Today really isn’t a “Top Three” but it’s just a couple of my favorite ideas for making your upcoming Valentine’s Day special for your entire family.
I went to a super small school. Think twelve people in my graduating class kind of small, but that place came ALIVE at Valentine’s Day. The florists were dropping flowers off every fifteen minutes. I remember walking by the cafeteria and the tables were covered in goodies waiting to be delivered. Was every school like this?? Anyway, I’m not a flowers girl at ALL, but it was kind of a big deal to get flowers at school on Valentine’s Day. So Erika pre-2001 was into flowers being delivered at school for Valentine’s Day. haha!
Our school also sold candy grams. It was a way for BETA club to make a little money. The candy grams were just construction paper hearts with a white doily glued on top and then another construction paper heart layered on the doily. The prices ranged from 25 cents to $2.50 and they included a small piece of candy up to a stuffed animal. In elementary school, it was a BIG deal to get candy grams. You hoped for one from all your friends and maybe even a special someone. ha!
I’m guessing every school has some sort of “cany gram” thing they do. One friend who has a son in middle school was telling me last year that he panicked about possibly not getting a candy gram. So in order to not stick out in middle school (because that’s the worst) he sent himself a candy gram addressed to himself from BEYONCE! Bless his heart. I’m sure that didn’t make him stand out, right?
Enough with the Valentine’s Day memories! Today I wanted to share a few ideas you could do with your entire family to make this little holiday special.
#1 Dinner at Home
Last year, my parents were in town so Marla hosted us all over at her house for dinner. She added the best little touches and we ate in the dining room because-FANCY! It doesn’t have to be anything super crazy or over the top, but just making it a little special goes a long way. This year we’re going to split up-guys and girls and cook for each other. We’ll agree on who’s cooking entree, sides, dessert and schedule times we can be in the kitchen. Our kids are getting old enough they like to help in the kitchen so we thought it’d be a fun little thing to try this year. I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
#2 Eat Breakfast
Narci shared with me a couple years ago that her family always eats breakfast for dinner on Valentine’s Day. Could be out at one of these places or a local dinner?? Or you could cook at home? Breakfast for dinner is loved by all here at my house, so it’d definitely be a special night for our family.
#3 Fondue Night
At this moment in our lives if we tried to eat fondue I’m pretty sure it’d turn into a small sword fight. This just isn’t the season for fondue for the Slaughters. I’ve heard a lot of you guys have this tradition. Either you fondue at home or go out, but I love it either way! Maybe when our kids are older, we’ll give this a shot.
If your family has a special tradition for Valentine’s Day, please share. We’d all love to hear!
XOXO
Thank you for sharing–we love our little tradition! And, I LOVE your idea–cooking for each other! So special!! Can't wait to hear about it!!
Fun post! I love the idea of doing little things that end up making it special and a memory for the kids!
I love a family Valentine's dinner! It is such a sweet tradition to share with my four sweeties! I love all three of your suggestions!
We always eat pizza for Valemtines day. It started when Gretchen was just two weeks old because we wanted to go out, wanted to take her, but didn't want to ruin other peoples meals. So we figured a pizza place would be less crowded. Boy were we wrong! But, we've continued that tradition!
Love these! In my high school, we had "Crush day" for Valentines…where we sent cans of orange Crush to whomever we were crushing on- ha! I love the fondue idea & breakfast for dinner sounds fun too! My anniversary is 2/11, so we never do much for Vday- but we usually grab a fancy dessert to go after dinner at home & look through old dating pictures! Happy Tuesday!
I'm dying over the Beyonce candy gram!!! Flowers were a HUGE thing at my school too, all the way from first grade through high school. They were ALL delivered from the cafeteria to classes during the last two hours of school, that's how long it took. I love fondue for V-Day too, in fact my friends and I were just talking yesterday how if it didn't sound so corny we'd make Melting Pot reservations for ourselves. 🙂
Valentine's Day is my daughter(Juliet) birthday. So the day is all about her. 🙂
We do a pink and red themed meal on heart plates and use stemware for the drinks. The kids go crazy over that. So for example we will have pasta with a red sauce, strawberries with pink whipped cream. Or we have done red heart shaped pancakes with strawberries. Costco also does seasonal heart shaped ravioli which is always a big hit. We bust out the candles and make it 'romantic'. It's always fun and special and something the kids look forward to every year.
We pick up sushi, get our jammies on, watch a family movie and have a special dessert for our family Valentines celebration!
We had candy grams at my school. Such fun memories. We're making homemade cinnamon rolls on Valentine's Day. The last time we had them was Christmas Day. It's a big deal in my house since I normally don't give the kids that much sugar for breakfast. Lol
I forgot about school Valentine's beyond Elementary school – we did carnations in high school and yes our office was always full of flowers!!
Before we moved to Houston from Dallas, we spent every Valentine's Day at Snuffer's!! It was perfect! Not busy at all and great food to boot 😉 #cheesefries Now we opt for burgers at this little dive close to the beach. Cracker Barrel is such a great idea!
I also heart attack the boy's room (construction paper hearts) & write different things I love about them on each of the hearts…I do the same thing for my husband, too. Pretty cheesy, but it's a cheesy day…and they love it 🙂
We split guys and girls, boys cook dinner, girls do dessert, it's all top secret 🙂 then we do a little scavenger hunt for the kids!
We pull out our china for our Valentine's meal, light some candles, and enjoy a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. The kids love it!
We also keep our gifts really simple but have a lot of fun. You can check it out at http://worldofwomack.blogspot.com/
I'm just now reading this post because I was searching for some Valentine's inspiration in your old posts! I was one of FIVE people in the 8th grade in my school and the same thing happened on Valentine's Day! So many flowers were delivered and candy grams (in high school we had Carnation Day, ha!) I loved it!