Valentine's Day 2013

 

Jeremiah's Valentine Breakfast 

I had fun making Valentine's Day special this year. I like to make the "little holidays" - like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc. special by doing little things like decorating and making themed foods. The way our current schedule is, most often the only meal of the day we consistently eat as a family is breakfast. I decided to wake up a little early and make something special for my two boys.

Zeke's Valentine Breakfast 

I got a cupcake dispenser for Christmas, so I used it to pour the pancake batter into hearts as well as a 'J' for Jeremiah and 'Z' for Zeke. I sliced up some strawberries for all of us and then the adults got red raspberry syrup for their pancakes, to continue with the theme.

Zeke gave Daddy a "Finding Nemo" valentine and I gave an "Incredible" one to Zeke. We also got Zeke a fun new book called "Snuggle Puppy" which is a little love song sung to the puppy about how much his daddy loves him. (Awww! Cute, right?!?) We really enjoy the Sandra Boynton books!

I usually make sugar cookies at Christmas, but no other time of year. This year, I remembered that I had heart shaped cookie cutters and decided we should make some! On Monday I went ahead and made this sugar cookie dough. Then I wrapped it in plastic wrap and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to bake them up on Wednesday. I had tried this recipe once before and enjoyed it because the cookies come out nice and soft (which I ALWAYS prefer over crispy!! Always!). This time I actually used Ultragrain flour (which is basically whole wheat flour but is made to bake up more similarly to all-purpose, white flour) and organic sugar, and I was surprised at how good the cookies were even with ingredients I don't typically use.

Ready to help me roll and cut! 

He loves when I give him kitchen utensils to play with while I work. 

They only take 7 minutes to bake!

I waited until Wednesday to make them because Jeremiah didn't have to be at work as early as usual and I thought it would be a fun family project. It was! Jeremiah and I decorated them with an easy buttercream recipe: 1 stick butter, 3 1/2 - 4 c. powdered sugar, ~ 3 T. milk, and 2 t. vanilla. I happened to have a little red tube icing leftover so we used that for accents since a true red is often difficult to make. I also only made a half batch of dough so we wouldn't have so many cookies on our hands. It made about 2 dozen for us. Ahem! Well there were a *few* more but they were consumed along the way... so maybe more like 2 1/2 dozen :o)

So fun!

Up close and personal

I had a very enjoyable Valentine's Day this year! Jeremiah and I even got to go on a date, while Aunt Teresa watched Zeke. We went and saw "Les Miserables." It was well done. I can see why it won several Oscars! We also went out to eat... that didn't go quite as planned, but a fun time was had nonetheless. I was reminded of a year ago when I had a 3 week old and we left for an hour and I barely held it together being gone that long. This year was much more laid back and less stressful! My how things change year by year! I hope all of you were able to have a special day too. 

To life... full of love!