Valentine's Day-- Making New Traditions

This year for Valentine's Day I tried to start a few new traditions.  We have always done Valentine's boxes and store-bought valentines, but this year I tried to add a few more things to make the day seem more special.  For starters, I made each kid a special lunch with all (or most things) red.  The Jello was something new that my kids hadn't seen in their lunches before, and Sam declared afterwards that he hated jello.  

Ben, when he saw what was in his lunch at school, saw the jello and decided he must have someone else's lunch and did not eat any of it.  He brought it home untouched.  

Ashlee liked the lunch, although while I was trying to make it in the morning, she was very nosy and kept trying to see what I was putting in it.  I wanted it to be a surprise, so I told her to go fix her hair.

I also put in a few Valentine's jokes in their lunches for the first time ever, and I think none of the kids actually noticed that they were in there.  :)

Here are Ben's valentines.  He gave out Star Wars valentines, while Sam gave out Fun Dips (as per their requests.)

Here is Ben's very fancy "homemade" star wars box.  I saw a Star Wars valentine's box at the store, and bought it thinking it would save me time.  I brought it home and when we tried to put it together, we found out it was a piece of junk.  No instructions, very flimsy and small, and would NOT work.  So we just used the image it came with and stuck it on the front of a box we covered with white tissue paper. Simple + happy kid = success.

I signed up to bring chocolate covered pretzels for Sam's class and had fun making them with the kids.  Ashlee and Ben were jealous I didn't make anything for their classes.  I usually try to make some kind of treat for Valentine's day, usually sugar cookies.  But this year I had already made a bunch of those for Activity Days, so chocolate covered pretzels is a nice substitution.  :)

Also for the first time this year, I decided to cover each person's bedroom door with a heart attack.  The night before, I had each kid make a heart valentine for each person in the family.  I didn't tell them what we were going to do with them and they couldn't see the others' valentines.  It made my heart happy to see their little smiles in the morning!

Also, Gabe had been gone on a business trip to Mexico, but just got back that evening.  He was thrilled to see all the valentines on his door too and gave us all big hugs when he saw us.  He gave me a beautiful bouquet of roses, and then we all sat down to a candlelight dinner of homemade Cafe Rio salads.  I'd say it was a Valentine's Day success, and I hope to make these things part of our Valentine's Day traditions.