Valentines Day Dinner

Next to Christmas and Halloween, I love celebrating Valentine's Day. I'm a total romantic at heart and it gives me yet another excuse to have a little family party and do something nice for the people I love. Tim had to go to California and would be gone for the actual holiday so we celebrated a little early and decided to hold our special dinner over the weekend.

The table setting was simple. I made some tissue paper doilies and sprinkled some heart confetti on the table. I used fun Valentine paper plates and napkins and placed a large candle in the middle.

I put together coupon books for each of my boys and placed it on their plates. The coupons included things like (6 readings of your favorite story, 15 minutes of undivided attention from mommy, get out of time-out free card, get out of one chore card, etc.)


Then I also gave each one of them a book with the theme of love. Xavier's book was How do Dinosaurs Say I love you, Tim's book was Love is You and Me, and Gavin's book was How do I Love You? All of these books are so cute and really suited each of my boys personalities and expressed the love I have for them.

Our meal included a yummy heart pizza which Tim made and some yummy breadsticks to go along with it.

Mars gave us a yummy cookbook with all sorts of holiday baking ideas and I had to try these out for this special occasion. They have everything wonderful in them- graham cracker bottom, followed by a layer of melted Dove chocolate, then a cookie batter with peanut butter, drizzled with caramel, and topped with a snickers mini. They were oh so yummy.

During our Valentine dinner conversation we went around and told each person one thing we loved about them. We found that it was hard just saying one thing we loved about each other and added a few extra compliments of love. After we finished eating Xavier wanted to blow out the candle. He said he made a wish for a baby sister.....I don't know if I've mentioned this before but he has been asking for a baby sister quite frequently and I'm starting to get a little nervous. I am nowhere near ready for another baby, but he obviously has a big heart ready to welcome a baby sister. (No we aren't trying, but I find it hilarious and fitting that on Valentine's he was asking for another little sibling to love as the big brother)

So on this day love is all we needed.

In the words of Leo Buscaglia

Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love.

My biggest gift and hope today is that we always remember to love each other first, forgive each other second, and let the little things go.