Valentine's Day

I knew Valentine's Day was going to be especially hard on the kids (let alone for myself) since Ian had just left 3 days prior.

They hadn't really been themselves since he left....

Makayla's teacher even told me she was "just sad".

It breaks my heart to no end to see my kids missing their daddy,

so I set out to make this day of love just that.....

full of as much love as I could possibly create.

I hadn't really had a plan before hand, so it was a mad rush to get everything just right!

I didn't want to go overboard with gifts and things

(those "things" end up in the garbage or collecting dust anyway)

but I knew I wanted some balloons.

Balloons always makes kids happy!

And I was in luck, because the Dollar Tree had Valentine's balloons

and a giant suckers & cute gifts bags.

Then I went to Trader Joe's for some flowers, chocolates and dinner items.

I also found cute little Valentine's gummies there to add to their bags.

And then a trip to Target where I found stationary sets and those multi-colored ink pens (you know the ones that have 4 different colors to choose from and you push the little thing down....anyway.....)

that they could use to write letters to their daddy with.

I also went to the bank and opened each of them their own savings accounts, so I added their registers to their gifts.

Earlier that morning, I was experimenting with watercolors and had created these cards for each of them.

And after I got done playing, I looked in the mirror and noticed a certain 9 year old had put lipstick on before school (and without me noticing....great mom, right?!) and kissed my cheek!

Such a sweetie she is!!

I'm also wearing all the ones I love around my neck too :)

Necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs

Somehow I got most everything decorated and put together before making the mad rush to the kids' school for their Valentine's parties!

You should have heard/seen them when they got home from school.....

so many squeals & giggles....

it really was awesome!!

Even though it was an emotionally hard day for me,

I'm so grateful that I made this special day full of love for them....

the deserve the very best of me because they are such awesome kids!

And I love them with every ounce of my being.