beauty and the Beast) a friendship (Nemo and Dory) or arch rivals, (Broncos and Patriots).  I think everyone loved this game.  Josh had the unfortunate luck to be Donald Trump.  It was hilarious to see everyone’s reaction to him.  He had a hard time finding his wife, Melania, because I’m pretty sure he’s never seen her before!

After school Halle did her first real dog walking at Longmont Humane Society after training. So much fun, and so many sweet dogs.  She loves it so much!

Now, on to the main event: Cupid’s Crazy Cafe.  It was a fun one this year!  I had some extra time in the morning so I made some chocolate dipped strawberries that were pretty darn delicious.  I also got each of the kids a little gift.  Blake got some more Beyblades, Josh got an itunes gift card, and Halle got a North Face Jacket.  I got Rusty a wifi controlled Thermostat, but I’m pretty sure that might have been a selfish gift 🙂

Blake does NOT like surprises and a few days before Valentine’s Day he came to me in tears saying that he did not want to do Cupid’s Crazy Cafe because he was worried he would do it wrong and it would be a big let down.  So, we came up with a way for him to still have fun without so much pressure.  I told him what was going to be on the menu and then I mixed up the words.  So soda became dsoa.  He could then unscramble the words and choose the course he wanted them to go.  I think it was a good compromise.  Also, Grand Cornell sent her traditional Valentine T-shirts.  It’s always such a fun package to receive!

We also did our traditional FHE where we cut out hearts and write what we love about our family members.  This is my favorite part of Valentine’s day.  I put one or two on their door each day in the days leading up to the holiday.  And this year, of course, the geckos joined in the fun.  I love my animal loving, big hearted kids!