I love making holidays special. I once heard a speaker say something along the lines of, “Give your children the memories you want your adult children to have.” I loved it so much. Pairing it with our Charlotte Mason education and my own special crazy, makes for some interesting days. Valentines Day was no exception. We celebrated a day early as Valentines Day fell on a Sunday this year and I knew we wouldn’t have the time in the morning because of church.
We started out with a Valentines Day breakfast. In case you were unaware, Ethan is basically the pancake master. I’ve become convinced that breakfast food is a dad superpower. And so, pink pancakes were on the menu to start. Is it even a fancy pancake breakfast if you don’t have whipped cream and sprinkles though? I also made her a special pink drink of strawberries and pineapple.
Next, every girl should be spoiled for Valentines Day, and Athena is no exception. We did a little “spa” morning. We began with putting our hair up with our matching headbands. Next, we applied some special oils to our face. THEN we did a foot soak with my go-to Redmond Salt/Epsom Salt mix. After the foot soak came the inevitable pedicure; pink piggy toes OF COURSE. The cherry on top was none other than a frozen, rose quartz, face rolling to help stimulate the skin and rub those oils in well.
For lunch, we made a family fav, with a pink twist. Corn dog bites. They are ridiculously easy to make and great to have on hand in the freezer as well. 2 boxes of corn bread mix, a few diced up hot dogs, cupcake liners, and some natural pink food dye. Mix it all together, and bake it. Even the ketchup was in the holiday spirit! We had also made pink lemon sugar cookies with our new cookie cutters. Since they are pink, one had to get added to the plate as well!
We spent some time making various Valentines for family. Hands down, her favorite craft of the month was salt painting. It’s very easy, but does take a bit of mom-prep. Outline various designs using glue. Sprinkle on regular table salt and shake off the excess. Let it dry. If you’re like me, pre-mix some watercolors in separate paint pallets in an attempt to avoid color mixing. If you like to live on the wild side, just use a full regular watercolor pallet. When you touch the wet paint brush to the salt, the paint travels, giving you a cool tie-dye affect. It’s very easy and Athena had a ton of fun watching the paint spread. I’ve already created a few more to have on stand-by on the days when I have slacked on my prepping.
My personal favorite activity was our handprint flamingos. I’m honestly really proud of these cuties and the grandparents LOVED them as well. If you’re like me, you may be thinking, “Something about those flamingos looks off.” You’d be correct. Flamingo knees bend back and their feet hang forward. I realized this error before giving these to the grands, and just didn’t take an adjusted picture. You’d think with all of the zoo shows we watch I would have realized this from the beginning.
In case you are at all concerned, Agatha, my Irish Lamb, has come out from her place in the cupboard as we prepare for St. Patricks Day- probably my most favorite not-totally-church-holiday of the year. If you thought I did Valentines Day big, wait until you see what I’ve got planned for March…
The Nurtured Bee 