Now that half of our little family's birthdays are in February, plus Valentine's Day with kids in school with parties to help with and Valentine's to make, it kind of felt like December all over again. Not enough time to do everything I hoped or be as creative as I would love to be someday...but hopefully, in the end, everyone felt loved.
I'll make a separate post for Eden's birthday party, but she celebrated 6 times over the course of a week or so. A candle in her oatmeal (below), a dinner with the Lehnardts (who also know how to pack a month FULL of family excitement), a birthday lunch with Mama KK and Papa Stan, a birthday dinner with just our little family and Grandma and Grandpa Linkous, her little Snow White birthday party with her 3 playgroup buddies, and a joint birthday dinner with Anne-Loren and the rest of the Ellis/Whipple contingency. So 6 times blowing out candles and making wishes. She must be on the brink of an amazing year!
I've seen lots of families that write love notes to each other during the month of February and always thought that would be fun to do. For our FHE debut fevrier, we wrote one to each person and put them up on the cabinets in the kitchen.
Then we set out individual mailboxes on the island with blank hearts and a pen so that every day leading up to Valentine's Day we could write more notes about things we appreciate about each other. I loved it! I loved having that reminder on the counter to think about something specific I loved about each beautiful soul every single day, and then taking opportunity to tell them about it.
On Valentine's Day, since Kevin has to leave for work before everyone wakes up, I decided we needed to celebrate for dinner. When Kevin got home from work, we had most of the food cooked--the girls love helping make any- and every-thing. We sent my little kitchen helpers upstairs so he and I could decorate, finish the dessert and set the table. Like Christmas morning, they came down with their eyes wide with the thrill of surprise--so excited for our own little party.
I'll make a separate post for Eden's birthday party, but she celebrated 6 times over the course of a week or so. A candle in her oatmeal (below), a dinner with the Lehnardts (who also know how to pack a month FULL of family excitement), a birthday lunch with Mama KK and Papa Stan, a birthday dinner with just our little family and Grandma and Grandpa Linkous, her little Snow White birthday party with her 3 playgroup buddies, and a joint birthday dinner with Anne-Loren and the rest of the Ellis/Whipple contingency. So 6 times blowing out candles and making wishes. She must be on the brink of an amazing year!
I've seen lots of families that write love notes to each other during the month of February and always thought that would be fun to do. For our FHE debut fevrier, we wrote one to each person and put them up on the cabinets in the kitchen.
Then we set out individual mailboxes on the island with blank hearts and a pen so that every day leading up to Valentine's Day we could write more notes about things we appreciate about each other. I loved it! I loved having that reminder on the counter to think about something specific I loved about each beautiful soul every single day, and then taking opportunity to tell them about it.
On Valentine's Day, since Kevin has to leave for work before everyone wakes up, I decided we needed to celebrate for dinner. When Kevin got home from work, we had most of the food cooked--the girls love helping make any- and every-thing. We sent my little kitchen helpers upstairs so he and I could decorate, finish the dessert and set the table. Like Christmas morning, they came down with their eyes wide with the thrill of surprise--so excited for our own little party.
That is one of my absolute favorite things about children. They find shere joy in every tiny piece of happiness.
We had salad and a yummy roast with 'bejibles' (one of my favorite Eden words right now) and heart-shaped, ganache-covered brownies with strawberry arrows for dessert. 
We each opened and read all the notes in our mailboxes and our cards from Mama KK and Papa Stan. It was a blast.
Sweet Darren is ONE! We had a joint party for him, Kevin and John with the Ellis clan plus a few healthy Lehnardts and another fun dinner with the Linkous'. Kevin keeps claiming he's 29 or somthing like that, complaining about his gray hairs that are popping up and the wrinkles around his eyes. And I keep telling him how handsome he is, how wonderful he is and how thankful I am for every one of his 36 years, especially the 14 we've had together. This is the present my great friend Michelle helped us pull off for him--a 16x20 of those baby blues.
I've decided it is worth every ounce of effort to make holidays/birthdays/other special things a big deal. The scale of the big deal might depend on finances, other factors contributing to crazy life, timing, etc, but somehow, some way-- making that day different from all the others lets that sweet person and those wonderful people know that you love them. That they're worth it.
Ah...l'amour... it's what makes life worth living :)
