I love Valentine’s Day…. I love all of the hearts, the pink and red color combos, the flowers and candy (chocolate in a heart shaped box…sign me up), and I love LOVE which we should all express all day everyday but it’s still fun to have a special day for a little extra love and pretty decor . We have never been big “get dressed up and go out on Valentine’s Day” people even before we had kids because it’s just always so crowded and it’s not like we won’t still love each other just as much 2 weeks later with less crowds so why not go out then instead. Anyway, what I’m getting at is that we stay home for Valentine’s Day and make it a family day instead of just a couples day.
When the boys were around 2 and 4, I made these little mailboxes with them for a fun little craft project and we have had them ever since. I put them out every year around mid January and I put little toys (they love when I put Lego minifigures in them) and sometimes candy, and notes in them at night or while they are at school during the day. They leave us little things in ours too and for each other. I tried to find the tutorial for you guys on Pinterest but I couldn’t find it since it was forever ago. They are so easy though. You just need a little metal mailbox that you can usually find at Target or on Amazon (I linked some for you below), a candlestick holder from the Dollar Store, and some super glue (or you can use hot glue which is what I used but it doesn’t hold that great so I always have to reglue them), some pretty paper doilies and whatever stickers and ribbon you want to use to decorate. I used black card stock and a metallic Sharpie for the hearts in the middle. This is one of our favorite traditions and makes us all have something to look forward to after Christmas. I linked some mailboxes you can buy on Etsy and a few others too if you don’t feel like making them yourself.
We always plan a special dinner (sometimes it’s just something simple like tacos because the boys love them) and make chocolate covered strawberries and a special dessert and I usually have a few little gifts for the boys. The after Christmas clearance at Target is the best for finding some little Valentine’s Day gifts for the kids. I’m planning to do a Hot Chocolate Bar this year and I found those cute little heart cups (in the pic below) in the dollar section at Target and I thought they would be perfect. I swear this post is not sponsored by Target, they just have the cutest Valentine’s Day stuff right now and I love to decorate for Valentine’s Day almost as much as I love decorating for Christmas. I wish it was socially acceptable to leave hearts and LED love signs up all year. Ok maybe I do leave the signs up all year or at least I’m going to with this one because its too cute to hide away.
I have been working on my post from our Paris trip for what seems like forever so I will have that done this week finally. The holidays made me exhausted for 3 weeks straight but I think I am finally getting back to normal and part of my New Year’s goals is to get more sleep so that means no more 2 am blog posts (or at least less 2 am blog posts). I have been feeling much better getting more sleep though and since sleeping in is not an option around here I have to force myself to turn off Netflix (we are binge watching The Office for the billionth time but there are so many hilarious parts I totally forgot from when we watched it before) and actually go to bed. I’m just rambling now but whether you are going out or staying home with the kids, I hope you have a lovely Valentine’s Day.
