I Heart Valentine's Day

I heart Valentine's Day. I pink-puffy-heart Valentine's Day. It's my favorite holiday :)

(Note: Christmas doesn't count as a normal holiday. Christmas is a whole other level of holiday.)

I'm a sucker for all the cheesy romantic cliches and all the pink and red decorations, but mostly I love the idea of a holiday that's all about celebrating love! And not just the romantic kind. Having a life filled with love, being loved, feeling loved and feeling love for others is worth celebrating! I know, I'm a total mush. You can barf if you want.

I guess it was ok for our usual (and totally awesome) babysitter, Hartley, to spend Valentine's day with his girlfriend. This, however, meant that James and I had to spend Valentine's day with our children. Which I guess was also ok.

Actually it was great. I got inspired to set up a special Elegant Valentine's Day Dinner (which is exactly how my very fancy invitations put it) for James and myself and the boys. I figured we could mark my favorite holiday by making family dinner extra-special.

A few days before the 14th, I presented James and the boys with special early Valentine gifts along with fancy invitations to the Elegant Dinner.

The gifts were red clothing items for them to wear to the dinner. (Yes, I micro-managed their wardrobes. I mean, I'm the one who picks out all their clothes anyway! Even James'!)

On Valentine's morning I got up early with Calvin and baked some Sweetheart Cinnamon Rolls (thank you Pillsbury!). Calvin was devastated when I pulled them out of the oven and didn't let him eat them right away.

How can you do this to me, Mama????

I added red sprinkles on top of the icing. You can see my little mini bunting strung between the candlesticks in the background. I made the little flags out of washi tape!

And here he is tearing into that delicious, tiny cinnamon roll that he waited so long for! 

Henry joined us for breakfast even though he is too nittle for cinnamon rolls <3

James went off to work, but the Valentine festivities continued for the Henry and Calvin and me. I made Calvin a hearty lunch...

And then we did some Valentine artwork and made a gift for James from the boys. The writing around the edge says "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."  - which is a quote attributed to Helen Keller. I wanted to make James something he could use to brighten up his cubicle.

When James got home from work we all got dressed up in our fancy reds and took some family photos.

<3   <3   <3   <3

Look at these adorable knuckleheads.

For our Elegant Dinner, I served a salad with heart-shaped beets and a bowtie pasta dish (kind of a copycat of Macaroni Grill's Pasta Milano). And for dessert, mini fruit pizzas!

Sugar cookies as the "crust", then yogurt or chocolate pudding topped with fruit

 

Ok, they didn't really turn out like pizzas because the cookies were so small... but they were adorable and delicious - whatever you want to call them!

I like the idea of doing a fancy family Valentine dinner every year. Valentine's doesn't have to be just for couples! I say spread the mushy gushy sugary sweet Valentine's day love all around! Clearly I can't get enough of it :)