Valentine's Day

February is a BUSY month at the Potter house.  First we have Trek's birthday, then Cadence's one week later.  A week after that is Valentines & then a week after Valentine's is Lorien's birthday shortly followed by Craiger's birthday one week after hers.  It's a miracle I'm still alive when March hits.

Even though Valentine's Day is sandwiched in the middle of all the birthday celebrations, I still love it.  Pink & Red are two of my favorite colors & I just love anything heart related.  I have a blast with my kiddos on Valentines Day.

This year, for the first time in the 5 years I've had school aged kids, I got to make a Valentine box with Lorien.  She wanted a Minion from the movie "Despicable Me" which I thought would be SO MUCH FUN to make.  We spent one afternoon just playing around with it & it turned out adorable.  Lorien was SO happy with it.  I thought it was great fun & I enjoyed that one on one time with her.

Valentine's morning started out with our usual scripture study at 5:45am - 6:00am.  Then the kids went to the breakfast table to find it decked out in pink & red.  I know it's not the "healthiest" breakfast, but it was fun.  We had pink pop tarts, strawberry frosted mini wheats, & strawberry Sunny Delight.

After breakfast I packed a fun filled Valentine's lunch for the girls (& for poor Trek who has to endure my holiday madness)  They got a heart shaped strawberry jelly sandwich, a red kool aid, a red apple, tomatoes, & a pink marshmallow heart.

My friend Nancy always sends the kids Valentine outfits.  This year they were purple, grey, & white.  Don't you just love the silver astronaut boots?  SO FUN.

 

 

 

Craiger can only handle so many pictures before
he has a meltdown.  What a good sport.

After the girls went to school, I did my own little preschool with the kiddos where we learned about hearts & made cute valentine bag people.

They also got a Valentine themed lunch.

For dinner I set the table with Valentine decorations & put my little valentine gift for each child.  (Bladen's was my favorite.  He's really into Darth Vader right now & I found this ADORABLE Darth Vader stuffed toy for a DOLLAR at Target.)  I also included a Valentine card from the kids' Opa & Oma (Trek's parents) & a sweet little Valentine from our Branch President here in VA.  We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints & our little meeting group here has been wonderful.  The Branch President (like a Bishop) loves the kids of this area & sent them all sweet little Valentine's.  I just love him & his wife.  They are the sweetest people.

For dinner I made Strawberry Kool-Aid, BIG HEART PIZZAS, & strawberries & raspberries shaped like hearts.

Opa & Oma sent $10 to each of the kids in their Valentine's.  The kids were SO EXCITED to have MONEY.  We're going to take them shopping this weekend.

Craiger was more interested in his Kool-Aid
than his $10.  ha ha ha.

And then every year since Trek & I got married, I've made him a special recipe of mine:

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes.

It's a devil of a recipe & is hard to make, but I do it for him every Valentine's to show him how much I love him.  They are his favorite & I love to make him happy.  I always make them in heart shaped cupcake pans & they are DELICIOUS.

They are chocolatey & yummy looking on the outside, but boy, when you cut into them & the fudge comes running out the center, mmmmm.  There's nothing like them.

Dani's Molten Chocolate Lava Cake:

4 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate, melted

(Ghirardelli is my favorite. . . be careful not to burn or scorch your chocolate.  Double boilers work best)

Preheat oven to 400.  Generously butter 4-6 muffin cups (no liners. . . the actual pan).  Dust with sugar & tap out excess.  Set aside.  In a bowl cream butter & sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs ONE AT A TIME, beating well after EACH addition.  With mixer on low speed, beat in flour & salt until just barely combined.  Beat in chocolate (DO NOT OVER MIX.)  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.  Bake 10 minutes.  It will look a little undercooked, but it's supposed to.  When you cut them open, the chocolate gooey goodness comes out.

After we put the kids to bed, Trek & I exchanged gifts ourselves.  We are simple when it comes to Valentine's Day.  We always buy each other cards to remember that first Valentine card Trek gave me 12 years ago.  We love our little cards for each other.  I bought him some See's Toffettes & he bought me some Ghirardelli Chocolate.  He also surprised me with a iPhone adapter so my phone will fit on my stereo properly.  Stinker. . . we were only supposed to do a small treat.

I love my sweetheart.  Happy Valentine's Day to all our family & friends around the world.