Valentine’s Day

My favorite holiday of all time is Valentine’s Day. 

Because LOVE.

I love having a day to celebrate being a family.

We started the day with a special breakfast.




These three worked together to decorate our mailbox especially for the holiday and for the delivery of valentines.

Definitely a highlight of the day was seeing them work together so happily.

All of our homemade valentine's were placed in the mailbox until later in the day when we delivered them to eachother.

Love notes are the best.

Snuggles are, too.




To celebrate Valentine's day it worked out that each person who wanted to led us in an activity.

Perry came up with a fun game. He divided us into two teams. On your turn, your team was given a picture that he had drawn. If you guessed what it was correctly, you won a point. Kacin dominated the game! 

 

Layla led us in a game of musical chairs, but with hearts.

Layla passed out gifts that she had bought for each person. She started shopping for everyone weeks before the big day and gave everyone gifts she knew they would love. Like, Raman noodles for Kyler and Kacin.

Kacin had generously brought home a DQ cake for our family. We set up a treasure hunt around the house to find the cake.

Yum. (and also Valentine's day is the last day that we keep christmas cards on the wall. They came down that afternoon.)


I took these two loves of mine on a hike at South Mountain that afternoon.










Mormon Trail to Fatman's pass is such a fun hike, mostly due to the rock slide.









Perry held baby for a nice long time that day. His first time really doting on her.

Yay for celebrations of family and love on Valentine's day!

(We missed Kyler a whole lot. He was up at a friend's cabin for the weekend.)

valentines parties

Layla planned for weeks and weeks to throw a valentines party for some of her friends. She delivered her quite independently handmade invitations to friends in the neighborhood. My favorite part was the large words of love, “Even if you don’t come, have a nice holiday.” So sweet. And hilarious, too.

On the afternoon of the party, we made a quick run to hobby lobby and then came home to decorate for the event. 

Layla and I both enjoy planning and setting up for simple parties. I love that we share that.

We placed red vines for straws in the cups and that was a huge hit for the evening.

Layla made a beautiful welcome sign to hang on the door.

All set and ready for the guests to arrive.

It was such a beautiful afternoon that we got to open up the sliding glass door and enjoy the fresh air.

All ready for a “love”-ly party.

Her guests started to arrive and they each decorated a paper bag to keep valentines in.

Brinn was anxiously awaiting the moment when the cupcakes, jello, and pink lemonade would be served (all made by Layla).

After the girls decorated bags and played outside, we played “do you love your neighbor” and hot potato but with a bean bag heart. We ate pizza and jello when we were done with games. And then Layla organized the girls to do puppet shows. I’ll admit, when Layla suggested puppet shows, I was a bit hesitant, but it was a huge hit! Layla divided the girls into groups and they each chose a puppet and created and performed a show for us.

Layla asked each girl to bring a set of Valentine’s. She agreed to my idea to hunt for valentines in the backyard. We placed each girls valentines in a bowl. Then I placed the bowl somewhere in the backyard with a set of fairy lights around them.

We gave the girls glow sticks to wear and then they went from bowl to bowl collecting valentines in the dark.

Happy girls after the valentines glow hunt.

There were cupcakes and a few minutes of a movie, but we ended the night with a dance party!

It was such a fun night! Layla learned a lot about being hostess and enjoyed the party immensely.

Brinna and Perry had their own school parties that same day. They were so excited to share valentines.

Valentine’s Day is the best holiday!