The Day of Love

Holidays become different when you have kids. and way more fun.

I had high hopes for Valentines Day this year.  Brian and I celebrated a few nights early with a post-kids-bedtime dinner to ourselves of steaks on the grill, baked potatoes and asparagus. It was divine. and quiet. and I didn't have to get up from the table a SINGLE TIME. This was huge, people.

Valentine's Day morning started with a nice "LOVE breakfast" of muffins and more at Logan's school.  My guy spent 40 minutes eating a blueberry muffin.  I snagged a photo of what Logan told his teacher that he loves the most.

I love you too sweetie.

I began preparing for the kids' Valentine's Day lunch a few days early. I steamed and pureed an organic beet in the Beaba baby food cooker. Note: beets turn your hands red... for about a day.

I used the Weelicious.com recipe for Beet Pancakes and renamed them for the day to Heart "Beet" Pancakes, which Logan totally loved.

Here is the recipe:

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
3 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt
2 Medium Beets, roasted & pureed (about 3/4 Cups)
1 1/4 Cup Milk
1/3 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
1 Large Egg
3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, melted
1 Tsp Vanilla extract

Of course, since we are an egg-free house, I had to substitute the egg with some flax powder mixed with water. What a fantastic and healthy trick! I also didn't have any greek yogurt up in here, so I used some plain yogurt instead. I had purchased one large beet, which made plenty of puree. 

The results were fabulous, and to say the kids loved them is an understatement.  The heart shape. the color. the yumminess... they were huge fans.  Plus, I have the remaining cakes in the fridge that we have been popping in the regular toaster for breakfast every morning since.  I don't really care for regular pancake syrup, so we have been drizzling a little amber agave nectar on top which is scrumptious. 

I also made my little loves some "I love you Berry much" smoothies.  Milk, banana, frozen berries, yogurt and blend. We like ours served in cute mason jars. 

Logan came home with a bag of love notes, candy and toys from his buddies at preschool for the first time and it brought back memories of making mailboxes out of old shoe boxes for Valentine's Day and being so excited to receive the cardboard pink and read notes. Now, thankful to Pinterest, Valentine notes have become quite the creative rave. 

We worked on Valentine gifts for about a week.  We made salt dough and I had Logan and Eliza make bowls to give to their Dad's and fingerprint pendants for Eliza to give to her mom and, well, I of course had some made for myself! They turned out pretty cute. The salt dough is 2 parts flour, 1 part salt. Mix with a bit of water to get it to the consistency of playdoh. I gave the kids total creative control with making their bowls.  They helped me cut out the pendant shapes, and of course, provided their fingerprints before baking. I put everything on a cookie sheet and baked at 250 degrees for several hours. When cooled, everything was painted. This was most definitely their favorite part of the activity! 

We gave the munchkins their gifts from us. Logan got a new game for his LeapPad (Mr. Pencil - which he was super excited about), and the Twinkies got Twin Seahorses. These things come with magic pixy fairy dust from a faraway land of preciously sleeping children who sleep a long and wonderful slumber because can I tell you something? Since the night we gave them this glowing, music playing wondrous delights of heaven they have slept a MINIMUM of 9 hours STRAIGHT. 

Let me repeat that.

Nine. straight. hours.

I mean, yea. This hasn't happened before. This is a long time. Do you know how much sleep Brian and I have gotten this week? Possibly more than the entire month of December. I wish I were kidding. 

They love these seahorses. Love. 

And I love these boys. 

We celebrate our love for these three every single day. But I must say, devoting an entire day to doing little things to show them how special they are to us was wonderful.