Day of Love . . . . . . .

We love Valentines Day at our house! Especially with kids. Before I had kids, I always looked at it as an over-commercialized holiday where everybody felt guilty or sad. With my whole little family now, I don't think that anymore! It is SOOO much fun to come up with fun crafts, parties, valentines, and games just to show everybody how much we love them! Now - I don't want to ruin the loving spirit I have going on here, but at the risk of being prideful, I really think I have THE most beautiful Valentines ever!!

Now the highlight of Ava's entire Valentine's season (yep - I just called it a season - that's how we roll at our house):  Her Castle Valentines Box!  Now - this was definitely a whole family affair, but daddy really did the research and dirty work to get it to be this magnificent.  Watching her taking it into school literally had me holding back the tears.  Even with her shy little personality at school, I could just see the glow coming off of her she was so proud!  She kept telling her friends that "me and daddy made it."  I know - pulls at my heart strings too.

Ava on her way to her Valentines party with her "squeeze" valentines, their Valentines movie night, heart shaped pancakes and pink milk for breakfast, and the spread at our friends Valentines party we had at our house.  I can't emphasize enough how much my daughter loves holidays.  Luckily we can do anything fun and throw "Valentines" in front of it and it's a huge celebration!  And don't even get me started on my "pink" milk.  Yes - I know it's purple, and Ava DEFINITELY knew it was purple, not pink.

We got to show lots of love this week because we had Grandma Annie and Papa visit!  What a fun surprise.  We are so lucky to have such amazing family on both sides of mine and Randy's family.  We are truly blessed.  The kids were watching the Testaments with Papa.  The picture with Kai is one that Ava took.  I had to throw it in there just so we would remember that at this point in time, my kid's very favorite movie is the "Jesus movie."  How great is that?  They ask for it all of the time.

What would Valentines Day be without sugar cookies?  Not only did they get to cut out and frost cookies, they also got to do it with Grandma!

I just wanted to add to this that while Daddy was at work, we decorated his door with lots of paper hearts.  The middle one said, "We love Daddy Because . . . "  The answers came from the kids and this is what they said:
He Loves to Play With Us
We Love to Make Things With Him
He is Handsome
He Goes to Church with Us
He Makes Popcorn
He Gives Good Hugs
He Gives Good Kisses
He Tucks us In
He Plays Basketball with us
He is a Hard Worker
He Has Movie Nights with us
We Love to Play Ball with Him
He Wrestles With us
He's Nice
We Love Playing Soccer with Him