There is something about winter that makes me like cooking more. Even when "winter" is temps in the 50s & 60s. Actually, that's even better because it's like the best of both worlds...my kids can play outside while I work on dinner. Well, they come & go, in & out & in & out...but they are at least outside for some of the time & I can keep an eye on them through my kitchen window. But I digress, this post isn't about my kids, it is about dinner! {But in this story the children are away...anyone know what book that is??}

God is L-O-V-E--LOVE! The kids sang that song in a little musical last year & it has been playing over & over in my head this week with all the Valentines festivities. I truly love celebrating Valentine's Day, and I'm so thankful that we have LOVE because He first loved us!! (1 John 4:19)

Thanks to Pinterest, we had so much fun this year looking at so many fun Valentines ideas & choosing the perfect ones to make for each class. After great deliberation (& much searching on Pinterest,) Jack decided that these Valentines would be, well, dynamite!

We made sticks of TnT out of Rolo candies wrapped in red cardstock. This would have been a bit simpler if we had been able to find the long packs of Rolos, but I could only find them individually in bags!
After I made a prototype (by wrapping 10 Rolos in the cardstock & securing it with tape) my dear, long-suffering husband helped make the rest of them...did I mention there are 25 kids in Jack's class?!! That was our Sunday night...making Rolo dynamite!
 But even though they were a little labor intensive, I think they turned out great! And Jack said they were the hit of the class & all the kids & teachers loved them!
 For the girls, we decided on the adorable photo Valentines where you hold out your hand like you are giving a friend a lollipop. I was at the drug store with Drew to get meds for his ear infection on Friday, so I picked up a few packs of the heart shaped suckers.

 On Saturday afternoon, I snapped a few pics of the girls & was surprised to get a fairly good photo pretty quickly. I used Picnik to jazz up the photos & add a Valentines greeting. I then uploaded the finished product to Walgreens & they were ready for pick-up in less than an hour! At home, I used a scrapbooking grommet tool to punch two little holes for the lollipops on each card. We were really pleased with the adorable finished product & I was happily surprised at how quickly they came together! (Jeff said the boys' complicated ones more than made up for the girls' more simple cards!)
Since Drew is all motion & action & energy, and since he loves balls, I chose to give his classmates a little bouncy ball. I packaged them up with a few Hershey kisses (you can never have too many kisses!) & a little caption that said "you make my heart bounce!"
Once again, I have to give my own dear Valentine his props...while I was working on other Valentine related tasks (like assembling the treat bags for Darcy's class) he used his fancy penmanship & wrote the caption on all of the Valentines for Drew's class! (We still don't have word processing software on our new Mac, or I would have printed out little labels.)
I had signed up at the beginning of the school year to help with the Valentine's Day party in Darcy's class. This worked out well because her teacher is awesome! Basically she did everything & just needed the other mom & I to show up & help set-up/servet the food. She also asked us to provide a little treat bag for each child.
Since I had seen SO many fun ideas on Pinterest (I need more kids just to make more Valentines...HA! I'm just kidding, Jeff! I tried to get Jeff to promise that if anything ever happens to me that he would continue the home-made Valentine tradition...I could get no formal agreement.) Anyway, since I had seen all these fun ideas, I volunteered to put together a little treat bag with some goodies...
I put everything in a clear cello bag, topped it with cute paper & a little poem...My heart is all aGLOW, So I KNEAD to let you know. I'm BLOWING lots of KISSES to you my sweet Valentine! They really turned out to be pretty cute if I do say so myself!
 As is our tradition, I also got out the big bin of Valentine foam stickers & papers & let the kids have fun making cards for each other.
 More than anything, it gave me a few partially uninterrupted moments to work on dinner while the kids were busy crafting.



 I had my Bible Study class as normal that morning & then I headed off to help with the party in Darcy's class. Each of the students brought in a flower for the teachers that morning & they all made up the most lovely bouquet!
 After spending the morning in the nursery, Lucy was getting pretty sleepy, but she was a trooper. Enjoying her very first sugar cookie with frosting helped!
 The hallways at the preschool were SO festive & lined with such cute crafts, decorations & Valentine Boxes! Love was in the air everywhere!!

 After Darcy's party, we  headed down to Drew's party already in progress. When we got there, Drew was working on a little craft & Darcy jumped right in to help him.

 Lucy was happy to get out of the stroller & crawl around a bit! There was plenty of chaos in a room full of 2 year olds & their parents...but Lucy rolled with it.


 My speedy little Valentine slowed down long enough for me to snap one picture that wasn't blurry! Boy, I love that sweet face!

We were in the thick of Valentine making this weekend & I can't wait to share the cute ones we did this year, but this is too cute not to blog. Since winter has finally arrived here in the Carolinas (albeit after the trees decided to started budding) we have had a nice roaring fire going for most of the weekend. Our wood rack outside the back door had dwindled to literally sticks, so Jeff went out to the barn to bring more wood up to the house. I stayed home from church yesterday morning with Drew because we were both feeling a little under the weather, but after lunch the sun was bright & Drew was most eager to get outside. I was cleaning up the dishes when I glanced out the window. The sight outside had me running to get my camera, I even left the water on at the sink!
 It took me a minute to grab the camera, so they were almost to the barn by the time I could snap this, but there goes Drew with his little red wheelbarrow following behind Jeff with his big one.
 I knew it would take them a few minutes to load up their carts, so I went back to the sink, but kept my camera close at hand. When I saw them head back up, I was ready to snap away!

 You hear people talk a lot about not having a good example to follow growing-up...about proper respect, values, behavior, manners, kindness just not being modeled by parents or grown-ups.
 It is sad that so much hurting today is the result of what was sown a generation ago. It is humbling to think of the immense influence we have on our children & the people they are becoming. (Now, I do believe that we all make our own choices in life & that not all 'problem' adults are the result of parenting mistakes. Conversely, I know that through God's grace bad patterns can be broken & replaced with good!) 
 I'm just so incredibly thankful to have a husband who follows Christ, who serves his family, who leads & encourages his children, & who models kindness, compassion, justice, hard work and love. He is involved & engaged in every aspect of parenting. And he realizes that our children are watching, they are following!
 Even when they lag behind a bit, they keep him in sight & hurry to catch up! And he is there waiting, ready to lend a hand or offer advice & instruction.