Wednesday, February 15, 2012

love week conclusion: a love filled house.

i should preface the standard V-day post by saying: i usually am super-lame mom when it comes to Holidays outside of Christmas and Birthdays. ok and Halloween. but seriously, that's usually my short list of celebration-worthy holidays. i just get overwhelmed by how much there is to do and usually have fabulorific intentions that die once i get a glue gun out.

then, the other day i was thinking about my earliest childhood memories. i can vividly remember my third birthday. i remember i was wearing a little dress with flowers on it, and my hair was in a pony tail- and i felt really pretty. i remember blowing out all of the candles on my cake and being so proud. i remember my mom hugging me. and my brother reaching over with his finger to get a lick of frosting. i remember the feeling of loving my family and feeling loved. again, i was three.


{these pictures are more like when i was 4 or 5- but you know, it's about the same era}

and then it dawned on me- Ellie is three. what are her earliest memories going to be? are they going to be of me telling her that i'm driving her nuts? are they going to be of me constantly picking up the toys around her because the toy-messes make me batty? are they going to be of me saying "no more TV, no more TV, NO MORE TV!!!" and her crying because she just wants to watch one more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse? and so my way of dealing with my not-so-proud parenting moments was to make this Valentine's day worth remembering. 

Valentine's Day started on Monday Night with a little love-hunt, inspired by my college roommate, Sara. basically i cut out little hearts with our names ("Ellie loves," "Alice loves," "Daddy loves," "Mommy loves") and we had to go around the house and put the heart on something we loved and then take a picture of it. Ellie adored this super simple activity and would not let me take the hearts off of her books and bed because "i really really love those things." my favorite part of the activity was M coming home from an evening-store run after bedtime with a big heart on his back that read "Ellie loves." i would have loved to know what the person behind him in the check-out line thought of that one.

after they were asleep, we heart-attacked their door and put little heart strings for them to walk through when they woke up. i was so excited for them to wake up- and they were even more excited when they woke up. i love how they love such simple little things like hearts on strings.


and then the day started right with a box of donuts from our favorite lil shop down the street. i ate my donut literally seconds after finishing my run. i didn't even take a drink of water first. that's what you do on holidays, right?

of course i had to make some sugar cookies. best reason ever to celebrate Valentine's day right there. and we had to share and made some special deliveries. Ellie even made some Valentine's to share with some of her little friends. spreading the love is what it's all about, people.


at about 3:00 pm i realized that all i had eaten all day was donuts and sugar cookies. thank goodness i had forced myself to go on that run or i'd have felt super squishy all day.

and then we enjoyed random valentine's surprises throughout the day. my favorite was this little cute spread from a "secret admirer" for the girls. that dog sings Bieber's "Baby, oh." seriously, the cuteness is killing me.




we also read lots of cute love books, including my favorite "i like you." M wrote a song for me on our wedding day from this book. it gets me all googly eyed.


at around 5:45 we put the girls in their jammies, made them a pizza, and let them watch a Valentine's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. by 6:15, a babysitter was here, and my Valentine and i were on a date.


honestly, i don't remember the last time we went on a date on Valentine's day. probably before kids? like 4 years ago? and maybe even longer because we were super poor back then. usually we stay home, and try to make the most of it by cooking a special dinner (last year we cooked an authentic Costa Rican meal together. that was cool) and grabbing a redbox (sounds pretty Saturday-nightish, but whatevs). truly it usually is pretty anticlimactic. but this year we decided to go out. i put on my hot red pants and black heels, and even some lipstick. he wore cologne. i love when he does that. and we got sushi. our all-too-expensive-special-occasion-fave. we smuggled in 10lbs of treats to the theater and i dragged M to see the super mushy-cliche chick flick "The Vow." he must really love me. i love dates and i miss them.


and then we came home.  we missed the girls. we hugged and kissed them and told them we loved them and tucked them in real tight. they're so cute.



and that was Valentine's Day.

i love that lyric from the church song "there is beauty all around when there's love at home." it creates a picture for me that i want to emulate in my home-life. sure, at our house, beauty might include clothes all over the floor, crumbs from a half-eaten-half-destroyed donut smothered everywhere, toilet paper shredded in clumps in the bathroom, piles of toys in random crevices and corners, and marker/crayon/lipstick/pencil all over the walls. but it also includes giggles, sweets, dancing, lovies and snuggles, singing, and unsolicited hugs and i love yous. even today, on un-valentine's day, it really is a beautiful life because i feel love bubbling to the ceiling. and so even if Ellie & Alice don'tremember any of this crazy Valentine's Hoopla we did, it's ok because i'm pretty sure they can feel the love bubbling to the ceiling too.


and thus concludes my lovie-gushy-dovie week. come back and visit soon!

xoxo

6 comments:

Liz said...

I had to do a double take. I thought that was Ellie in those first pictures. Wow she looks just like you! You are such a fun Mom. Ellie and Alice will have wonderful memories!!

elysebeard said...

You always impress me with you holiday hoopla ideas. Best mom ever. Also, Ellie looks EXACTLY like you. Lucky girl

Mat and Brooke said...

Marce. You are so awesome + ambitious + enthusiastic + energetic. I would love to be but HALF as cool as you...especially come holiday time. :)

Becca said...

You are so awesome. You always make things so special for your family. They are so lucky to have you! So I ate 4 donuts and a box of chocolates today.....and I want to go get another donut. I have a sugar obsession lately. So did you like the vow? I might drag Travis to it on Friday.

Waltman said...

Marci, how do you do it all! Seriously?! What a cute mom you are and yes, Ellie is your minnie! So cute.

Jeff said...

Those donuts looked so good! Im really craving donuts now