Valentine Distraction

My sister sent me a cute Valentine's idea and I decided to go for it. From February 1-14, I gave the kids a treat along with a cheesy saying. To take this idea to the next level, I had the kids do a scavenger hunt to find the treat.

Here are the treats I did:

• You're super "stars." (Starburst)
• We love your "colorful" personalities (Coloring books)
• You're "read-ly" wonderful (Valentine book--"Love from the Crayons")
• You rock (Pop Rocks)
• We're so "lucky" to have you in our lives (Lucky Charms cereal)
• You've "ofishally" stolen our hearts (Swedish fish)
• You're the "apple" of my eye (Apple Juice)
• We're "BERRY" happy to know you (Gummy bears)
• We love you "More and More" every day (M & M's)
• We could "HUG" and "KISS" you all day. (Hershey hugs and Kisses)
• You're all that and a bag of CHIPS (Ruffles and ranch dip)
• We're BAGELS about you guys (Bagels)
• We love the way you "SPARKLE" (Markers)
• Everyone is "JELLY" we get to have you as kids (Jelly Beans)

Let me just say that having treats to look forward to daily felt like my saving grace. Since we were homebound (Covid), having something new and exciting for the kids to do each morning was a perfect distraction. I did kick myself a few times for throwing in the scavenger hunt and spent many evenings scrambling to get that together. Seeing how much the children looked forward to the hunts made it worth the work though. Andrew wrote 2 of the scanger hunts which I appreciated. It got surprisingly difficult to think of new places to hide things--we did 5 clues each day. Creating a loving home is my #1 priority, so I don't think my time went to waste.

To make sure every member of my family was feeling the love, I added a new heart to everyone's bedroom door daily. On the heart, I wrote something I love about that person. Now sometimes the kids will tell me something they love about me which I don't mind one bit.

Valentine's Day finally arrived! Before putting the kids down for an early bedtime, we made Valentine's sugar cookies as a family. Not only did we have heart-shaped cookies, but we had Christmas trees, reindeers, hands, and more all topped with BLUE frosting. (Oops-- good planning there. We ran out of red food coloring.) Andrew and I kept with tradition. We ordered pizza and watched a chick-flick of my choice.  I'd recommend the new Jennifer Lopez movie called, "Marry Me." Both of us were entertained! We've learned our lesson throughout the years... I made sure to pre-order the pizza hours before to avoid "grumpy Jenna." One year, things went south quickly when Andrew spent most of the evening waiting in Papa Johns for our pizza (it definitely killed my mood). In case you're wondering, I picked the Pepperoni Magnifico pizza from Marco's. 

Andrew spoiled me with an extremely heartfelt note and the goods. (Peanut Butter M&M's and Reese's). To top it all off, a couple days later, I went to Galentine's Book Club. We did a "favorite things" gift exchange and I came home feeling pampered with a new brush, a shower steamer/soap, and acrylic nails.

It has been hard for a toddler to comprehend that the scavenger hunts are over. She has been devastated a couple of mornings. Until next year!