This year, it became all about creating new traditions with my family.
We started off the week at a friend's house making adorable Valentine's. We helped each kiddo make a valentine for their daddy, by painting their hand and pressing it onto paper. Then we took the hand prints and made bugs or flowers from them. Thanks to my wonderful friend Natalie for coming up with this adorable craft and organizing it!
I had plans to make heart shaped cookies later in the week, I love baking and so does Rowan. My mom and I always would bake together my whole life, we both love it so much. It always gave us a chance to bond, relax, and simply create memories together. It's really important to me to pass that down to my girls.
During Luella's nap time on Wednesday, Rowan and I did just that. It was so fun, despite our tiny (and I mean tiny) kitchen. I chose to do it during Luella's nap because of said tiny kitchen, lol. I am thrilled to get a bigger kitchen soon and to involve Lu in these baking traditions. Sometimes when Rowan asks to bake with me in our tiny kitchen, it takes a ton of patience from me, because there is literally no room to move when you have two humans in there. But on Wednesday it was all about enjoying the moment and having fun. I am so glad we were able to do this together. We made a simple sugar cookie with a homemade strawberry frosting. I love that we used strawberries. I actually had never thought to use them for red "dye" until I saw someone use raspberries, and then I was like, oh yeah, that would work! We don't use artificial food coloring in our foods, so finding natural ways to dye baked goods always makes me so happy.
The morning of Valentine's Day I made the family heart-shaped pancakes! I was quite surprised at how well they turned out. I use this pancake recipe and always get the perfect pancake, slightly fluffy and very soft. We spent the day running errands and going to lake park, which we all loved. We ended the evening with Jason, after he got off of work. He made us homemade lasagna and it was delicious. He knows the way to my heart is through good food, I just love him!
I am so grateful for these humans, every day of course, Valentine's Day is just an excuse to eat sugar cookies, pancakes, and lasagna with them, all in one day . A very unhealthy but fun-filled day with lots of memories made. Being together is what it's all about and there's nobody else I'd rather be with.
We also got the girls each a small gift and wrapped them in play silks, which I love, plus then they get two gifts in one and there's no waste! I didn't get a photo of Rowan wearing her adorable unicorn costume, that'll have to come in a later blog post, but I did get these of Lu and her puzzle. I just had to share, it is SO beautiful and Lu is adorable obviously!
I hope you all had a great day. XOXOXO