Love is in the Air--A Valentine Post

I love Valentine's Day!  Thankfully, Jesse and I have a mutual understanding of how unnecessary gift exchanges are.  In our early years of dating, I felt obligated to do something special.  One Valentine's Day I made his favorite red velvet cake...in the dorm kitchen using a microwave and chopped up M&M's instead of cocoa powder!  Now Valentine's Day is just a fun excuse to bake, take cheesy pictures, and make crafts.

Last week I took the kids to WalMart so Jackson could pick out his Valentines.  His teacher sent home a list of his classmates' names so I knew cards were expected.  Jack picked Thomas the Train cards and heart bracelets.  We had to compromise on the treats because his first picks were Reese's hearts and Blow Pops.  I didn't think peanut butter or gum were the most toddler friendly or allergy friendly.  Most of the snacks were sold in packs of 32, which seemed excessive for his small class of eight.  He finally agreed to Little Debbie cakes. 

The weather forecast was calling for snow on Wednesday, which increased the likelihood of school being cancelled on Thursday.  On Monday night, Jackson stuffed his treat bags and picked out stickers while I wrote the kids' names on labels and sealed each bag.

I picked up a bag of chocolates and made a custom card for both of Jack's teachers.  Jackson excitedly handed everything to his lead teacher on Tuesday morning.  When I picked Jackson up from school, I learned that their Valentine party was rescheduled for next Tuesday.  Go figure, the one time we're prepared...

I was worried Jackson might be disappointed that he didn't get to have his party, but snow plus spending days off with his Daddy proved to be a great distraction.  Jesse gave Jackson a candy-filled Spiderman heart on Valentine's Day.  Our moody toddler was quite ungrateful, but that didn't stop him from eating the candy.

I really wanted to get some cute pictures of the trio.  Everything on Pinterest involved frilly tutus, bowties, or naked babies with lipstick kisses all over them.  None of those ideas appealed to me.  One of my triplet mom friends posted a picture of her trio on a red blanket that she had shaped into a heart.  I loved the simplicity and immediately got to work emulating her photo.  Jesse was eager to participate. ;)

This was one of the least stressful photo shoots to date.  I spent longer editing the pictures than I did taking them.  (I can get a bit carried away with Photoshop.)  Here are my favorites:

Thanks to polaroid frames, handwriting fonts, and color splash tools, I turned this picture

into this:

Our day of love ended with a homemade cookie cake.  A sweet for my sweets!

Happy Valentine's Day!