Happy Thursday my friends! Today, we're looking back at our Valentine's Days through the years.... I sort of have a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. Some years, I love it and I go all out. Other years, like this year, it's just kind of a chore and something we have to do. I'm not at all excited about it. I have tried to be. Really, I have tried to decorate and come up with cute ideas, and then moments I just can. not. any. more. I'm sort of hoping today's post will get me back in that Valentine's Day spirit.
Let's take a moment and look back at baby Gretchen's very 1st Valentine's day. She was a mere two weeks old. DJ and I decided that we wanted to go out for Valentine's day, and that we wanted to take our newborn baby with us. Oh, such new parents we were! We also know that we didn't want to disturb people and their romantic meals, so we thought of the least romantic restaurant we could think of. Pizza. However, the pizza place was packed. We managed to make it through the meal, and I remember some oohs and aahs over our newborn baby and making it out of the restaurant with ease. It was then that our tradition of pizzz on Valentine's day was born.
I tried looking back for pictures of 1 and 2 year old Gretchen on Valentine's day and I couldn't find any, but I did find 3 year old Gretchen.
I think this was right around the time that Pinterest came out??? But, I was totally the mom that was all about arts and crafts with the 3 year old, so we made a Valentine's day wreath complete with a paper plate and hearts.
DJ had moved to Tulsa around that time, and Gretchen and I were behind in Indiana. I remember taking her out for pizza just the two of us on Valentine's day night.
Fast forward to 1 1/2 year old Megan and 5 year old Gretchen. They were ready for their parties with matching shirts and new hair accessories.
Megan thought the animals in her class were more tasty than the cupcakes and cookies at her party.
6 year old Gretchen went to school with a super adorable made by me Valentine's day shirt, hair bow, and outrageous pink flair pants. Megan and Addy had shirts too, but their pants ended up being way too big for them to wear that year! And, since Gretchen was in kindergarten, we had the best time making her own little Valentine box for school!
Last year, I managed to make Valentine's that didn't include candy or simple little cards.
I probably found the images from Pinterest, printed them out, bought glow sticks and bubbles from the dollar store, and I just taped everything on.
They were super easy!
And, then we had to make a box again! But, I found these little kits at Target which made it SO much easier! The box already had a pre-cut hole, and then you could choose the decorations for your box. We chose a castle for Gretchen. She just had to peel and stick the castle pieces on and then she decorated the box with glitter pens.
And, then there's this year. The year, that I'm loving and hating Valentine's day all at the same time. I managed to get my kitchen space decorated, and we spent one Sunday morning do a painting project with the girls, and I totally thought I was on my Valentine's day game! Especially because I ordered their Valentine's back in December! See, I was totally on my V-game.
The girls filled candy jars for their teachers. I just picked up a few bags of different candies, and super cute jars from Target's dollar section.
And the girls had at it. Seriously, so easy. Totally on my V-day game.
This past Sunday, we headed to Target and in my head I had my list, but I later found out it was super incomplete! Since I ordered their Valentine's in December, we already had everything, but we needed the candy. It was during our Target trip that I completely forgot that Gretchen would need to make a box, I had signed up to bring marshmallows for Megan's class, but couldn't remember at the time, and I remembered I had to get juice boxes for Addy's party. So, I ended up checking off the juice boxes and candy off my list. Priorities people.
Sunday afternoon, the girls filled up their Valentines.
Addy decided on Mickey Mouse.
Gretchen decided on Olaf, and we totally went over the top with a DIY marshmallow snowman. There are pretzels for the arms and chocolate chips for the eyes and buttons.
And Megan chose Frozen with heart shaped candy. I tried to convince her to do something other than candy conversation hearts, because they're gross, but she insisted, so I backed off.
By Sunday night, I knew we were totally prepared.
Except, remember a few years ago when my girls had matching shirts. Well, I totally thought (back in December) that I could pull it off again. Except, I haven't been in the mood to sew since this past summer. So, I have three shirts sitting unopened on my sewing table, that were suppose to be for Valentine's day. At this point, the girls can just wear red and pink and we're calling it a day.
And, then it hit me. Gretchen needed a box for school. No problem. I dropped her off at dance Tuesday night, and headed to Hobby Lobby. I remember seeing the kits there that were similar to what Target had last year. Except, you don't have a lot of choices the week of Valentine's day. I managed to get a photo storage box, called DJ to see if he could cut a hole in the top, and picked up a little heart shaped kit.
It was at that point that I was so over being that Pinterest mom, who is 100% prepared and knocks it all out of the ball park. You know, the mom who's kid has a Valentine's box that's 3 stories high, and you know there's no way that kid had anything to do with it.
It was also the point that I realized Megan needed a shoe box that her teacher had been asking for for since last week so she could make her box at school. I swore to myself that I'd remember tomorrow, and thankfully ran in to her teacher who informed me they had extra boxes and Megan had already made hers. I will forever be grateful to that teacher for saving my hiney because there's no way I'd remember to take a shoe box.
After dinner Tuesday evening, DJ set to work on cutting out the hole, and I ran out to pick up glue. Because, I once again forgot that we needed glue. On the positive, I remembered that Megan needed marshmallows, so I picked those up!
Once I got home with the glue, and the marshmallows, Gretchen set to work on her box.
You guys, if it weren't for those little kit supplies, her box would be a mess!
So, yeah, I'm still not really in the Valentine's mood. In fact, I'm just totally overwhelmed and wondering if we can postpone it for a few weeks? The only thing I'm looking forward to is that pizza on Sunday!!!
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