Valentines are for the Birds!

I know...Valentine's Day is the national holiday for LOVE!  But really...we just like to spend the day together.  We might share in the fun of valentines and a little candy, but it is really about showing love every day!

I did wake up and make a yummy breakfast of tacos and left a special valentine for everyone.  My mother also sent the children valentines along with some delicious cupcakes!

But the nice things we did for each other was more about the little things than the expensive flowers and chocolates!  For example:

Michael decided to remove the soap scum from the glass shower stall!  True Love!!!!  It is amazing what a little vinegar and a lemon half can do for a glass wall!

The boys were extra nice to each other and NO FIGHTING!!!!  True LOVE!!!

Then we enjoyed a nice lasagna dinner because it was an easy meal ( I freeze extras for this kind of day!) as Michael had to go to work!

We decided to spend the afternoon with our favorite love...the LIBRARY!  What better way to spend the afternoon than having fun with Ranger Craig.  He was doing a talk about birds which is another one of our LOVES!

Ranger Craig always has a fun way to learn about nature.  Today he shared about his adventures at the park with birds.  He talked about eggs and nests.  Then about beaks and feathers.  He had birds set out that played their call.  He also had real beaks and feathers for the children to observe under microscopes.

Then he had three tables set up with real cardinal nests.  He asked the groups to deconstruct the nests to see what the birds used to make their little homes.  We were so surprised to find dried up plants that we knew to be frog fruit (Yep!  We learned that from Ranger Craig last fall!) as well as dried out roots.  All of this was attached to a live oak branch.  Other groups found tape and spiders, grass and bark and other items as well.  (No pictures as I forgot all forms of camera!)

The final activity was to make an edible nest out of rice crispy treats and jelly beans for the eggs.  It was a great time!

Just as we were leaving, the librarian came to us with a special valentine and thanked us for being patrons...if only we could tell them how much we appreciate them!  I have a plan in the works!

The next day we decided to keep the LOVE going!  We made little valentines to look like bibles to give to the children at Sunday school.  After spending the morning learning about the LOVE of God at Sunday school and Mass, we enjoyed the rest of the day as a family. (Father gave a wonderful homily about staying positive even during negative situations because we need to remember and trust that God LOVES us!)

We normally have a traditional linguine dinner for Valentine's Day...Michael and I have had this meal together (or I have made it for the children when he was away) for almost 20 years!

The first time we made our Valentine Linguine was in 1996.  I kidnapped him after leaving his college class and had dinner ready for him.  Little did I know that he had already invited a couple over for dinner that night!  What?!?  On Valentine's Day!  YES...because he had heard they would not be doing anything special for the day.  So sweet!  They turned out to be good friends throughout the rest of our time at Sam Houston University.  Unfortunately, we did not stay in touch.  However, the meal continues on and we always love the way we change it up just a little to make it special.

We also celebrated Michael's official notice of graduation.  He now has a Masters of Art in Military History.  We LOVE learning!

We decided to celebrate with family board games throughout the day.  We ended with home-made brownies and ice cream!

An awesome weekend full of LOVE!