Valentine's Day Festivities

Personally, Valentine's Day is not particularly important to me. I view it as one of those "non-holidays" that often get celebrated in excess. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, I'll never turn down flowers, presents, dinner out, etc., but I would be just as happy with these things on a random day of the week as I would be to get them on Valentine's Day, you know?

But, with Carver I think it is fun to make a big deal out of little things. It is one of the perks of being a kid-- making memories, celebrating all occasions. And, it breaks up the monotony of our weeks. It was fun for me to plan small ways to celebrate Valentine's Day, even though he didn't really "get it" at all. One day though, he'll look back at his albums (or this blog maybe) and see that we celebrated small things and I tried (not always successfully) to make things special for him.

You're only a 2 year old once. I want to embrace his childhood and make the most of these fleeting years. Because, we all know that most days we're just trying to survive.

Here are some pictures from our V-day activities. Most centered around food. I'm pretty sure that Carver ate more sugar yesterday than at any other time in his 2 years of life. I'm not proud of that, but it was an important holiday. Just kidding. These things just happen.

The set-up.

It should be noted that, with the exception of the book, all of these little gifts were $1-2 a piece. Not bad.

The placemat and plate were also about $1 or $2 AND they're reusable :)

The balloon was the big hit. As expected.

Breakfast. Pink(ish) pancakes, blueberries and strawberries. They were prettier in my head, the reality was a little disappointing.

Not related to V-Day, but Carver is obsessed with his Hungry Caterpillar and book right now. Obsessed.

Morning Snack-- strawberry jello (first time having it and he was not a fan), red goldfish, 1 strawberry newton.

Activity #1: Coloring (Thanks to Pinterest for the free V-Day printables)

Activity #2: Decorating Sugar Cookies. Carver put sprinkles on about 4 of them, then grabbed one and ran away to eat it.

Then he came back looking for more.

Lunch: Grilled Cheese sandwich, cherry yogurt, strawberries and blueberries.

Afternoon Snack: sugar cookie, pink mini-marshmallows (fruit flavored so they're healthy, right?), and 1 strawberry newton.

Random snack from last week when I was trying out my new cookie cutter...

For dinner we went out for Mexican food so that was the end of pink, red, or heart-shaped food. And yes, he did have some veggies for dinner for those of you who were keeping track.

Being a stay-at-home mom is not something I ever thought I would do. I'm thankful to work some, to keep my brain cells in shape, but I do really love some things about being home full-time with Carver. Sprinkled amongst the drudgery of day-to-day survival are days like this. Days that I can spend a week or so planning for and then get to watch him enjoy, even if he doesn't really understand why we are doing these things.

This is fun to me, who would have thought?