February 1, 2010

Oh, the horror! And some cuteness.

Valentine's Day. (shudder) The horror of it all. Bad, bad teenage memories. 

Let's not go there.

I had completely forgotten that we had just moved out of January and into February until Savannah come home from school.

"Mom, is it Valentine's Day yet?"

Huh? Valentine's Day? Oh, it's February? 

That's how on top of things I am.

Then I eyed her suspiciously. Hmm... after her wanna kiss a boy episode, I have to keep a close eye on her.

After lunch she informed me that she needed to make something. Of course, she's ALWAYS making something. She knows where everything is and she helped herself.

I started cleaning the house. We're having company tonight and I would like them to speak to us again so I figured it was a good plan.

But then I noticed just how concentrated she was. So I snuck over to investigate.


Focus...


Focus...


Man, this is hard work!


Ta da!

Hey, not bad! She did it without a single drop of help. I was impressed!

I remember for V-Day my mom would always leave little gifts for us on our beds, decorate the table all fun with cute tablecloths and paper plates. There was even candy on the table during dinner. She was REALLY good about dressing up any holiday.

I confess, I haven't been as great as she was.

So I'm super curious, do you do anything special for the "holiday of love"? Family traditions? Special treats? 

I ask because I need ideas for this year.  Help.
                                                       

14 super cool people speak:

Courtney said...

My parents always got my sister and I a little present like a flower, or some candy or something special. I loved it, I don't know if they do it for my brothers though, but I think I will continue it for my kids. Just something small, not anything outrageous.

Wonder Woman said...

I don't do anything special, but I might as well start. A red table cloth and heart-shaped pancakes shouldn't be too hard.

Did you watch Jon and Kate plus 8? Before all the craziness? Kate made a really big deal out of Valentines' and I kinda liked it.

Meagan said...

My Dad (family of six daughters + mom=7 women) always took Valentine's Day very seriously and made sure that all of us had a present every year. I remember one year we each got a balloon, and one year he bought a dozen roses, giving six to mom and one to each girl. I don't ever remember getting a valentine from a boy in jr high/high school, but I remember always getting one from Dad.

Katherine said...

Wow, Savannah is so grown up!

My parents didn't do anything for Valentine's Day.

ldsjaneite said...

I think I've vented on my blog about how well Singles Awareness Day and I get along. Great stories to tell. Being given a flower only to have it taken away. Being proposed to, only it wasn't meant for me. Finding out the young man I had dated and was on the road to marriage was engaged...not to me. Not to mention I don't like candy, chocolate, or the color pink.

Finally I decided that doing temple sealings on that day was a much happier way to celebrate. Because there are many different kinds of love and this way I can focus on the one I am working toward instead of the one I don't have.

My mother also left us special gifts.

Elizabeth said...

I think my mom usually got us something like a box of conversation hearts or maybe one of those small sized heart shaped boxes of chocolate. Something I do remember her doing is always writing each of us a "love note" if you will.. Just a note saying how great we are and that she loved us.

Trent mentioned something about knowing what he was going to give me for valentines, and I was like, oh crap! I forgot about getting you something for valentines... But one of my goals this year is to give homemade presents, so I may just end up doing something cheesy like a coupon book or something :)

P.S. I am very impressed by Savannah's skills, and yours..those pictures look really good! Do you have some kind of fancy camera?

Stacy said...

The only really good Valentine's Day story I have is from when I was a freshman in college, living in the dorms. I was the only one who owned a car, so we packed all the pitiful single people we could find and took a road trop to Wyoming to buy illegal fireworks, then proceeded to shoot them off in the wuad just behind the dorms. I surprised we didn't get caught.

Yeah, illegal fireworks not on my list of Valentine's traditions...

Unknown said...

I'm not inclined to make a big deal out of holidays, but my sis-in-law is AMAZING at making life so fun by celebrating all the time.

One of my goals is to celebrate more this year, so today we put up a huge crepe paper heart, and we'll do something every day until the day of. In theory :-)

Serene is my name, not my life! said...

Haha, thanks for everyone's input!!

Courtney: Thanks!

WW: Hmmm, no I never did watch Jon and Kate. Maybe I'll have to go do some research.

Meagan: Oh that was so sweet! I'm so glad you shared that! I didn't even thing to involve Luke!!

Katherine: Sorry. You should tell them to get on it! =)

Heidi: Oh wow! Umm, okay, so my stories aren't are THAT interesting.

Elizabeth: Nope, no fancy camera. Just our cheap (and I HATE it) camera from Walmart. But, I read this thing the other day that even if you have a bad camera, you can get pretty good pictures. Its all about the lighting. You need to find someplace in your house where you get the best lighting, turn off the flash on your camera, and take some pictures! Our dining area gets the best light. I think that's why they came out so nice.

Stacy: I laughed. Out loud.

Emily: Good luck! I know it always made things special for me as a kid. I have lots of fun memories.

Marlyce said...

We think it's lame so we celebrate it on the 15th when everything is half off and there are no crowds. Something about feeling obligated to tell people you love them once a year just doesn't cut it for me. But now I'm a mom so I broke down and bought some Valentine's for Kinley.

Cindy P said...

Hey Sarah, I have a couple ideas that I've done with my children and they've loved them both.

This first idea I don't do anymore because with 7 kids it gets a little crazy, but when I had 4 or 5 they had a lot of fun with it. (I remember starting this when we lived in FL) Get a different color yarn for each child, and basically you will make a web of yarn all over the house. I would create it the night before when they were all in bed. Start with a big heart by their bed with the yarn attched to it so when they wake up in the AM they see the surprise. Then they have to follow their yarn all over the house, rolling up as they go, and it leads to a valentine treat. My kids really loved doing this, but as you can imagine creating this with 7 different colors of yarn, get very tricky...so a few years ago I started doing something different...I cut out a ton of hearts out of construction paper, about 20-25 hearts for each child, and put their initials on each heart..then I write a riddle for where their valentine treat is hiding. I scramble up the words and put one word on the back of each heart (and not all hearts will have a word on them) then I tape all the colored hearts all over the house!! So it looks really festive. I tell each child how many hearts they have to find and then they have a lot of fun searching all over the house for all of their hearts. When they find all of them, they lay them out and try to put the riddle in the right order and then solve the riddle to find their treat.
I have to admit that last year I wasn't ready for valentine's day so I didn't do either. Instead I filled a cellophane baggie with candy and attached a helium balloon to each bag, set them all up on the front porch, and ding-dong-ditched my own kids...and they were surprised to open the door and find a valentine treat, cuz they thought Mom had forgotten, cuz I hadn't done the hearts or the yarn.
It's fun when kids look forward to a tradition...even though it can be a lot of work for Mom. :)
Whatever you do, I'm sure it will be great cuz you are so creative!!

ldsjaneite said...

I LOVE Cindy's ideas! I'm asking permission to borrow for some day.

Serene is my name, not my life! said...

Thanks so much for taking the time to write those up Cindy. I love, love, love them!

And Marlyce, I had to laugh.

Bethany said...

Cindy's ideas are so much fun! Her hearts are adorable, I need to think of something to make for my students. Crap, their party is in three days!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...