Valentine's Day 2014

If you've read our blog for any amount of time then you'll know that I love holidays.  I look forward to celebrating them and always do my best to make them fun for my boys.  So, with that being said, here is how we spent Valentine's Day this year-

 

I sat out the boys Valentine's gifts the night before and it was a big surprise the next morning.  I had them color a "Happy Valentine's Day" poster earlier in the week and I hung them on the walls.   I also hung some heart streamers and cut out a few red hearts from construction paper.  It was simple decorations, but turned out cute.

 

my boys Valentine's morning surprise

They each got a Spiderman costume, a Spiderman box of chocolates, a balloon, and a few books.

Cruz's Valentine gifts

Ben's Valentine gifts

This was Cruz when he walked in and saw everything.  He had all of those animals in his hands when he walked in, but threw them up into the air and jumped for joy when he saw his treats.

Before looking at his own gifts he took a few minutes to show Ben where his stuff was.  I thought that was sweet.  Here he is saying, "Look Ben!  This is for you".

It wasn't long before they were both getting dressed as Spiderman.

Hugs of excitement!

my little super heroes

I was surprised by yellow roses.  They looked very cheery on our table.  You can also see the heart crowns the boys made earlier in the week.  They wore them at breakfast.

For breakfast we had banana pancakes, bacon, and strawberries.  

Cruz's plate

I didn't have a heart shaped cookie cutter to shape the pancakes and didn't want to buy one because I have several in Guatemala so instead I just drew a heart on the pancakes with whip cream and put strawberries in the middle.

He thought they were delicious.

Ben  looks thrilled, huh.  He has surprisingly wanted to wear that silly hat everyday.  I am glad he likes it.

Cruz before he went to preschool. 

Ben wanted his picture taken too just like big brother.

 

Mid-morning I attended Cruz's preschool party at his school.  It was the first time to be able to see all of the other kids in his class together and meet some of the other parents.  It was a fun party.

Cruz's 3 year old preschool class.

There are 12 in his class- 6 boys and 6 girls.

Cruz's plate

After eating, the kids got to walk around to everyone's desk and put them a Valentine in their bag.  Below are the Valentine's we made for his friends.  I found the idea by googling "homemade Valentine ideas for kids".  I found a lot of great ideas but thought these were the best for Cruz.

our super cute super hero Valentine's

After the party I ran back home to help David load the car.  We picked Cruz up after class, and then headed out on an overnight trip to New Orleans.  We stopped by the Krystal and grabbed some lunch on the way.  Thankfully both boys slept most of the way there.  We stopped at LaPlace because we had reservations for the 2:15 afternoon Swamp Tour.  We were all excited and we had a great time!  I'll do a separate post about that tomorrow. 

After the tour we drove on into New Orleans and checked into our room.  We stayed at the Providence Guest House which is part of the New Orleans Seminary and located right across the street from the school.  We tried to go out to eat that evening and after a few attempts we discovered it would be easier (and quicker) just to eat fast food.  I am sure it's hard to get into a restaurant in New Orleans on any given Friday night, but a Valentine's Friday night made it almost impossible (especially without a reservation).  We ended up going to Wendy's and with small kids I think that was a wise choice.  

We bought both boys an alligator at the Swamp Tour.  They have hardly put them down since.  Cruz took his in to eat with us and here he is sharing a French fry with him.  They LOVE their new gators.

Here's a video of my "ants in his pants" Cruz dancing at Wendy's in New Orleans.  That child could not be still if his life depended on it!

We spent the rest of the night back at the hotel room watching t.v.  I realized before bath time that even though I had taken a ton of photos that day I did not have a single one of our whole family.  So we all sat on the bed and took a quick Valentine's Day family photo.   It's a tradition, and I'll treasure it for years to come.

our tired little family after a long, busy Valentine's Day 2014

 

It was a fun, fun, fun Valentine's Day and I'm glad I got to spend it making memories with my 3 favorite guys.   On Saturday we took a trip to the Audubon Zoo before driving back home. I'll post about that later in the week.