valentine celebrations

we are celebrating valentine's day family-style today.  don't worry, we had a date night to celebrate as well.  but the kids get so excited about this holiday that we have to have some festivities at home for them as well.  i made some tasty cupcakes (using recipes from http://www.justjennrecipes.com/ for brown sugar cupcakes & vanilla buttercream frosting ~ i am falling in love with jenn's website!).  nothing says celebrate like cupcakes!

then i pulled together some art supplies for a tradition we started two years ago, when sam looked like this (see picture below).  we use all kinds of fun craft materials to make valentines for each other, for loved ones, and teachers.  it's always a fun time.

max worked hard on writing his letters on his valentines.

and ella made a beautiful box to take to school for her valentines.

i'm not sure how she came to be in 2nd grade, she has grown up too fast.

and while we all had fun and worked on valentine crafts our dedicated daddy spent the entire day working on the taxes. 

and now, it's time to get our jammies on and read some bedtime stories, starting with one of our favorite valentine stories.