Happy Valentine's Day!

Carrot Love... From our garden last fall.

I couldn't resist this photo of homegrown carrots, who clearly love and need each other. And were delicious to eat, too. Family and friends are worth holding on tight... as is a good garden! And art! And Crafts! And music!

For the kids' class Valentine's this year, we made Friendship Necklaces. Now that we're in the public school system, I'm trying to eliminate– or at least reduce– the amount of candy/junk food and waste we participate in, although I (obviously) have no control over what other parents decide to do. So, we aren't giving Valentine's candy or throw-away mass produced cards that no one reads anyway. Instead, we made necklaces! My kids are always willing to help when paint is involved, so we painted and stamped about 50 wooden medallions. I added the "friends" circle and doodles, with help from my husband (who also drilled the holes for the string, I might add). I also got help from the kids with stringing the medallions and beads, and we added a small Be My Valentine card, recyclable, of course. To be honest, I love spending time with my kids doing these sorts of projects. They seemed to be pretty happy with the results and with giving them to their classmates, too.

Valentine's is a low-key holiday for us; we'll stay home and enjoy each others' company as a family this evening. My 7-year-old son insisted I write "Valentine's Pizza" on our calendar about 3 weeks ago so we could remember to make one for our usual pizza and a movie Friday evening activity. His Ranger Rick magazine for February had a Valentine's pizza recipe for the cooking project, which included heart-shaped dough and, especially important to a 1st grader, heart-shaped pepperoni. I guess I will be carving pepperoni this evening!

Here's the recipe from Ranger Rick

Have a great Valentine's Day!