February Crafts & Love Day Celebration

For all those that know me I LOVE the holidays and I love to make the holidays fun for my kids, so they will have something to look forward to and also have good memories. Kaleb frequently asks what holiday is coming up next. I love to see his enthusiasm for holidays!

Holidays also give me something to look forward to! I love finding new traditions and incorporating them into our family festivities. During the winter months up here in Riverton, I try to keep myself distracted from the dreary weather that we have, so I give myself craft projects to do while I wait for the winter to end. Since I have a very limited supply of Valentine Decorations to decorate my house with for February, I decided that this year I would make a few myself. I found both of these ideas on other blogs! I love the results.

My first craft project was making a Valentine Garland out of paper. I used an old book from college along with red ribbon, colored cardstock, ink pad to antique the edges, a stapler and glue. I have a very talented friend who came up with the idea. Go here to see her tutorial!

It was a little bit of work with all the folding but it was worth it and I am very proud of the results! Here is my Valentine Garland that I made for my Fireplace mantel!

The next craft project was inspired by fabric envelopes sold at Pottery Barn. I wish I had the money to shop at Pottery Barn because they have the most darling things but I don't because I find that a lot of there merchandise is highly overpriced. I am also about saving a buck or two when I can. Luckily, I came across this blog and they had a very simple tutorial. Instead of using fabric you use giant piece of very stiff felt to assemble the envelopes. Even though I love to sew, this project can either be sewn or assembled with a glue gun. I went the glue gun route. I made two envelopes and I am thrilled with how they turned out. This year since I was working on them until right up until Valentines Day I didn't get a chance to fill them with Love notes leading up to Valentines day but next year I plan to. I did however fill them the night before Valentines Day so the kids had a surprise to wake up to in the morning. I filled their Envelopes with a chocolate heart and a Leapster game for Kaleb and a Little Einsteins DVD for Karmindy. The kids were thrilled with their presents from cupid (mom and dad).

I was glad that Valentines Day fell on a Weekday this year because Kaleb got to celebrate the holiday at school and experience the fun that I had when I was a kid. I loved decorating boxes and taking them to school and waiting in anticipation if your secret crush would give you a valentine. For Kaleb's Valentines Day party they decorated bags and then the kids filled them with their goodies. Kaleb chose Toy Story 3 Valentines this year that came with blue suckers. He was so excited to deliver them to his classmates and took such care in writing his name on each valentine. When I picked him up from school that day he had a huge grin on his face and was beaming. He was wearing a cute headband with heart antenna and held up his bag of treats. When we got home he showed me his stash of valentine candy. He made a haul. It is now the last day of February and he is still eating on it!

Kaleb with some of his Valentine Stash!

To celebrate Valentines Day this year, we celebrated as a family. We invited friends over the Friday before and had a fondue party. My friend Emily and I divided up the ingredients and put together quite a spread. We did a broth, cheese and chocolate fondue. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Everything was very yummy and it was nice to celebrate with friends!

Mark and I had agreed to not get anything for each other and in return go out to dinner together to celebrate. We went to Joe's Crab shack were we enjoyed shrimp and crab. Nothing says, "I love you" then enjoying a Little Seafood dinner together! Much to my chagrin, Mark didn't listen to the not getting anything for each other agreement and came home with a beautiful arrangement of hot pink roses. I truly appreciate them and admired them for about a week before they went to plant heaven.

Also to do something nice for Kaleb and Karmindy's Grandpa and Grandma's and Aunts and Uncles, I made these cute little Valentines Day Cards to send to them. I got the kids dressed in Valentine Day colored clothing and we had a photo shoot one afternoon to get that right picture to send to our extended family. The kids were very excited and cooperated well. Here is our 2011 Valentines day Card. I think they turned out pretty dang cute:

Happy Belated Valentine's Day to all of our family and friends!

We are so lucky to have all of you in our lives!