Valentine's Day...then and now

Valentine's Day 2013 is rapidly approaching
and so are 3 Valentine's Day class parties to gear up for!

Such different kids, stages, and ages called for varying Valentine ideas this year.
I have to admit it seemed like just yesterday we had two young and innocent girls
who loved all things pink and princess, especially on Valentine's Day! 

Who would've guess how quickly we've arrived at..."nothing pink and princess for school Valentine's mom!"

And a few years back on Valentine's Day we decided to announce our pregnancy with #4...

hidden in the middle was this one! sneaky I know ;)

*Just to clarify* this is not an announcement...we are not pregnant!

 And I won't forget just how sick we all were last year the first 2 weeks of February that I broke down and bought the kids magazines (reading material for days spent on the couch) and let them browse and find their own Valentine ideas. Both girls took advantage of it and went for gold. I'm sure all their friends and classmates however loved receiving them!

Ipod shuffle Valentine conversation heart candies with Rolo earbuds

Lifesaver {wrapped}+ hershey kiss Rockets!

Needless to say, after the enormous amount of work it took to make Martha look easy we are keeping things nice and simple this year! So the girls went straight to my craft drawer and helped themselves to valentines and craft supplies I had on hand and started addressing their own (I now stock-up the day after when I found pkgs for .30 cents at some places).  I do love how self sufficient they've become in valentine addressing!

Jalen chose the "facts" cards...

Princess was not ok...but apparently Strawberry Shortcake for Jordan was perfect! Uncanny.

She designed her very own shoe-box Valentine's holder...quite possibly the next Martha Stewart!

I had a little fun ordering a few for Andrew...he only has 7 other kids in his class ;)
He wants to pass them out with Super Hero Candy sticks!

I couldn't leave out Asher ... so I made a few for him to had out to his cousins!

And how could I forget my hubby?

I made all my men their personalized Valentine's by using the cardstore.com

Ever heard of them? Neither had I...but they have awesome deals, plus free shipping...and free addressing right now. They came super fast too!

Only 9 more days...but here's what my roses looked like this past week...Luke didn't wait for Valentine's Day to give me  flowers  ;)

He knew I had a really rough week...and these more than made up for it.