Wondering what Mommy Homework is??? Each week you will have an “assignment” here to share in our comments here on this site. You will love this-both sharing AND enjoying answers by others. Some of them, I compile into an ebook (contributors can resell as a product of their own–be sure to submit your email and full name when you register so I can credit you appropriately!).
The result is AWESOME!
We get to know each other…we are encouraged in our journey…and we glean super ideas from other great moms!
Ready for this week’s MH? This is a good one!
Our topic this week is “Valentine’s Day Plans”
Your Assignment This Week…
Gearing up for Valentine’s Day? Got something sweet planned?
This week, our Mommy Homework assignment is to share our Valentine’s Day plans. What are you planning for your crew? What do you do to make the day special for your crew?
Have fun! This should be a super assignment to read. I can’t wait! 
DIG IN!
I can’t wait!
Love ya!
Cindy
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Deadline–Friday at midnight CST.
This year, Valentine’s Day will start out with yummy heart shaped banana nut bread and strawberries. I’ll have the table set up with pink and red decorations.
I’ll give my daughter a handmade Valentine and some Valentine goodies. We plan on spending the morning relaxing as a family.
Lunch will also be Valentine’s themed with heart shaped sandwiches. We’ll have heart shaped brownies (or cookies) to go with the meal.
Our afternoon will be spent getting a few things done around the house.
Dinner will be chicken parmesan per my husband’s request. I usually put the spaghetti in the shape of a heart and place the chicken breasts on the top of this.
We’ll have a fun movie night with a popcorn. We may have cheese (heart shaped cut outs) and crackers.
After our daughter heads to bed, I’ll decorate our bedroom with hearts, chocolates, and heart shaped balloons. Then, we’ll have a nice romantic evening.
(Yes, we do a lot of food related things with Valentine’s Day. lol!)
Our Valentine’s Day Plans are family focused. Since this year is Oregon’s 150th birthday we are going to celebrate at the State Capital during the day.
Then we will have dinner and a family friendly movie, might have to rent Fireproof again unless my dear husband actually gets me a copy of Valentine’s Day.
I will help the boys make cards for Daddy as well as couple people at church.
We are going to keep it very simple this year..
Sheri Hagemann
Well, this year we’ll be dropping our youngest off to his friend’s Karate School where the owners (Christians) are hosting a kid’s party (watching Kung Fu Panda and such) so my sweetie and I will be (hopefully) hitting a nearby restaurant. Usually tho, we go out a few days b4 or after V.D. to avoid the crowds.
I bought some of those foamy Valentine kits at JoAnns this year to make some refrigerator magnets-so the kiddos will be crafting away on those later this week. Usually we do some sort of craft project (Homemade cards with those doilies and red/pink paper-remember those from your school days? or some other “cheesy” but keepsake like thing) for the event.
We will also make some roll out sugar cookies, cut em into hearts and crosses (as Jesus’ love was the greatest) frost em and devour them-most likely before sundown on V.D.!
This year, I am making Pineapple Upside Down pancakes (had em at a restaurant for my bday and have been hooked ever since-altho I need to go there and beg for the specific recipe) to start the day off right (has pineapples, cherries and I think butter/brown sugar like a real cake, mixed in it) mmmm.
I will usually think up some dorky poem for my hubby. Typically, along the lines of “Roses are Red” and make it goofy and fun..then he will give me one of his original ditties….the kids get a laugh out of what we come up with….
And that is about it-I really strive to make a point that one needs to show their love and care for someone everyday of the year, not just once a year on the “Hallmark’s way of making a lot of money” day (that is my hubby’s name for it-all tongue in cheek, but somewhat true)….so we try to do “lovely things” throughout the year.
That about sums it up for us ~
Well since dh is just back to work after 2 months off due to crummy, snowy weather we are delaying our Valentine’s Day dinner out plans for at least three weeks (gotta rebuild the savings account first!) but I am still doing our traditional lunch out with the kids to Coldstone Creamery (yep, ice cream for lunch only time of year we do this!) this year dh should be able to go too unless they are working that day. In a few weeks we will all go out to dinner to our favorite place (Red Lobster) after we get our savings rebuilt to enjoy some family time together and celebrate Valentine’s then.
I will probably fix a quick supper on V-day for us since we go to church on Saturday night (services are less crowded on Saturday night’s a plus for the kids 😉 ) from the deep freezer I think there are some steaks in there that I picked last fall and I have sweet potatoes and veggies, ok now I am hungry!
The kids and I also will buy v-day candy the day after v-day (it is 50% to 75% off that day so they can get the Easter stuff out!) then we will ahve candy for a while!
I will also be baking some v-day cookies that the kids can decorate and give away to family and neighbors, they love to do that and it makes them happy to do it too!
Mary Damask
Valentine’s Day has always been a special time with my husband and I. 17 yrs ago we had our first date to a Valentine’s banquet, so we have always made it a special event.
This year with Valentine’s Day being on a Saturday, we plan to make it a full day. I will be making cinnamon rolls for breakfast along with scrambled eggs. Then, if it doesn’t rain/snow, we plan to go outside as a family and clean up our wrecked yard from the storm and get the patio furniture all setup again. We have already starting decorating the house with all sorts of paper made valentine’s. DH will take the kids to the park during the afternoon while I get busy with a special dinner for my family. I always make a special dinner, this time probably roast, potatoes, corn, green beans and a jello salad. Then for dessert I will be making a special cheesecake (made from scratch), special homemade candy kisses that has special little messages from me for each of them. The kids will give their homemade valentine gifts to their dad and then we will pop some popcorn and go into the living room and watch a movie with the kids. After they go to sleep my DH and I will sit down and watch the newest Hallmark movie “Before I Say I Do”.
Both my DH and I have made it a practice that on this special day we write each other a letter about what the other has meant during the past year. During our marriage counseling our pastor made us write the top 10 reasons why we wanted to marry the other. This is one of the beautiful times of renewing why we got married and those reasons are still true but even more precious to us now.
May each of you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
Blessings,
Orilla Crider
This year, we are pretty much on a zero budget, SO, I am trying to think of ways to make it special on a zero budget.
I am very glad that Valentines falls on a Saturday this year. This means my hubby will get to be here all day and not have to got to work the next day either!
So, I was thinking, that maybe I would make a special dessert that I will serve “after” the kids go to bed!
I was thinking I could have it made and then set the table with candles and have dessert together after the kids are asleep.
I am sure we will also watch a movie, as we usually do when the kids are asleep on the weekends. I am hoping to convince him to get a more romantic type of movie instead of the typical “man” video. LOL
Perhaps, instead of the typical card, I will write him a letter.
I will also probably print up a valentines card on the computer and write something special in it for the kids.
I may get them a little box of chocolates, depending on the budget, or I may make something for them also!
But that is my plan that I have been thinking of.
I do also have a closet full of lengerie that I never wear because I am too self conscience, but maybe I will find a pretty red one! LOL
I actually do have one with a valentines heart on it! LOL
Have a great Valentines Cindy and everyone!
Love, Rodna James
My husband is a truck driver who is on the road for three weeks at a time, but guess what? He will be home for Valentine’s Day! My aunt is coming to watch the kids and he and I will be going out to a late lunch, taking in a matinee, and then going … lingerie shopping! lol I hope that’s not TMI, but why not do something REALLY sizzling for Valentine’s Day? 😀 So there you have it.
We don’t typically celebrate Valentine’s Day. I may do something with the children later this week to explain how it started, etc. We do have planned to make some shortbread cookies that I didn’t get made in December. They were to be cut out as stars, we might do hearts. I think we’ll focus on loving our neighbor as ourself. DH & I went out on a date last Saturday so I’m not feeling like I’m missing anything 😉
Very low key around here. We have been taking advantage of the specially wrapped candy–cheaper than the same thing in its ‘regular clothes’ 🙂
Blessings!
Hillary in Indiana
For Valentine’s Day this year, we are really celebrating! It’s been a rough fall and winter for my husband and me — dh is a pastor and we’re still learning how to work through the good, the bad and the ugly that go along with that calling!
Anyway, on Friday night, we were invited to a young couples’ Valentines semiformal dinner by a pastor friend of my husband. They are providing child care too! So I actually bought a fancy dress (still looking for shoes) and we’re going! I’m so excited!
Then on Saturday, we’ll have a family day. I’ll probably make cinnamon biscuits for breakfast as my kids love them. For supper, we’re going to do fondue — first time, but I think it will be so much fun! We got a couple of little things for the kids, including a new VeggieTales movie that we’ll watch together.
Then AFTER the kids go to sleep, my honey and I will have some time together. I’ve been working on putting together gifts for the 5 senses plus a spiritual gift:
* SPIRITUAL – a letter from me about how much he means to me and qualities I appreciate about him and his leadership in our home
* SIGHT – lingerie (for me to wear and him to see 🙂 )
* SMELL – a candle
* TOUCH – some type of lotion or massage oil (haven’t found the right one yet)
* TASTE – dark chocolate – we both love it!
* HEARING – a CD of instrumental music
I’m looking forward to enjoying this weekend with my family!
HI! We are doing something new this year with our church for Valentine’s Day.
We have a small church that meets in our friends home/property. We will be having a candlelight dinner, followed by watching ‘Fireproof’ and eating dessert with the adults of our group…and the visitors we have invited.
During the time that the adults are enjoying some nice time together, the children/teens will all be having fun eating pizza, playing games and playing outside at their property.
It should be a lot of fun!
At home, we usually get the kids each something little…candy and a small toy/item that they would like. Hubby and I usually get each other cards and candy..sometimes flowers.
We usually make chocolate covered strawberries each year to share! Everyone loves them!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
Blessings,
Wendy Clayton
We try to do at least one thing a day to make everyone special. This year I decided to use Valentines Day as a goal day to do something really big and special.
This year I have been blessed by extra students and classes for my cake decorating classes, so I had some extra cash. I bought some new cologne, 2 new “outfits” for my romance toolbox, and am putting my cake decorating skills to use. I am making a heart shaped strawberry cake, with strawberry preserves for filling and chocolate fudge icing (home made). I am using the basket weave technique to ice it and adding a handle to it to make it look ike a basket. I am going to top the basket with chocolate covered strawberries dipped in colored sugar sprinkles and candies the kids and I are making from melts and molds. Hubby will be working part of the day, which is actually great, gives me time to finish. I have not really planed gifts for the kids, we are all just working together to make dad feel special and I am sure we will fill up while checking to make sure everything tastes ok….
I think this year will be heart shaped pancakes and heart shaped cupcakes, homemade valentine cards, and a family movie and game night at home. I read a cute idea today that I am going to try, make two large hearts out of thick paper. Glue or staple the edges together (leave an opening) and fill with candy. Close up the opening, decorate the”card,” and you are done. I thought this would be a great way to use candy from the dollar store or from Christmas clearance.
This year will be very low key for us.
My husband and daughters will be attending a father-daughter dance for our local Girl Scout Area. I will be there serving. So we will be together as a family and I can’t wait to see the man I love dancing with our daughters.
Saturday we will spend the day at home together as a family until my husband has to go to work.
I have bought him 2 cards from Lifeway and I am giving him a letter journal for us to write to each other. He travels for work, so we can trade it back in forth with letters to the other in it all together. This is reminescent of our dating days.
Shannon Depew
This year, with my 2 oildest children away from home for the weekend, we will be having a fun day with our youngest.
Heart shaped pancakes will start our day off right. I’ll use whole wheat flour and call them healthy! :0)
Today we will finish making valentines, and do some more activities from Tomie de Paola’s “Things to Make and Do for Valentines Day”. Saturday we will be delivering our Valentines to some families that are our friends along with some valentine sugar cookies. My youngest son gets to make those pre-packaged ones by pillsbury and think he is really big now! Much as I’d like to be able to make all our food pink and red for the day, this isn’t an option because 2 of my children are allergic to red dye.
We will read “Saint Valentine – (Retold & Illustrated by Robert Sabuda)”.
Saturday night, family night. Dinner (mexican) and games, read alouds or whatever the children would like to do together.
With our oldest 2 children out of town, we try to keep our holiday happy for all because they are missing their brother and sister.
Hubby and I – honestly, we try to make everyday an opportunity to show and tell each other how much we love one another.
I do have a sketchbook/scrapbook that I made for hubby 10 years ago that I add to every year. Pictures, poems, cards, whatever….. all kinds of little doo-dads I run across that I save and put in for him. Always with a personal love letter.
Nothing too exciting, just a bit of fun.
OOOOh! I just found out from dh that valentine’s day will include dinner out with another couple at PFChang! My favorite! What a surprise!
I guess we will do our stuff with the kids early!
I think this year we are going on a date out tonight (Thursday) or just have a nice evening at home Saturday night. I don’t like to go out to eat on Valentine’s just because everyone else is out and that makes it so crowded. My girls want to make a heart shaped cake and I know my husband has gotten them a fun game to play as their gift, so we are going to have a great family night together. Probably play with my son’s cars or balls some too so he will enjoy it… he is almost two. No spectacular plans but some good family time together.
Enjoy ladies!
In His Grace,
Jeniver Boyer
With this year being on a Saturday, we’ve divided the day in half. It also means no last minute prep time while my husband’s at work!! So, here’s the plans.
This week I’ve left him mini-peanut butter hearts on his pillow, in the brief case, etc. Tonight, he finds a letter to study. In the morning a little riddle. Valentine’s morning another riddle.
On the day: A local donut shop makes custom heart shaped donuts for the occasion. Normally, my man goes and picks up our special donuts before work and leaves them set up on the table. Since it’s Saturday, we’re going as a family to pick them up, then we’ll take them to a park where we can sip warm drinks and play as a family (as long as the weather stays nice, otherwise we’ll eat at a coffee shop).
Afternoon we’ll roam outside, play games as a family, give the girls little I love you gifts we picked out. I have no idea what’s for lunch as my husband claimed that to plan!
For dinner, we’ll have lasagna and read a story together. We’ll get the girls tucked in and then it’s my turn!
I’ve been to romanceyourlifemate.com gathering some ideas. I’ll sneak off to the bedroom while the girls get tucked in to set up the game. Then, I’ll duck into the bathroom to “collect myself”. Then we’ll play this little game involving chocolate, strawberries, kisses, Valentines trivia, winning coupons, and ……….
Well, enough said. Everyone, enjoy your day and love on your loved ones!
Bobbi Beeson
We don’t celebrate V-day since our half anniversary is the next day and everything is cheaper then. My husband usually gets me a new rose plant during the summer as my flowers for the year since I don’t like to see the fresh ones die after spending good hard earned money on them. My son and I will make homemade gifts and cards tomorrow, since Sabbath is Saturday for us. We will spend the weekend with a friend who is coming into town for the weekend so we’ll be busy enjoying that. We will probably spend an evening relaxing together and hopefully watch PS I Love You, finally. I hope you all enjoy a wonderful day with your loved ones and get an extra bit of love, but really I hope like in our family that you will be able to celebrate your love daily over the year.
Love Gretchen Morrison
For the kiddos we are going to have heart shaped pizzas for dinner and heart-shaped black forest cupcakes for desert. Black Forest Cake is dh’s favorite. It is just a chocolate cake with a can of cherry pie filling mixed into the batter before baking.
Then after the kids go to bed, dh and I will hang out in the kitchen together and make fried mushrooms. Dh loves fried mushrooms, and we enjoy hanging out in the kitchen together.
I hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day with their sweetie,
Annie
I got married on Valentines day and for several years my hubby and I have taken a short 2 night break at a bed and breakfast to celebrate our anniversary. It is wonderful to get away and reconnect and remember why we are together in the first place.
Not that we forget our home and family because as we travel round quaint little shops and enjoy fun places and wonderful sights we almost invariably talk about how much the kids would love the place and often bring them on another trip.
This also means that when we bring them next to the same place we get to relive our memories and talk to them about the great time we had.
Because we have a big cooked breakfast we only usually only eat out once each day, but we do pack a bag of snacks to cuddle up and share in the privacy of our own room maybe while watching a film.
One of the best places we visited while on one of these trips was a little car museum, it was not a fancy place by any stretch of the imagination but we had a fantastic time. It was in the back part of a modern car showroom, but they had not only the vintage cars, but also parts and fitting as well as other memorabilia of a bygone age. The smell of the old oil was completely unlike the modern stuff and brought back a flood of childhood memories for us both which gave us lots to share with each other which we had not thought of before.
We never go too far on these little trips, so that we don’t waste our couple to days travelling but even that seems like a joy when you haven’t got squabbling childibeasts in the back of the car lol.
I always try to buy some pretty new nightwear or underwear for these trips as well just to make me feel that bit more special!!
I am looking forward to seeing everyone else’s ideas.
Love and Blessings
Angela Marchington
There are several homeschoolers in our neighborhood and one of the families are hosting a Valentine’s party for the kids today. Cupcakes, crafts and time together. Should be fun!
Then tomorrow morning, I will try my hand at heart-shaped pancakes for my family.
Also, I am planning on making Valentine’s Day Ice Cream Sandwiches (found at http://www.childrensrecipes.com/article_047.htm) for the family and friends that we usually have at our home on the weekends, plus a few to share with neighbors. I will change the recipe though so that there are no dyes added (we have allergies to dyes) and use strawberry ice cream (that has no dyes in it, of course) for the ice cream (okay, we may end up using something else instead…. don’t know yet). We’ll actually do this with our family today for our cooking class. Then allow the sandwiches time in the freezer to set up. Should be fun!
🙂
For dinner for the kids and visitors, I’m not sure what I’ll do as of yet. Sometimes our visitors take charge of Saturday dinner, so maybe I’ll let them do that this weekend!
I’m going to make my sweetheart chicken kabobs and baked potato, cooked in the fireplace, foil dinner style. I’m not sure what I’ll make for my portion of the meal yet as I’m a strict vegetarian (mostly raw) due to health challenges. Then, I’ll serve it up candlelight style and enjoy an evening with him (after we get kids settled down for the night). I haven’t decided on dessert yet. He’s not sweet on anything in particular; just has a sweet tooth in general. I may just get ice cream without the sandwich part for him.
Enjoy your weekend everyone and thanks for the fun ideas!
Cindy Richards
This year I decided to do something different for Valentine’s Day. I’m ignoring it. I know that sounds terrible, but….I plan on celebrating a Happy UnValentine’s Year. Think “A Merry, Merry Unbirthday” and mix in some love. I am going to focus on making it a Valentine’s Day everyday this year, or as many as I am able.
Some plans include – more massages, more cuddle time, more just listening, more of everything. I bought ingredients to make edible massage oil (yummy orange, berry and vanilla flavored!). Of course, this is just as much for me as it is for him. 🙂
Dating is no an option for us as we have far too many little kids and no babysitter at this point. I am hoping to make a regular date night every week. I think maybe we will have supper together, after the boys are in bed. Maybe watch a movie or a TV show. Possiblities are endless. So…my plan for Valentine’s day plans are to celebrate love all year long.
Karen Gebes
Well, he has to work an overnight shift so the children and I won’t see him at all. However, we are – as I type – making heart chains, heart brownies and heart cookies. For the heart chains, the children have cut out hearts out of red, white, and patterened paper and written people’s names as well as words of love on them. Then I will glue them onto red ribbons and we will hang several of these on our living room wall.
We also made brownies and are making chocolate cookies that are getting cut into heart shapes.
In the short time he is home in the morning, we will sneak a container of these treats out to his car so he has them to take with him to work. He is a firefighter and will have to remain at the station all night. So, he’ll have some sugary love to take with him!
Heather (TGMama)
Not a very exciting day here, the whole family is sick :(. But hopefully we’ll get to do a few things to make the day special.
One interesting thing my oldest (14) did was to undecorate the Christmas tree (yes, it’s still up — and worse yet, it’s a live one, amazingly, still even now!) and put up paper chains in Valentines’ Day colors that she made with her younger siblings while I was out the other night. I thought that was really sweet!
My husband and I will be attending our church’s Sweetheart Banquet tomorrow evening. Not necessarily my first choice of a romantic evening, but the menu sounds pretty nice, and we’ll be able to chat with some of our adult friends without interruption (we belong to a small group, but it’s whole families!) so that should be enjoyable. Funniest part, though, dh decided he wanted to go at the last minute, and my teen had already committed to babysitting for another family, so I ended up having to hire my best friend’s teen to watch OUR kids! Oh well, they’ll both have some extra money and there’s probably gonna be a girls’ day at the mall in our future!
That’s about it here! I’m trying to get the chores caught up so I can relax tomorrow and not be running around doing stuff until the last minute. Hopefully with a good nights’ sleep, we’ll all be feeling a bit healthier!
Cari
Today for schooling (at home) we created a heart-shaped lap-book. I folded a red folder in half, then in-half again, and cut out a large heart for both of my kiddos. This created d a large heart which we used as the back and a heart cut in half for the cover. We added brads to each of the half-heart pieces for the cover and it was a like swinging doors which both of my kids loved (they are at that age where arts and crafts are super fun no matter what the topic we are learning or studying about).
Instead of doing a traditional V-Day Lapbook all about V-Day we decided to do one about why we celebrate V-Day and with that in mind. I was able to find 2 matchbooks that a mother had done for a V-Day Literature lap-book. The verses were perfect for our heart-shaped Valentine/Love Lap-book.
The first verse was I John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” We discussed the verse and talked about how this verse can be applied to Valentines Day.
The second verse was I John 4: 9 “This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live though him.” We discussed that without Jesus Christ dieing for our sins we wouldn’t have the gift of eternal life (thinking as I am typing I should have made up a matchbook with John 3:16 it would have been a great one to include, oh well perhaps next year
We then talked about how people send people letters of love, encouragement, and thanks throughout the year. But around Valentines people tend to send them “more” and they are typically very lovely-dovely. We talked about the parts of an envelope and I found a mini-book that was about practicing addressing an envelope. It was great practice since we are still setting into our new house (even though it’s been 6 months, the tubs and boxes are all away except for the crafts, memory/keepsakes, and pictures YEAH!). Along with that was a copy work page a mother had made for practicing your address on primary lines. So both of my kids wrote their address 3 times and they almost know it!
I found on a teacher’s website a worksheet with easy multiplication problems. We just finished a week of beginning to understand multiplying so it was perfect for our Friday “Review Time” as well as after completing it I cut it out, made pockets for the lap-book out of colored paper and presto! It was a matching game!
After all that we placed it/arranged it in the lap-book and glued it down. Both of them wrote their names and titles on the back/front.
As tomorrow is my husband’s day off from a very long-week at work; I hope to do something special for him. I am thinking breakfast, with a red tablecloth and candles (we hardly ever get out all the table fixes as I like to call them, maybe even use a few hand painted dishes my grandmother has given me over the years. Of course breakfast is ideal but with it being his only day off he might like to sleep in and we love to chit-chat and enjoy each other in the morning so that may have to do and then a late breakfast bunch of sausage, eggs, and if I am up to it and remember rolls. He really would like sausage gravy and I may try and find a recipe I hate to try it and it turn out bad but if it does I can always just throw it away
With all that as maybes and wishes I do want to find a handful of bible verses on love and pour my heart out to him through writing. He works primary about of the home 24/7 so saying “I love you” isn’t always as frequently as we would like just with the busiest of life, schooling, kids, and church activities I hope to make tomorrow a day when in the mist of being together as family, enjoying time off together that I can show my husband that I do love, respect, and cherish him even more then the day we got married almost 10 years ago. My prayer is that I can show love to my husband through my words and actions that I love him.
– Praying for all tomorrow.
Jayne Hatcher
We spend Valentine’s Day having a family party.
We made very large heart cutout sugar cookies. Each one of the cookies is decorated by someone else in the family and it includes their name and is decorated with frosting / sprinkles. We also make these for Grandparents that cant be with us for the day, too.
This year we also made homemade peanut butter cups. We found a very simple recipe and made up a double batch.
For the party, we usually get special treats for each person. This year it is a big bag of Skittles and Large Conversation Hearts and also Carmel cups. Each treat is picked out especially for that person, their favorites.
We have the kids play different games, but one of their favorites has always been musical chairs. We use pillows on the floor and walk around them to music. Each time we hide special treats under certain pillows. This has been a favorite, even with the older kids.
In the evening, we have a family movie night.
Hubby and I usually do something special on our own a night or two before the actual day…just to avoid the crowds. Sometimes it is dinner and movie or just one or the other.
Happy Valentines Day!!
Julie Bertsch
In the morning, I am planning to make my sweetie breakfast in bed with daughter’s help. Bagelwiches with eggs, bacon & cheese (his favorite breakfast). I have hidden Valentine baskets for my daughter and hubby around the house filled with goodies and for hubby a gift card to his favorite store.
I am planning to go to the hobby store for my husband to spend his gift certificate. The kids also got money from Grandma so they can each pick out a small toy at Walmart. I know, we’re not too exciting…but it works for us.
When the kids go to bed we are having chocolate strawberries and enjoy a night of romance without the kids.
Julia Reffner
First we made a big purchase of a Wii Fit as we are both out of shape and need some exercise.
On Saturday, we are putting the kids to bed early, they do need more sleep for Sunday anyway. 🙂 Then my husband is going to broil steaks and we will have a romantic dinner alone. I am so excited and can’t wait. This will be a first for us.
Samantha
We have been working on our plans for Valentines Day all week. The younger girls have been working on Valentines. I made Valentines for our 2 granddaughters. I made them with the paper cutting machine I got from one of their families for Christmas. I have to mail one of them early because one lives in Alaska. I made a large 12 inch 2 sided Valentine for my husband. The girls and I had so much fun making it and keeping it hidden (he works from home). The oldest girl that lives at home made her dad the special cake he has asked for, between him coming in and going out during Thursday. We have a special crock-pot meal planned that he had asked for recently. The older daughter that doesn’t live at home is coming in early to make biscuits and cornbread to go with the special meal. My mom sent money for us to get the candy she wanted to give each one in our family, so I cut out various size heart to attach to the lunch sacks that I packaged the candy in. Mom mailed Valentines that I will give them, too. We’ve had such a good time working around DH coming in and going out and keeping the secret. : )
Thanks,
Teresa Roys
Today the boys and I finished our valentines cards and candy cane hearts for family, friends, and sunday school teachers. We decorated the house, this is a tradition because valentines day is also dad’s b-day! YA!!!
I will be getting up in the morning to fix a delicious heart healthy breakfast and then we are all going to the Monster Jam Truck show! SOOOOO much fun! Wehn we get home my hubby and I plan to have a quiet dinner and watch a movie. Next week it’s our 7 yr anniversary so we plan to go away for the weekend and the boys will spend the weekend with grandma! Can’t wait.
Thanks for letting me share, this is my first time and it won’t be my last!
We actually started celebrating Valentine’s Day last week. My dh and I along with 2 other couples went as a group to a local church showing FIREPROOF. They also through in the “Love Dare” book. We then went to Applebees for some adult/no kids quality meal time!
Tomorrow morning we will have French toast and syrup along with milk tinted pink(food coloring). I forgot to but the strawberry syrup I’d planned to buy. We will have chili and heart shaped biscuits for lunch.
For the evening we are headed to our church for a Family Game Night. We will have lots to eat there as always! I plan to take heart shaped brownies with Valentine sprinkles.
We always make each family member a Valentine and then exchange them after breakfast along with a small box of chocolates for dh and the kids.
Several years ago a made a Valentine Bingo game that we play in the afternoon each year using the red/pink/white M&Ms as playing pieces and prizes.
Not sure what else is in the works. My dh is acting strange…not usually the surprise type of guy but he was very interested in what I was telling my nephew (who has his first serious girlfriend and is celebrating their first Valentine’s together) about what I think woman find romantic.
Tonight Don and I are going out for dinner and a movie and tomorrow in between our teens working we’ll be having a family dinner of lasagne and whatever red stuff I can come up with. Maybe a red velvet cake. We never had that up north but found we really like it. 🙂 Our youngest girls decorated the house with hearts last night and some cute lanterns hung over the dining room door. I have a big red hurricane candle on the counter and a Valentine confetti sprinkled around it. My mom sent a card with $ to buy ice cream and cookies for the kids so we’ll pick that up for them tonight while we’re out too.
Katie Anderson
Oh I just love Valentine’s Day. I’m not letting the fact that we are all battling colds get me down. I am planning a big Valentine’s Day dinner for my family. That includes my parents, my husband and my 3 kids. I am going to decorate the table very festively and have goodies on their plate when they come in. (I’m going to make them all scarce while I’m preparing this.) I am then going to mimic one of my favorite all time dishes from one of my all time favorite restaurants, Carrabba’s. The dish is Chicken Bryan. I am then going to serve brownie’s shaped hearts topped with ice cream shaped like smaller hearts and a heart shaped cookie to go on top. It’s just sugar overload all around. I love doing this kind of thing and this is my Valentine to my loved ones. I know I will get spoiled later as my anniversary is just 3 days later!!! I’ll be blogging about it after with pictures of the table setting and everything. I hope it all works out.
Big hugs to everyone and Happy Valentines Day
Kim Wilson
Tomorrow is Second Saturday at our church so we’ll probably go to that … on the second Saturday of each month, the church has serving opportunities in the morning for anyone who can come. It starts at 8:15 am, so breakfast will need to be quick LOL! But when we get home, I’m going to make sandwiches and use a heart cookie cutter to cut them up. Then we are going to attempt to make homemade marshmallows LOL! A couple of weeks ago my husband somehow ended up on a blog that had a recipe for them and left it open for me to make, but I didn’t have all the ingredients. Then the other day I was thinking about it and thought it’d make a fun project for me and the girls to make for him, so I got the remaining ingredients today … should be fun! And we’ll take the girls swimming in the afternoon, and then home again for chicken soup and to try the marshmallows … maybe with a little chocolate ice cream on top 😉
Jennifer Neuman
I have make the commitment to not spend any extra money on Valentine’s Day I am either using what I already have or fitting food items into our normal food budget. We will be home all day watching movies together, making candies and eating.
Gifts-
I made my kids and husband a Valentine’s Day card. I used scrapbook papers that I already had and printed up some animal clipart and made funny captions to match the animals.
We will be making candies together and I have treat bag from a previous year that we will package them in. This year we are making Oreo Truffles and Peanut Clusters. I had extra chocolate and peanuts left over from Christmas so we will use those and I bought the cream cheese and Oreos at Aldi on my last shopping trip.
Banner Decorations-
I used scrapbook paper, cardstock and red yarn to make 3 banners to hang over our kitchen doorways. I made sure to use all paper and scraps of paper to keep the supplies to a minimum so that I wouldn’t be putting a lot of costly supplies into it. The first one I made a banner that says love with one letter on each oval. The second I used old valentines cards with animals on it and glued them to cardstock squares. They had a scripture on the back so I typed out the scripture and cut them out and glued them on to the front. The third one I make 6 white hearts and cut hearts out of the centers. I cut strips of light purple and pink printer paper and paper weaved them. Then I glued a square of it to the back of the hearts and then sandwiched another heart to the other side. They have been hanging for a week now and everyone likes them.
Table Decorations-
I have a red table cloth that I will use. I have a table runner that has red roses embroidered on it that I got at a yard sale. I have a box that I keep fake flowers in for craft projects so I looked to see what I had in there. I had several styles of dark pink roses so I took the stem off of them and put green pipe cleaners in them and then twisted the pipe cleaners around tan fabric napkins for napkin rings. I used the rest of the flowers to make a small vase of flowers for the center of the table. I have a red candle I got at the after Christmas Sale that I will put on a candle plate. I am using a cut end of celery to make a rose print for place cards. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93596482@N00/2242171297/in/photostream/
I have a set of china that I got at a thrift store this past summer that is white and has red roses on it that I will use to set the table. So I have a red, pink rose theme going on that I have been putting together over time.
Dinner-
Beef Chuck Tender Steaks $3.14 per pound on sale 2 weeks ago. I usually don’t spend over $1.99 per pound on meat so the steak was a spurge but my husband had been mentioning how good a steak sounds so I let him know I had it on the menu. We will also have Baked Potatoes, Broccoli, and Homemade Rolls. We will have Cherry Kool-Aid for our beverage. Dessert will be Rice Crispy Treats made with strawberry marshmallows and candy sprinkles on top and individual Strawberry Trifle (strawberry cake, vanilla pudding layered with cool whip and strawberries).
Easy OREO Truffles
Prep Time: 30 min
Total Time: 1 hr 30 min
Makes: 3-1/2 doz. or 42 servings, one truffle each
1 pkg. (1 lb., 2 oz.) OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) BAKER’S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted
CRUSH 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
DIP balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
REFRIGERATE until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.
How to Easily Dip Truffles
Place truffle ball in melted chocolate to coat; roll if necessary. Lift truffle from chocolate using 2 forks (this will allow excess chocolate to run off) before placing on wax paper.
Peanut Clusters
2 (16 oz.) Package Chocolate Chips
1 Jar of Dry Roasted Peanuts
Melt both packages of Chips in the microwave. Stir in the jar of peanuts and mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper and let set. To speed up the setting process, put them in the refrigerator.
Buttery Rolls
1 cup of warm milk
½ cup butter or margarine softened
¼ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast.
In bread machine pan, put in all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting. When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 24 portions. Shape into balls. Place in a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 for 13-16 minutes or until golden brown
My hubby works on Saturdays so while he is at work, I will enjoy Valentines Day with the kiddos. I will make some heart shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup for breakfast. I have some little goody bags to give them with candy and little prizes. For lunch we will have heart shaped sandwiches. I am keeping it simple this year. We already made cards and presents to give to family and friends this weekend.
When DH gets home, my sister is coming over to watch the kids and we are going out. We don’t usually go out on V-Day so I hope the crowds are not too bad. We have some gift cards from Christmas that we are going to use for dinner and a movie. We are not much for presents, but he did buy me flowers this week (sunflowers with a single red rose-I LOVE sunflowers!) and I bought Fireproof for us. I also got him some candy and pistachios (he loves them but every time I get them the kids eat them before he gets any) and I am making chocolate covered strawberries. It will be nice to go out as that is a rare treat for us! Also, while we are out the kids will be decorating heart shaped cookies.
My sweet hubby got us concert tickets and is taking me out to eat at the Olive Garden! YUMMY!! I spent several hours shopping for the perfect little black dress to wear!! We have not been out on a date in a long time so I am very excited.
Happy Valentines Day Ladies.
We are doing something different this year.
We are going to a Valentine’s Day Wedding.
Then Sunday night we are going to some friends house for a couples get together.
And, next week, Hubby & I will be going to eat either at `Longhorn Steakhouse` or `Olive Garden`. The Dr’s at hubby’s work gave him a gift card for both places. WooHoo!!
Have a Great Valentine’s Day,
Michelle Fitzgerald
This week has been full of Valentine’s Day fun around here! Our homeschool co-op had a great potluck and card/candy exchange, which the kids have been preparing for all week. This year the children decided to make their own valentine cards to give, which took more time of course, but they did not mind and were so proud of the finished cards. Tomorrow, they will get treats from their grandmother and we are planning lunch at our favorite pizza place!
My husband and I have plans for a date next week, just lunch, but we love the time to talk! My husband knows that I don’t particularly enjoy flowers as a gift, (don’t get me wrong I love to look at them, but I’d rather have CHOCOLATE!) so one year he made me a flower arrangement of chocolate goodies! It was so thoughtful and I was really surprised with his creativity!
I have to say that I have no really special plans this year, but I have been inspired to write a couple notes to my love and my best friends.
Tina Ketchens
We have a Valentines Day tradition we started when my now-almost-13-year-old was in kindergarten. We serve a very *fancy* dinner of homemade frito pie by candlelight while listening to classical music. We drink sparkling grape juice out of plastic champagne flutes, and top it off with some sort of dessert – usually homemade cookies. It’s nothing terribly expensive, time consuming or over the top, but my kids love it because it’s something we do together each year as a family – and that makes it special!
Blessings,
Kristin Girod
This week my little kiddos made Valentine boxes for our homeschool family skate party which was today. They decided to do a theme and one made a Barn with cows box and the other made an Abe Lincoln Log Cabin to celebrate his 200th birthday on Feb 12th.
We just got word that my brother and his family will be coming up from Idaho to visit the entire weekend so this is a wonderful surprise for us since we are over 5 hours away. We plan to have a yummy steak, potatoes and salad dinner which is my husband’s favorite.. He’s a meat and veggie kind of guy.
We also plan to make a heart cake on Valentine’s Day and make some Valentine crafts as we are studying the history of Valentine’s Day this week as a lapbook..
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all.
Lynn Pitts
The kids and i will be doing pink pancakes with heart sprinkles for breakfast and we are going to study the human heart, both physically and from the perspective of our feelings. I want to tie in a little about Biblical LOVE too, but I may have bitten off more than i can chew 🙂
We are going to have a red, white, and pink lunch. With red jello and pink lemonade and finger sandwiches and all kinds of fun stuff!
When Daddy gets up we will be having a family movie night. We plan to watch Ever After and have pink elephant popcorn.
I have put the kids to work cutting our hearts in all different sizes and taping them all over the house. However, we are going to do a “hidden note” on some of them for my hubby to read. Like on the coffee pot, we will say, “thanks for making coffee for us every day,” on the bathroom mirror, “Hey Good Lookin”,
in the fridge, “thanks for working every day and providing for us”,. Little notes of love I call them. Also, we are going to make chocolate eclaires in the morning. That should be fun , then dinner will be everything red.
Strawberry milk, spagetti, and whatever else is red. We just are going to
enjoy the day and gear up for the Daytona 500 on Sunday after church.
Lots of Hugs from Jesus to you all – our glorious Valentine!!!
Katy Horn
Well, to the rest of the world this may not be exciting, but we’ve had enough excitment the past couple weeks. My hubby had his foot amputated almost 2 weeks ago (from an injury 12 years ago, not diabetes). He has not left the house for a week and a half, and I barely have b/c I’m taking care of him! We also are completely broke and b/c of the surgery have hardly any source of income right now. So our big romantic time is me taking to kids to my in-laws after swim lessons and hubby and me having lunch at Chik-Fil-A before his doctors appt. tomorrow afternoon. I know it sounds pathetic, but we both love Chik-Fil-A, and we NEVER can afford to eat out so this really is a big deal for us! Plus he wouldn’t have the stamina to do a sit down restaurant anyway! When we get home he will probably crash for a few hours, it will be an exhausting and painful outing. So then my inlaws will bring the kids back to us and the kids and I will cut out cookies and decorate them. They’ll help me make “Fluffy White” frosting (the kind that used to be called seven minute but now they call it other things b/c 7 min. isn’t long enough for it to cook and kill the bad stuff in the eggs!) for daddy’s favorite cake (angel food, I made it tonight). Then I’ll make steak and baked potatoes for a “romantic?” dinner after the kids go to sleep, if hubby can stay awake long enough.
I really am looking forward to a bit of time, just him and me. During that time I’ll read him the love letter I wrote him.
Happy Valentines Day All!
Sherri
As a mother to 4 boys we don’t do many things that seem like a Valentine celebration. I also have birthdays that are celebrated on the 11th and 15th so we don’t do many of the “sweets” that are so common. This year we are going to a hockey game on Valentine’s day and to a restraunt on the day after. We don’t like fighting the crowd on Valentine’s day ;).
We did go to a Valentine’s party that our local support group hosted this year, for the first time ever. The children enjoyed trading Valentines with the others and there was cookie decorating, valentine making for a nursing home and games.
Well Hello everyone! Happy Valentines Day to all, I have read some very wonderful plans form some of you. I am going to go to work today and I know that doesnt sound very romantic but I am very excited Iwork with our elderly and seinors at a nursing home and do activities with them and this is a special day for them as well so I bring my girls with me and we are going to give them some valentines and candy and play some Bingo of course. Then we are going to a International Dance Festival an evening of Dance from around the World at theCenter for the Arts. Tracey Haskell
Our church is hosting a Valentines Dinner and a Movie(FireProof) and at first I wasnt going to attend as my husband is serving a 15 month tour in Iraq and I wasnt about to go to a function that was mainly for the married couples, but then as I was talking with a friend(who attends the church and whose hubby is deployed too in the same unit as mine) I told her we should go… She was hesitant at first and whipping out the excuses like I was just that same morning, but I put my foot down and said you know what we will go we will get dolled up and we will take a favorite photo of our husbands with us and place them at the table as though they are there enjoying the dinner too. Sure it might end up being a very sentimental evening for us both but I couldnt imagine any longer of being stuck at home being hum drum about the night either. Saying all this my friend and I agreed this was definatley going to be a date night with our hubbies if even in Spirit…
Also what a great way to show our kids that we can still be romantic even if one’s beloved is not with them.
Jeannie C
Last night we did some pretty awesome stuff. He surprised me with a new bathing suit and I gave him a lovely fish dinner and and an intimate act he’s been wanting. Tonight, we are going to dinner and a movie called Fireproof, a semi formal affair hosted by a church on the island.