Valentine’s This Year in Review
I don’t know what to make about celebrating Valentine’s but it seems like we never do anything extravagant. We do however try to make it fun for the kids. Since my husband was travelling out of town for work this year, it was just the kids and I for Valentine’s (photos to come).
Since the kids are in school this year, our Valentine’s day was a little different.
- We didn’t open gifts in the morning; they wanted to wait until after
- They got to trade Valentine’s gifts with their classmates. It was so fun creating little goodie bags for the kids.
Shopped Early for Gifts and Treat Bags
I started shopping for Valentine’s goodie bag treats and trinkets in January. I knew at Christmas time we were up past mid-night putting gifts together and I wanted to avoid that last minute hustle. Well, we started working on the bags early, but interestingly enough, we still had to finish the teacher gifts the night prior to and also in the morning. We did less teacher gifting this time as opposed to Christmas when we gifted gifts to almost everyone, including office workers. This time, we did their main teachers only Also, our 6th-grader didn’t do any teacher or classroom gifts so that ended up being way less than at Christmas.
I also started on the kids Valentine’s gifts early. One day I went to Homegoods and TJmaxx looking for baskets to organize the house. I didn’t see any that would work for what I wanted but I saw such cute, low priced clothing and fun mugs and cups at these stores, that I decided to get them right away. And I’m so glad I started on them early. I also got stuffed animals at Walmart close to that time too. Last year, I was out last minute trying to find things for the kids since I had just returned from a trip to Texas. I didn’t want that to happen again, so I shopped early when I can.
Valentine’s Dinner and Heart-Shaped Cake
I made a heart cake for the kids again this year. I thought I would make cupcakes, but decided on a cake instead. I used a boxed lemon cake and made homemade butter frosting from a Better Homes and Garden cook book. The cake was so tasty and filling.
We had dinner with Oven Roasted beef (I roasted the beef about 4 hrs and it was so soft and delicious), Sweet Potato Casserole in little Heart-Shaped bowls, Pink and White Pasta (more on that below) and Corn on the cob.
Pink and White Pasta Try Out
It was my first time making Pink and White Pasta. I have always seen this type of Pasta at Homegoods, intend to go back to get some closer to Valentine’s day but either never end up going to get it or when I went, they were already out of it. Homegoods is the only place I’ve seen this so I didn’t think of another store that would have them. I guess maybe TJMaxx or Marshalls but I’ve never really seen them there either, although, I’ve seen other colorful pasta in these stores. Amazon maybe? Hmmmm.
In any event, I got the pasta this time in January when they brought out their Valentine’s stuff early. And then I thought to myself, I should have gotten two (there’s never a really huge amount) to test this out prior to Valentine’s. A few days before Valentine’s I was at Homegoods and checked back but they were already out of them. I was also at Marshalls and decided to check but didn’t see any. So I waited until Valentine’s to cook them. I used half the bag and that was plenty. It yielded a lot. “Duh”, I guess I could have tested it out with half prior to Valentine’s. But I didn’t to run out; didn’t know 1/2 bag would go a long way. Also, I didn’t plan to cook something else along with the pasta so that’s another reason I waited.
The heart-shaped pasta turned out way bigger than the normal-sized pasta when cooked. The pink is made from a natural ingredient I’m not familiar with, I accidentally threw away the label. It didn’t make the water very pink (just slightly). The kids tried it and while it wasn’t too far away of a taste than regular pastas, I think we all like regular better.
Cookie Houses
I recently picked up these cookie houses for the kids to do after school on Valentine’s day. Well, these houses never really seem to turn out the way the kids expect them too. Here are our creations:)
Valentine’s Day 2023
That’s about all we did. It was so low key and actually enjoyable that it makes one wonder why go through all the hype. How was your Valentine’s day? Did you go out or stayed home? Did anything fun?
We love Him, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
