Valentine's Day - February 14, 2013

Lucy had preschool on Valentine's Day so I made sure that she had some valentines to bring to school and share with her classmates. Last year, she happened to be at daycare on Valentine's Day and she came home with all these valentines and I felt so bad that I didn't even think to give her any to share. So I was prepared this year. My sister, Elaine, made these valentines a couple of years ago and I thought they were so cute that I copied the idea. They are origami flowers with honey sticks for the stem and paper leaves to write a little message. Elaine had a cute stamp to use but we just hand wrote the message, "Honey, Bee Mine!" There are so many darling valentine ideas on Pinterest but I will save those for another year (and involve Lucy some more instead of just having her sign her name).

I didn't think that it would take so long to make all the origami flowers but it did. And I thought it would be a fairly inexpensive craft but those honey sticks were around $0.35 each so it actually added up pretty quickly and probably ended up being more expensive than store-bought valentines. Thankfully, I had lots of origami paper hanging around in some craft box. Lucy's preschool class only has about a dozen kids so I think that I made about 15 or 18 to be safe. I just hope it didn't look like I was trying too hard - but it was something that was unique and reflected our Japanese heritage and was also a less processed treat so I hope everyone enjoyed them. I just got an old Easter basket and put some styrofoam inside and stuck all those honey stick flowers in. My older sister is so clever! Even though Lucy couldn't help out a ton in making these, she was so excited to bring them to preschool to share (although she insisted on keeping a couple pink flowers for herself).

And of course, she had to wear all pink clothes to preschool. What a girly girl I have.

If Lucy had her way, she would play with Olive and Marlo every day. So even though I had just thrown a neighborhood Valentine's party the previous day, we had a separate cousins' Valentine's Day party on the actual holiday after preschool. So it was small with just the three girls but lovely in the way that small gatherings are. Kim graciously hosted at her house and put together some yummy food and treats. I brought leftovers from the neighborhood party and extra cookies and frosting for decorating and Emily brought a craft to do although the girls got in plenty of playtime as well.  

Kim did such a nice job putting together this cute little table for the girls.

I just wished that the girls actually ate more but they were so busy playing that unfortunately, some of the food went to waste but I guess that is to be expected. With so many sweets to eat throughout the day, why would anyone want regular food? Thank goodness the indulgence only happens once a year. Although I guess there is also Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with sweet indulgences as well. I suppose as the parent, it is up to me to figure out how to strike the balance.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your day was sweet and lovely.