Valentine's Day 2013

Notice her outfit and the flower tucked behind her ear! : )

Flowers, Rescue Heros, Little Loves

This year our Valentine's Day celebration was filled with Valentines, gifts, treats and lots of love. It was such a happy little celebration!

Thanks to Grandma Lois and Grandma & Grandpa Stubblefield for the love they sent across the miles. The children love to open envelopes and packages full of fun! 

Ben worked all week on hand made and printed Valentines for the whole family. A few were handed out early, because he had such a hard time waiting to give everyone their surprise. : )

We all, including Ben, had a sweet little laugh about his Valentine for "Hammah." : )

We had pizza dinner and then special cupcakes planned and decorated by Hannah.

This year we've started some interest-led learning with the older two, in addition to their school curriculum. Hannah's first interest of the year was wedding cakes.

...The irony of having this natural born Martha Stewart, come to me...a girl who did not know how to cook eggs when I got married and is far more practical at present than anything else...is not lost on me! I think our natural differences make me love her and her every fantastic inclination even more. She helps me remember the beautiful, the fun and the sparkling things of life, amidst all of my time spent planning and working on the necessary. I am so thankful for this shining, little homemaking star in our family!...

For a couple of weeks in January, Hannah spent a lot of time with a book all about wedding cakes. She loved it. She decided she'd like to make special cupcakes for Valentines Day based on some ideas she saw in the book. She set about modifying them to match the holiday. She came up with this great idea to use food coloring to dye shredded coconut to decorate the top of the cakes. She had ideas about candied flowers and presentation and more. It was so fun to see her so engaged and creative. So fun to watch her use and enjoy her talents!

And we all enjoyed her beautiful and yummy creations!! She decorated the rest of the dozen to share with friends.