14 February 2022
Contrary to appearances, I’m not the most creative mom – rather, I’m a thorough researcher, and eager to put my own twist on what I find. And Valentine’s Day, for whatever reason, brings out my peak “borrowed creativity.” With kids, I find it to be just the sweetest holiday, and working on projects together for our people has become a beloved tradition over the last few years. I know homemade classroom valentines are not for everyone, but I thought it would be fun to round up some of the designs we’ve given over the last few years, in case you’re looking to borrow a little creativity of your own! For a future year :) Every year, I ask the kids what they’d like the theme of their valentines to be, and then I riff on that. When June was 2, it was rainbows, so I printed these little cards and she swooshed on the lines with watercolor. Cats at age 3! I used hot pink washi tape to attach little cat toys to cards I made, then outlined the edges in pink with Super Tips. Dogs got their day at age 4. Honestly, these ones were a beast… way too much cutting and glueing of individual pieces, ha! We did bunnies last year, at age 5, but for some reason I don’t have a photo of them. This year, the theme was rocks! We finally found a use for her overflowing gem collection :) She chose a combination for each member of her class and then we pressed them into salt dough hearts. I wrote on the front of the tags; she wrote the to and from on the back. We tied each bag with this gorgeous yarn. This year, at age 3, Shep got his first custom valentines! He
18 January 2021
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—
16 February 2018
Friends, thank you so much for sharing in our excitement earlier this week!! It was an extra sweet Valentine’s Day due to your love. Two kiddos — it’s a whole new world here at Em for Marvelous! :) Our Valentine’s Day was otherwise low-key. I started celebrating a bit early with a Galentine’s Day edition of Articles Club on Tuesday night. We kept the pink and red table decor for our family dinner on Wednesday, where the menu was beef ragu (our go-to celebratory meal!), cheesy garlic bread, sparkling cider, and surprise Girl Scout cookies John brought home from work! Samoas for me and Thin Mints for him :) Inspired by Lara, I wrapped up a Walk in Love tee at each place setting to remind us that the greatest love comes not from each other but from the one who first loved us. So happy they’re offering kids tees again!! In preparation, June and I had a little crafting party last weekend: she did some free-form painting for cousins and grandparents while I worked on her class valentines. I originally was going to help her make thumbprint hearts and add a punny “thumb-body loves you” line, but her thumbs were a bit too small to make recognizable hearts! So, swirls and circles it was. Next year I want to try Valerie’s celery heart idea! This was our first year making class valentines, and we only had to make 10 (whew!). I was planning to use Lay Baby Lay’s printable but couldn’t get it to save to my computer, and so ended up designing my own inspired by hers. Here’s the file if you’d like to try it yourself! We ordered the plastic cats from Amazon – considering how in love June is with the animal figurines she got for
14 February 2014
A sweet gal emailed me a few weeks ago wanting to know more about my and John’s love story. While I was initially suspicious it was my Mom writing in to make me feel good (ha!), she’s not that devious. Even if not everyone is interested in this long-form version of our story, it’s a good way to record it for posterity! And it’s a good fit for Valentine’s Day :) John and I grew up in the same small town in Connecticut, but we didn’t meet until middle school, when all of the elementary schools pooled into one school. John was without a doubt one of THE coolest kids in seventh and eighth grade — athletic, handsome, and just shy enough to be mysterious :) I had a crush on him, but sadly, I was just one in the crowd. I can even remember a friend asking me to take her picture while they slow danced at a middle school dance — ahh, the agony! Thankfully, God’s timing is good! Our respective groups of friends gradually merged senior year of high school. This wasn’t entirely by chance – John had developed a crush on me, and was angling for a way in. He even resorted to loudly talking about how much he liked me while sitting a few seats away from my younger sister in the cafeteria, hoping she would overhear and report back to me. (It didn’t work.) Finally, in January, he mustered his courage, called me up out of the blue, and blurted out, “So… I think I like you.” To which I responded with nervous giggles, obviously. Nervous giggles to cover the panic. This would be my first date ever (yep), and I was extremely flustered, to say the least. Thankfully, one of my best friends