...xoxo...

We are big fans of Valentines Day around here.

I think the #1 reason being that Valentines day is a welcome distraction/departure from the mostly negative, sometimes scary, every day news. Valentines day is a crime free, non partisan, super positive, love filled reason to celebrate the basic emotion that makes this world go round! LOVE! ( Dramatic? I think so, but are you surprised?) I just think that any reason to celebrate love is a good one! HOPEFULLY we are all celebrating love all year long, but it's especially fun to celebrate a big fat day of love with the rest of the world! That being said I think Valentines Day is much more enjoyable if you drop the commercial expectation aspect of it. Cards, flowers, chocolate, and jewelry are ALL fun, exciting, wonderful, gleeful, yummy, romantic, cheesy, and I love them.... and I really wish I had more of all of it....wait, where was I ?? Oh yeah....those are great, but none of the above are necessary to celebrate your love!! I have come to expect ANYTHING but the ordinary for Valentines since I met my red head. The first valentines we spent together, we'd been married for one month exactly, and I woke up to this...

Rich had gotten a big red ball and written crazy stuff all over it like funny inside jokes, and cute notes. It was so unexpected and cost, what? $5? But the memory and uniqueness was priceless!!!! Rich went a little more traditional this year, but I loved it all the same! One fun thing Rich started even before we were married was a "no store bought card" policy. So for anything from birthdays to anniversaries, we make all the cards for the kids, each other, and the kids make cards for us ( with help, obviously). I LOVE IT. Well, I take that back, I thought Rich was just being cheap at first, so I found in annoying (super nice, right?) but then he told me he does it because they are so much more personal and it takes more thought and time to hand make one....AND they are cheaper :) So I was half right, but as it turns out I like them better anyways!

I think the #2  reason I love Valentines is because I'm a such a sucker for a theme. Give me a theme and you've given me hours and hours of fun and clever planning. My Pinterest account feeds my theme addiction in a MAJOR way, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

 #3. I love any reason to decorate with crepe paper streamers. I know there are non streamer fans out there. I see how some may judge them to be tacky. Not this girl. A little crepe paper streamers can go a long way when you are trying to jazz up a day. Basically, it's not a party until I put up some streamers.

Anyways...we had a great day! Rich and I exchanged Valentines, and we set up a fun Valentine's breakfast for the kids. Grandma, Grandpa, Gobby and Pops all sent fun Valentines packages for the kids and the kids went nuts over EVERYTHING! So THANK YOU all!

Enjoy some pictures and HAPPY LOVE DAY!!!!!