Happy Valentine's Day!!!

For those that know me, know that I'm not the most domestic or creative type over here.  I'm sadly not the mom who gets down and dirty with art projects or baking cupcakes with the kids (ok, getting a little better on the cupcakes now that they are older).  It's just not who I am.  It's who I want to be though and sometimes I get a little inkling of creativity or domesticity, whichever you want to take it as.

Today is Valentines Day.  At home I would have gone to CVS, purchased a box of cards for each of the kids, forced the kids to sign their names on 24 cards, folded them up and send them off to school with the boys.  Oh and I would have bought a treat or two like a box of chocolates for the kids.  That's it.  Nothing fancy.  Josh and I have always said it's more of a Hallmark holiday anyways and don't really blow it out of proportion.

However, that being said, I always remember my mom making chocolate heart shaped lollipops for Valentines Day for my class.  And somehow I always used to get sick on Valentines Day and so missed said lollipops.  But still, she always made them.

In Barcelona, to my knowledge, there are no premade Valentines to give out to classmates.  And I don't have a heart shaped mold for chocolates (I do have dinosaur ones but I don't think they are going to work in this case).  But nonetheless, I decided that I was not going to let even a Hallmark holiday go by this year without at least attempting something to do for the boys.  And so, while it's not a huge deal by any means, I made them Valentines with chupa chups to put in their lunchboxes.

I put these homemade Valentines in the boys' lunchboxes this morning - hopefully a fun surprise when they each lunch today!

And not to stop there, but I also made pancakes that I added red food coloring to in order to make them pink.  Armed with a trusty cookie cutter, I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.  They didn't go over so great with Aidan who claimed he didn't ask for pancakes this morning, but Liam loved them!

Liam's pancakes... they don't look super pink but they are hearts!

So while by no means a domestic diva, I have to give myself kudos for stepping ever so slightly outside my comfort zone to give the boys a little piece of home that they otherwise would not have here.  I know that being boys, they probably wouldn't have cared if I did anything or not, but I've slacked on enough holidays at home here and it's time to get back on track.  I'm hoping they enjoy their surprise in their lunchboxes.  Happy Valentines Day!!!

Besos,
Julie