Happy St. Valentine's Day!

You can find information about St Valentine here. 

The kids came downstairs this morning to find some special decorations.

The garland was made using an idea from Family Fun magazine.  Toilet paper tubes were painted (inside and out) with red paint and allowed to dry.  I then flattened the tubes to form creases and cut each tube in 4 pieces, making 1 inch circles.  If you push the top crease on the circles down it forms a heart! I then strung them with beads to form the simple garland. 

 Each of our downstairs windows has one of these heart snowflakes.  The snowflakes were cut from coffee filters and then glued onto tissue paper. On a window it has a nice stained glass effect.

For breakfast we feasted on special pancakes and strawberry milk while watching the Veggie Tales
 Silly Little Thing Called Love.

We will be delivering some Valentines today as well.  Addie had a great time coloring the hearts and using glitter glue, tracing her hand for the I Love You sign, putting on stickers, and dropping candies in between the layers.

We also made some special bouquets for their grandmothers!  This process was a little more involved and I'm hoping to get up a post about how to make them soon. The girls had a fantastic time with this, too.

The story of Saint Valentine is a legend, it is true.

But legends are delightful and very lovely, too.

The legend says Saint Valentine, imprisoned in a cell,

was thinking of his little flock he had always loved so well.

He wanted to assure them of his friendship and his love,

so he picked a bunch of violets and sent them by a dove.

And on the violet's velvet leaves he pierced these lines divine...

they simply said "I Love You and I'm your Valentine."

So through the years that followed, from that day unto this,

folks still send messages of love and seal them with a kiss.

Because a Saint in prison reached outside his bars one day

and picked a bunch of violets and sent them out to say

that Faith and Love can triumph no matter where you are,

for Faith and Love are greater than the strongest prison bar.

~ Helen Steiner Rice