We have a few smaller Valentine’s Day traditions. I don’t do a lot for it as a holiday because it feels like we just got done with Christmas am I right? I like that V-Day is a simple, laid back affair for us but that doesn’t mean it’s any less fun!
The girls had, randomly, quite a few heart shirts so we made it more of a V-Day week for them 😉
Zach has taken the girls on a special “Daddy date” since Britt was a baby. He did the Father/Daughter dance thing a time or two but really didn’t like it. So we now all get dressed up and split up. Zach and the girls do dinner and Kye and I do dinner! It’s a great time for us all!
This year Zach was going to be out of town for work on actual Valentine’s Day so we opened our little VDay gifts and did our divided up “date nights” on the same night a couple days prior to the actual holiday.
These girls are SO BLESSED to have such an awesome daddy 🙂
I cracked up when looking at these pics. I took Zach’s pics with the girls in the SAME spot as he took mine with Kye. I don’t consider myself a photographer at all but man, I’m a lot better at it than Zach is haha and that’s a pretty big deal b/c Zach is ALWAYS better than me at everything.
Growing up my mom always had a Valentine’s Day box set out and we would all fill it throughout the weeks leading up to V-Day and then open it on the holiday. I’ve continued that tradition with my crew and we all LOVE it. Britt was especially VERY into it this year. She made countless notes for each member of our family!
The ones she made for Tab were SO precious!
All the sweet notes to me from my babies!
Britt read all of her notes to everyone
Later that week I asked the kids what their favorite things about Valentine’s Day were and Kye said “seeing your reaction to my cards.” Which is so precious and also was valid b/c I CRIED reading what he wrote for all of us! I love that this holiday is about showing your love for others because it really is such a great opportunity to take that time and express those feelings. It meant the world to me to see all the sweet things the kids said about each other and us!
We keep V-Day simple and cheap 🙂 I got Zach a pair of FSU slippers/house shoes and some new earbuds and a travel bathroom bag (both on mega deals)
He got me some cute stackable bracelets!
Kye and I chose to go eat at Aligatou, of course! And we were literally the only people in the restaurant haha
He had his first Shirley Temple! Of course he loved it b/c he’s his mama’s child 🙂
Rocking some of my new bracelets!
Heart shaped rice for our special night 🙂 And we loved the volcano too, of course!
The best thing about Aligatu is the yum-yum sauce. It will TEAR YOU UP but it’s also so, so worth it. I love that Kye enjoys the food just as much as I do and that he always asks to eat it for lunch the days after we eat there.
And we def have a TON of left overs. This is my plate AFTER I was full!
We had some great conversation, as we always do together. I’m thankful Kye enjoys these type of nights with me and I do think it’s something that we will continue well into adulthood (hopefully forever!).
Of course our “date night” wouldn’t be complete without a trip to The Mix! Kye loves to bring along his camera and take pictures of everything (have I mentioned he’s my child?)
My struggle is real with portion control when it comes to froyo!
Zach and the girls hit up Longhorn (Britt’s choice!)
Look at that smile…she’s LOVING her time with her daddy!
You can’t escape family in this town…a large crew of family happened to be eating a couple tables away from Zach and the girls. Aunt Karen was among the ladies and snapped these pics and sent them to me. I LOVE THEM. I love seeing Zach in his element with the kids and these are so special to me and are photos I know the girls will love having someday. It’s hard for me to capture these kind of moments because I’m living in them too so it’s awesome to see the perspective from outside our little circle. He’s one awesome father, no doubt 🙂
A client of Zach’s opened a new dessert location so they went there and picked up treats to eat at home!
Something I did different this year was make little heart notes on each of the kids’ doors on each night leading up to Valentine’s Day. I haven’t ever tried to figure out each of the kids’ love languages but doing this made me realize I need to. Neither Kye or Britt were really all that into the hearts. I don’t think words of affirmation are their “thing.” Haha! So I’m pretty sure I won’t bother doing them again. If I had to guess I’d say Britt’s love language is physical touch/quality time. Maybe Kye’s is also quality time and gift giving since he did love seeing our reactions to his notes? I did a full post on all of the hearts I wrote here! Both the big kids do still have the notes. Britt put her’s all over her room and Kye asked to keep his on his door so maybe they were more meaningful to them than I realized 😉
I was out of town for a couple nights for my Disney Solo Trip so Daddy wrote a couple notes for each child too which was really sweet 🙂
On actual Valentine’s Day Zach was gone so I kept things pretty heart based and very basic for our day 😉
My little Valentines!
V-Day was a Tuesday and they happened to have Lunch Bunch at Britt’s and Tess’s school. Usually I’m anti-Lunch Bunch b/c it’s $3 and you still have to pack your own lunch and then pick up is at 1:00 which is nap time. Not very convenient or economical. Britt has gone once and LOVED it so I kept telling her she’d be able to do it again soon. Tess usually doesn’t go on Tuesdays to school but was invited to come for her class VDay party. I decided to have both girls stay for lunch bunch so that way I could go eat with Kye! Win win win!
It’s also such a third kid thing. Kye didn’t stay for lunch bunch until the 5 year old class. Britt didn’t stay for lunch bunch until the 4 year old class. Tess? Tess attended her first lunch bunch while in the 2 year old class bahaha!
Wearing my Vday colors!
I’ve become slightly obsessed with Amazon for clothes for myself!
Here are links for the vest and dress! (I put items in my cart then watch for price drops!)
Before meeting Kye at school I ran by the mall for a couple errands. It was SO FUNNY seeing ALL THE MEN. Like they were leaving the mall with these huge stuffed bears and I wanted so badly to go up to them and let them know they should exchange the bear for some cute costume jewelry or something! No grown woman wants a huge stuffed bear haha
While there I traded in 6 of my Mac containers and got a free lipstick! Yay!
Lunch with my boy 🙂
He loved having me and ate fast so we could go meet all of his classmates. I haven’t gotten to know this class as well I did last year’s so it was good to put faces with names!
G-Mama dropped off goody bags!
I had the girls wait to go through their class goodies until Kye got home (G-Mama went with him to his VDay party at school and the girls didn’t have parents invited for theirs). They loved dumping everything out and showing each other all the treats and cards!
Bless Tess’s heart. We opened our VDay box a few days prior to actual Valentine’ Day and she’d been DYING to eat a sucker that Britt gave her. Finally her time arrived!!!
Since Daddy was gone I let the kids dictate our dinner and they chose a favorite: pizza rolls!
Solo Mom duty means taking bites straight from the dough 😉
We also attempted to make a heart cookie cake. It was a fail as far as staying together…but a win as far as yumminess!
I love all the little cards the kids came home with for us…I especially love ones with their sweet little hands! Such a cute one from Tess!
Zach and I had our V-Day date a few days later (blog post to come!). It was kinda fun having the holiday stretched out all week and made it a bigger deal than it usually is for our crew. I’m thankful for my little family and all the love we share…every day of the year!
I love looking back through old posts and since Zach has done a Father/Daughter date night since Britt was born it’s a cute thing to look back on. Here are all the years:
2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012
SaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!
- What I’m Gifting My Family: 2024 - November 21, 2024
- Effective Parenting Tips to Discipline a 5 Year Old Child - September 24, 2024
- Happy 9th Birthday to My Daughter – Letter to Tess from Mom - August 26, 2024
