Our Valentine’s Day mailbox

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, friends! We’ll be celebrating, as has become our custom, with MLK’s favorite meal – an easy access point to talk about his legacy as a family. I’ve found for holidays like this, simply asking, “do you know why you have school off today?” is a helpful beginning to a conversation, too.

I’m much more likely to share about how we celebrated an occasion after the fact rather than in advance of it (because then I can report back with real photos and tips!), but thinking ahead to another holiday, I thought it might be fun to let you in on some of my Valentine’s Day preparations for this year. We’re trying something new!

After bringing home a sweet pink mailbox ($5!!) from a work photo shoot, it was begging to be the centerpiece of our love-day celebrations. Since our Advent calendar doesn’t involve little treats or prizes (just adorable sewn ornaments), and we don’t do Elf on the Shelf, I figured I should have the creative juice to make this happen, ha! The plan is to put the mailbox in a place of honor at the kitchen table, and tuck something inside for the kids to discover each morning. Here are the ideas I have so far (many free or very cheap!).

The absolute cutest Valentine’s Day charcuterie board, created by my friend Kayte!

— New pajamas. The biggest splurge! I got these heart construction ones for Shep and these adorable gingham ones for June.
— A heart-shaped waffle maker (the other splurge at $10!). I haven’t been tempted by any other shaped waffle maker, even as they’ve made the influencer rounds over the last few holidays, but the idea of heart waffles is just too sweet.
— A handwritten love note for each kiddo
— A special after-school or lunchbox snack, like frosted animal crackers
— The beginnings of a heart scavenger hunt. I’m picturing cutting out a bunch of pink and red hearts, taping them up around the house, and then letting Shep find the red ones and June the pink. I’ll put one of each heart in the mailbox to kick things off.
— A muffin box mix and fun cupcake liners (already own!)
— The Jesus Storybook Bible marked to a story about love
— The heart bowls I mentioned. After they open the mailbox, we’ll put their cereal in them that morning!
— Juice boxes. I never buy them, so this will be a fun accompaniment to an after-school snack!
— A new Valentine’s Day book from the library
— Printed off coloring pages from the internets (this one, these ones, this one, and these ones are cute!)
— A bath bomb. As mentioned before, I find the most cost-effective way to go is this set of 12, which I can parcel out for occasions as needed. They’ve never stained our tub and make great colors!
— Supplies to make heart garlands for their rooms (just craft supplies we already own!)
— A game. Literally any game we own (basically, an invitation to play together :))
— A fancy hot chocolate mix – we bought it from a new local food store in our downtown a few weeks ago, but haven’t tried it yet. We’ll do cups in front of the fire after school! Swiss Miss packets would be just as exciting, ha.
— A note to watch a show as an after-school treat. Lots of our favorites, like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Pete the Cat, have Valentine’s Day specials.
— Candy or chocolate, of course!

If you have a fun idea to share, either from an Advent calendar or other similar undertaking, I’d love to hear! Whether you try this idea or not, I hope it encourages you to get creative with what you have, and to remember what I’m preaching to myself: kids get SO excited about the simplest things, and what they want most is my (and John’s) time and attention. I’ve heard it said that love is spelled T-I-M-E to kids, and that’s what I’ve tried to capture with our February fun.

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