valentine's day

We had a lovely valentine's Day. Since the children were off from school we started the day with some pink, heart shaped pancakes, cards and small gifts.

We invited some friends over for a play date. I put some hot cocoa in the crock pot and froze some heart shaped ice cubes for the children to hide and play with in the snow.

After lunch we took the kids on their Valentine adventure. This year we decided to take them to check out the Pez factory in Orange Ct. The kids loved it! They had fun watching the candy being made and were thrilled to pick out a new pez dispenser from the hundreds displayed in the store.

That evening we got a babysitter and headed out to the wine bar at The Gris with some friends. We had a lovely evening sipping wine and nibbling on tapas. Essex is my favorite town in Ct. and it didn't disappoint with a gorgeous snow fall and a romantic evening with my husband. We had a lovely Valentines day from beginning to end.

valentine treats

So we did end up with a snow day today and with no school tomorrow, I did manage to send in a special Valentine snack with the kids yesterday and decorated some store bought cupcakes for my daughters class. 
For the children's snack I sent in an empty chocolate box (actually it was a tin) and filled it with different snacks/treats. I got this idea from an Instagram photo taken by Katherine Marie. I also saw another idea on pinterest where someone served different kinds of cheese in an empty candy box. I guess you could really fill it with anything you please. It was funny trying to peek in all of the candy boxes at the stores to find one that had the plastic liner in it. I ended up with some tin ones made by Mrs. Fields. I covered the label with a chalkboard heart sticker. I filled the inside with some red goldfish, raisins, chocolate cheerios, chocolate graham crackers and a few treats. The kids loved it!!!

My daughter's class isn't actually going to celebrate Valentine's Day until after our vacation, but since I had to go in for my son's class party I decided to bring something for my daughter's class too. Since it was sort of last minute and I already had a very busy morning, I grabbed some mini cupcakes from the grocery store and then made some tiny fortune cookies out of air heads to put on top.  My daughter's class is studying Asia so I thought it would be cute. I also found this idea through pinterest, but instead of making large fortune cookies, I used a small round cookie cutter to make tiny ones. They came out so cute! And only took a few seconds to make each one. My daughter's class was thrilled with the surprise treat at the end of the day!

We are all hunkered down here for the snow day. Hope that you all have a sweet afternoon!

home sweet home

I always decorate the inside of my house for Valentine's day, but this year I decided to decorate the outside as well! I hung a wreath that I had grabbed at target last year on the door and then thought it would be fun to hang hearts in all of the windows. To the right of the house is a white picket fence where I hung the "Be Mine" sign. I can't leave it out all of the time because it is made of metal and will rust, but you better believe it will be hanging out there next Friday!!! These small gestures make me so happy. I smile every time I pull up the driveway. Some people may think I'm crazy, but I would just tell them I'm crazy for love.