Love Notes

Valentine's Day was a lot of fun this year. I always love the goodies and crafts associated with the holiday. The Valentine boxes were especially fun this year. (Read more about them on my papercrafting blog.) The chocolate and the flowers were wonderful as well, but my favorite thing this year were the LOVE NOTES!

Throughout the day we wrote on little slips of paper: "I love Jack because . . . " and each made one for every family member. We didn't sign them and we collected them in a big jar. (Lily also helped me sort out just the red ones from my big collection of class beads to make the jar more festive--she is such a good helper!)

After dinner we took turns reading a slip from the jar. What a treat it was--and entertaining too-- to hear the nice things that my family loves and appreciates about each other. Here are a few favorites:

"I love Katelyn because she is creative and funny."
"I love Daddy because he loves me in his heart."
"I love Pie because it's good!"
"I love Jack because he's fun to play with."
"I love Julie because she makes all of our holidays so special and is such a great mother & wife."

It was fun to run across a funny one as we took turns reading and really, as a mom, does it get any better than to hear a love note like the last one? It sure made my day. We ended the evening with a 1999 Paul Hobbs Merlot and white chocolate macadamia lollipop cookies. Yum! See more of our loving holiday weekend here . . .

Double Digits

We celebrated Jack's Big One Oh with (of course) breakfast in bed, featuring chocolate chip pancakes and hot cocoa. There were also a few balloons scattered around on his floor and his bed. He had a funny story to tell us about those balloons in the morning. He said that the balloons were VERY attracted to the new fleece blanket he was using and he woke during the night to find balloons attacking him.

We opened presents before John headed for the airport to visit Busha, who is recovering from a stroke. She will celebrate her 91st birthday next month!

That evening three friends joined us for a rockin' birthday sleepover. We made Family Fun's Lava Lamps (recipe here) which contain oil and colored water and do a cool science effect when you sprinkle salt on top. We had a Boston Creme Cake, similar to the favorite donuts Poppy brings us when we are in NY and had pizza. No sleepover would be complete until you've stayed up very late. In fact, I think around here, we are changing the name to playover or some other name that does not contain the word sleep. Anyway, it was a ton of fun to celebrate Jack coming into double digits. He's such a big kid and a great kid too.