Valentine's Day Celebrations - Part 1

Grandma made the girl's dress

The kids began celebrating Valentine's Day early this year with a valentine exchange at our homeschool co-op.  I have heard friends talking about lots of great valentine ideas they found on Pinterest, but I am one of the few moms on earth who has yet to register with Pinterest.  I don't really need another on-line time sink, but if someone will kindly send me an invite, that may be all the incentive I need to take the plunge.

So, without Pinterest for inspirational valentine ideas, this left-brained mommy had to dig deep into the recesses of her dried up imagination well for any creativity residue that may remain.  While out shopping, I found mini heart shaped balloons that automatically inflate upon opening.  During my engineering days, we used a lot of compressed air during the manufacturing process, so those little tacky hearts appealed to me.  With the help of Picasa, I designed this little inspirational Valentine for the kids to attach to the inflating hearts and then decided that was enough creative exertion for one day.

Unlike their mother, our kids are very creative.  So, when a local author and her talented illustrator invited homeschooled children to help illustrate the author's next children's book, our kids wanted to participate in the contest.  After learning about the book series and receiving a brief introduction to the illustration process, the students were given 10-20 minutes to create an illustration for her next book, which is about adoption. 

The kids exchanged valentines and treats before, during, and after this event.  When my ~ three dozen PE students came to my health and PE classes later than afternoon, they were buzzing on sugar.  As their health and PE teacher, I simply could not offer them more candy, so I filled up a basket with lots of fruit and Valentine's themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, and bookmarks and let them take whatever they like. I expected them to turn their noses up at my healthy alternatives, but they swarmed that basket like ants at a picnic.

Our kids also received some early Valentine's Day cards in the mail last week.  These cards were stuffed with cash.  Despite our many lectures about saving and investing, money usually burns a hole in our 5-year old's pocket until he spends it all on Legos. So when I asked him how he planned to use the cash in his Valentine's Day card, I was shocked to hear him reply, "I'm going to save it so I can buy a convertible when I'm 16."  That boy is fascinated by convertibles and "wings" (aka "spoilers").  

Perhaps the best gift our son received this past week was a basketball win.  His poor team is comprised of the smallest, youngest kids (6 boys, 2 girls) in the league and were a poor match for some of the more serious teams they faced.  Their record was 0 for 5 games going into the game on Saturday. For the past two games, their head coach has been out of town, so my husband stood in as head coach without an assistant coach to help him. All the mismatched games and losses were wearing on him as well.  Yesterday, while my husband was coaching, they not only won, but they won by about 14 points!  My boy was beaming as he told others about the time the opponent he was guarding bounce passed the ball to him (oops...I suspect his opponent just dribbled in the wrong direction), and then he ran the ball down the court and scored.  For a boy who rarely pays attention during the game, this play was a true accomplishment.

Last night, my husband took our daughter to a Daddy-Daughter dance where they enjoyed great music, dance lessons and refreshments with friends while supporting an adoption fundraiser.  I was a tad jealous when I heard they would be learning line, ballroom, and swing dancing, since I love all those dance styles.  Each lady in attendance also received a long stemmed rose. Our little girl was glowing when she came home.  When she's much older and suitors come to call, I pray they will treat her as well as her daddy treated her during their date tonight.

Our next Valentine's venue will be hosting a Valentine's Dinner for couples in our church life class.  The  tradition of having the guys prepare a fancy dinner for the ladies for Valentine's Day began about ten years ago.  We are renewing that tradition with our community group this year, so it will be interesting to see what the guys plan at the last minute.  I suggested these bacon roses as a way to impress both the women and the men.