Valentine’s Day is always a holiday that we keep pretty simple and low-key. You can read about how we do Valentine’s Day in this post 🙂
This year we actually left for a ski trip (posts to come) ON Valentine’s Day so that made celebrating the holiday a little tricky. Add to that the fact that Zach had to go out of town for work and then again a few days later for his infusion and we were super limited in being able to celebrate the holiday much at all!
I did the heart notes again this year on the kids’ doors and they really, really love that tradition. I actually forgot one night and Kye and Britt came downstairs the next morning with faces of concern and worry. While I felt bad forgetting, I was kinda thankful that I did as it really let me know how much they all look forward to reading the notes on their doors and how much it meant to them that I took the time to do that each night! You can read more about the V-Day Door Notes here.
No matter how busy the time of year may be, one tradition we never skip out on at Valentine’s Day is our dates with the kids.
Each year Zach takes the girls out for a dinner date and I take Kye out. I had planned to take Spear on a date this year too but he was sick so it didn’t end up happening. Which is okay! I will make a point to have some special Mommy/Spear time soon 🙂 The good thing is he’s the easiest for me to do something with since it’s just the two of us so often!
When it comes to the date nights we discussed it and think the girls are fine going together with Zach. They enjoy being together and are close enough in age where it doesn’t hinder the conversation having them both there (as Britt gets a little older we may split them up for this date night depending!).
But for Kye and Spear it just doesn’t make sense for them to go together on the date. If I’d taken Spear with us I would have been spending all my time tending to him and Kye wouldn’t have gotten to share his heart and really enjoy our time. Y’all know I’m all about some quality one on one time with my babies!
Kye was so sweet getting dressed up so handsome and fixing his hair just right. He took the night very seriously and we decided to go to Aligatu (hibachi) for our dinner. I let him get soda AND he chose to eat a salad. I mean if that’s not proof of my child growing up then I don’t know what is!
A group of young guys were seated at the table with us and I just kept thinking about how quickly Kye will be that age. Off to college. On his own. Ignoring his mama’s phone call like one of the guys did during the meal. I want to cling to these days as long as I can.
During the meal we talked about Kye’s desire for an IPad. We have Kindle Fires for the kids and yall they are just SO annoying. They take ages to load and half the time the apps we have downloaded don’t work and have to be downloaded again and they freeze up constantly.
Thankfully we don’t use them often but when the kids do use them it’s always when we are traveling. Which means we’re usually pressed for time AND may not even have wifi in order to fix issues with them that require internet.
Zach and I both have first generation Ipads that still work great but now they are too out of date for new stuff. Zach and Kye looked into ipads and priced them out and Kye almost has enough saved for one. While we were at dinner we looked up the ones he and Daddy had checked out and realized they had been looking at refurbished ones and that the new ones are actually double the cost. Which means Kye is still super far from being able to afford one.
We are debating between letting him get a refurbished or going new. I feel like Zach and I bought our first generation ones new and they STILL work great like 7 years later. I want that longetivity for Kye. If he’s going to spend his own money for something I want it to last and be reliable. So I feel like new is the way to go!
Our dinner was a pretty funny experience. The chef was clearly new and all the cooking tricks he did were like in slow motion. Then as we left I asked a waitress to take our photo together and she had us move all around the restaurant to get the best shot ha!
Kye is SO MUCH like his mama in how he thinks. Unfortunately we looked up the Ipad stuff right at the start of the meal so it was literally ALL he could focus on the entire time. But I get it because I’m the same way. When I have a problem I need to work out all the possible solutions before I can move on from it. So I let him talk through it the entire meal and tried to help him come up with a game plan. Ways he could save more money and which ipad would be the best option for him.
After dinner, we went over to Best Buy so he could look at them for himself and ask them what they thought etc. They have a deal going for a new ipad for $280 so that’s his goal right now!
Kye not only dressed up nice and was so sweet to his mama on our little date night but he also surprised me with a box of chocolates he’d put together from candy we had and even wrote me a poem!
After Best Buy we headed into The Mix for some dessert. Across from us was another mother and son duo. This time instead of looking into Kye’s future I had a chance to think upon his past. The little boy was four years old and I feel like it wasn’t so long ago that I’d be at The Mix with Kye at that age.
While it was easy to get lost in those memories and miss his little chubby hands and baby tooth filled smile…I looked at the boy across from me and realized I wouldn’t go back even if I could. I love this stage. The now. I’m so proud of the young man he’s becoming and of the incredible man I know he’ll grow to be. I’m blessed to call him mine!
It had been an eventful week, while Zach was out of town Spear had gotten sick. During the night of mine and Kye’s date night I ended up waking up puking. Which I’m not a puker so I wasn’t sure if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug or what!
I felt AWFUL all day and so did Kye. He ended up missing his basketball game and throwing up as well. Even though half our crew was sick, the show had to go on. We only had ONE night free for Zach and the girls to have their date night so they made it happen!
Zach takes such pride in being a dad and he’s so great at being hands-on and spending quality time with each of our children. He wants those bonds and relationships and I love how much HE loves this annual tradition. He helps the girls pick out their outfits and always dresses up too and they go on a “fancy” date night together.
Britt’s dress was a kid’s sale find but you can get Tess’s here!
They ended up going to Texas Roadhouse and the girls loved the bread but didn’t eat much of their meal so we were nervous all night that one of them (or both) were going to start puking but thankfully neither ever did!
For school this year both Kye and Britt were asked to make a Valentine’s Day box. So I handed them each a small shoebox and told them to go to town. I know lots of parents get super creative when it comes to the boxes but that’s just not my thing. Crafty stuff frustrates me. I like super simple and I just didn’t see the point in putting tons of time and effort into something they’d just be tossing after V-Day anyway, right?
Britt basically copied what Kye did and they were both happy with their end results so win-win!
I DO usually like to make some sorf of Valentine for my kids to hand out at school. Some year’s we buy stuff, some we make them. But this year Fresh Beginnings Cookies reached out and offered to give each of our kids a personalized class set of Valentine’s Day Cookies! What what! I cannot get over how stinking ADORABLE they turned out.
If you EVER want to place an order from Fresh Beginnings you can ALWAYS get 20% off when using code: EMILY20
When I told the kids they could have their pictures on them they were so stoaked and each knew specifically exactly what photo they wanted to use. Tess cracked me up when she said she wanted a picture of her and Daddy in front of the castle.
The past few years I have had this fun mission to bake a heart shaped cake for V-Day. Usually it falls apart and I have to kinda “glue” it back together with lots of frosting. This year Britt and Tessie helped me bake it and I was SO pumped that it managed to keep it all together!
We originally planned to open all of our Vday stuff on the Tuesday prior to actual Valentine’s Day but it was the day Zach had his infusion in Atlanta and it ended up taking longer than expected and he wasn’t going to be home until much after bedtime so we had to push it until the next day. I’d already had the kids all dressed in theme and had already done the baking so I went ahead and just got our Vday pics even though we weren’t technically celebrating yet 🙂
I love that I don’t have to worry about Spear having themed clothes b/c he can wear Kye’s old stuff!
Another year of using our Valentine’s Day box for all our cards and goodies to each other!
Tess has become ALL ABOUT some pictures! She wanted one solo, she wanted one with Spear, she wanted one with Britt. She was ALL about it!
I also love that Britt has been anti-bows for a good chunk of time now but lately she’s been asking to wear them again!
The bros!
The kids came up with poses they wanted to do 🙂
My Valentines!
Pro Cake Baker 😉
With Zach’s late night we ended up having to open our V-Day stuff on the day prior to V-Day which was a Wednesday. Wednesdays are our craziest days because Britt has gymnastics and we have church. Zach was home early enough for us to go ahead and let Spear open his stuff before gymnastics then we just let the big three stay up late after church to open their stuff. It all went great!
All the kids wrote super sweet cards to each other (Kye wrote a poem to each person!). I love seeing the love they share.
I made each of the big three kids a Shutterfly book from our trip to California and they loved them.
Cake and ice cream before bed!
Our Valentine’s Day celebration may have been spread out more like a Valentine’s Day week but we enjoyed each part of it and just love the chance to really focus on loving each other!
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