a few Valentine’s Ideas

Happy Valentine’s Day!  it’s been a busy weekend over here, so please excuse the iPhone pics.  i just wanted to pop in really quickly to show you a few Valentine’s Day ideas, before the day ran away with me!  Jake and I celebrated last night with a fun dinner out with some friends…

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which gave us tonight to hang out with our favorite little Valentines:

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for a yummy fondue dinner:

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i used this recipe, and it was super simple and super delicious.

and then for dessert, i saw this brilliant idea on Pinterest, and it worked perfectly to satisfy the various likes and dislikes of my family.  (i.e:  my children who don’t like chocolate, but parents who do!)

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i placed small mason jars in my crockpot, and filled each individual mason jar with different flavors:  peanut butter chips, milk chocolate chips, a combo of milk chocolate and peanut butter chips, caramel, and white chocolate.  fill the crockpot halfway up the mason jars with hot water (be careful not to get any water inside the jars.)  turn the crockpot on high, and in about 30 minutes, give them each a stir, and all of your sauces will be perfectly melted and warm, and ready for dipping!

and, for fun, i have to show you the adorable Valentine’s that my kiddos’ passed out this year.  it was the first time in a long time that we didn’t do DIY Valentine’s, and i have to say, i really really really loved the simplicity of just placing an order and having them arrive on my doorstep!  i still wanted them somewhat personalized, so i had my kids pick these out from Pear Tree Greetings.  if you aren’t familiar with Pear Tree Greetings, then you might want to be.  :)  i have absolutely fallen in love.  because…its kinda DIY…but WAAY easier!  you basically choose your design, but then you can completely customize colors and fonts and pictures and make the designs 100% your own.  so you still get personalized items, and you get the feel of creating them yourself, but without all the hard work involved!

they have an amazing selection of Kids Valentine’s Day Cards, and we quickly found the perfect ones for each kiddo.

the whole theme of Canaan’s classroom this year is mustaches, so when we found these, there was no question that they were the ones he was going to use:

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i find it soooo difficult to find big boy approved Valentines…ones that aren’t too little kiddish, but still pretty cool.  there were a slew of different ones on Pear Tree Greetings that were big boy approved, but when we saw these mustache valentines, we knew they’d be perfect!!  because…when you put the lollipop in your mouth, the placement of the mustache makes everyone laugh!c's valentine mustache

Bella is much easier to please, and there were so many that she could’ve chosen from, but since Bella and i have a thing for French Macarons, once we saw these, they were also a no-brainer:

b's valentinesand since we weren’t DIYing the actual cards this year, i decided that we could put our energy into making some French Macarons to go along with her cards.  however, about 1/3 of the way thru the recipe, with an oven full of cracked cookies, and a kitchen covered in a huge mess, i was massively regretting that decision.  but we powered thru…and they ended up being the perfect accompaniment.

i finished up a fun little project this week that’s been on my to-do list for the last few years, and i’m excited to give you the details sometime soon.  here’s a little sneak peek:

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i miss y’all, so hope to check back in soon!