Valentine's Day

I didn't take out Chloe's "heart" hair until this morning. She wanted it in every day, even at church, where it was a wild, wavy mess. I had to clip the rubber bands out with scissors because we both knew if I pulled them out, I might have to go to child services for torturing my six year old.

Chloe BEGGED me to come to her class Valentine's Day party. My heart ached a little bit, as I remember parties at school and how thrilled I was anytime my parents would show up for anything. As fate would have it that day, Craig was able to come home early and I happily skipped out the door and surprised Chloe at school. Next year I've made a commitment to be less busy so that I can free myself to go to things like this!
I have to put in a plug here. If you haven't been over to Don't Panic Mom, please go and check it out! My nearest and dearest friend Alli has put this together: she is SUCH an inspiration and has totally hit the nail on the head with so many things we are changing in our family. I wouldn't say that I was awful at getting healthy food on the table every day, but I definitely needed to make improvements. Alli has always helped inspire me to do this, and her blog is amazing! Recipes, encouragement, easy-peasy ways to help your kids enjoy nutrition to its fullest. In fact I've even "guest" posted a few times! You can read about how we got rid of boxed mac and cheese at our house HERE or learn about how I went from hating running to loving running HERE.
Sooo...Valentine's Day was coming and I knew that Chloe would get tons of sugary sweet things on this day. It is tradition. Am I against eating sugar? Certainly not. However, I do think a lot about the health of my children- not just now, but for their whole lives. Diabetes runs in my family, as well as obesity and depression and a whole load of things that can be solved, or at least improved, by one simple thing: good eating. I will never be the mom that goes into a classroom and shames the rest of the class moms into puddles of nothing because they brought candy or sugar or anything. EVER. But I thought, this is Chloe's first Valentine's class party and I wanted her to get excited about something healthy. I thought about just doing valentines without anything on them, but after talking to Chloe about it, she agreed that the two of us would go on a shopping date together and find something healthy we could make into a valentine. I had a few ideas from pinterest in mind, but as luck would have it, Chloe picked the perfect, pre-packaged snack for any valentine. :-)

And so I got on the computer and put together some fun labels and we spent the evening before Valentine's Day happily putting these stress-free, sugar (refined) free treats for her friends. She was thrilled.

 Anxiously, during the party, I watched the kids emptying out their bags and listened for their responses upon countering the cutie. This is what I heard:
"ORANGES?! Look, I got an orange!"
"Chloe, thanks for the orange!"
"What does this say? Cutie- PATOOOOOTIE?!? Guys, this says PATOOOOOOTIE!!!"
"Pa-TOOOOTie?!?! Ba ha ha, Chloe, your Valentine says PATOOOTIE!!"
More laughing went around the room about the word "patootie", and I watched timidly as Chloe heard all these responses, hoping it wouldn't get her hopes down. When I looked at her, though, she was giggling hysterically with the rest, exclaiming, "YEAH! My mom made those!".
Success. Guess all you have to do is put a potty word on the Valentine and they could care less if there is a lolipop on there or not.
I know Valentine's Day is over, but if you want to save this for next year, here is the layout I put together for the valentines. :-)

 So grateful for this fantastic friend of mine. Glad I get to keep her for good. :-)