Valentine's Traditions

Yay! Valentine's Day is almost here. One thing we do to celebrate with the kids is we have what we call "The Jar of Loooove!" (Imagine me saying this in a groovy 1970's gameshow announcer voice so as to mortify Spencer and delight Ella). The week before Valentine's Day we place the empty jar in the middle of our table. Whenever somebody does an act of service or something loving for another member of the family, they get to put a marble in. If we get all the marbles in by Valentine's Day then we all go to Coldstone for some ice cream. Yay!! Coldstone is always a huge motivator over here. Some years we start this on Valentine's and do it the week after instead of before - basically whenever I remember to get the marbles down.

I had to take a picture outside today because I was losing light quickly in the house. If you look behind the marbles, you can see Spencer and his friend having a light saber fight in the woods. This is moments before an accidental bloody lip.

The other main tradition we do is a "Curtain of Hearts" for each kid. I hang dozens of hearts in their doorway that they have to walk through the morning of Valentine's Day. This is so easy and they love it so much. I don't have a picture of it completed so I'll try and describe it well. You just cut up a ton of hearts out of construction paper in all different sizes and colors and write love notes on some of them. Then you attach them to long pieces of curling ribbon (see picture below). Each piece of ribbon should be the length of the door. Then, hang about 10 of these strands in the doorway so it is full of hearts. I do this at night when they are asleep so it is something fun to wake up to.

I try to make the messages on the hearts pertain to each child. Ella's will probably have easy words and some pictures so she can read them herself. On Spencer's I usually put some Spanish phrases on for him to try and translate.



On a totally unrelated note, I didn't kill myself working out today - but I did walk 2.2 miles. Something I had to talk my tired, sore self into. Spencer's school is exactly 1.1 miles from our house. I have really been feeling lately that he needs some one on one time so I decided to surprise him and walk him home. I am so sore now but I am hoping it will get better soon!