Our First Valentine's

According to Ed, Valentine’s is a Hallmark holiday invented by the company to make more money. Who knew that St. Valentine created cupids, boxes of candy and roses. To me, Valentine’s always meant pizza, an ice cream cake from Dad and a scavenger hunt all over the house looking for a book. And if there is a book at the end of a scavenger hunt, what holiday could be better than that?

So, last Valentine’s meant Ed slept on the couch all day while I read, followed by one of his favorite meals I had prepared. Yeah, not anywhere close to romantic. And while I can’t deny I wasn’t disappointed in that (after all, when you’re single FOREVER, a somewhat nice Valentine’s is a nice thought), such a let down did make be determined that we would somehow celebrate Valentine’s with our kids.

First, we made Valentine’s, as you can see. She has her first box of crayons, but we’re not really sure how to use them yet. She may be leaning towards me in this – they seem to be much for fun to line up, first on one side of us and then on the other, than actually coloring with them.

And while Emry’s not quite ready for an all out scavenger hunt yet, I did make her little boxes with clues in them which Ed helped her solve so she found graham crackers at the end of her search. (Ed found his favorite sugar cookies at the end of his.) And even thought I don’t write Ed memos (he would misplace them), ever so often it does seem like we have “ESPN” (as one of my sisters – who shall remain anonymous – called it). Because on Saturday, he brought home roses (three – one for each of us and a reminder of our wedding as we had red roses) and a balloon for Emry. You can just imagine what a hit that was!

For a balloon has many uses besides just being a lot of fun to knock around and defy every rule we’ve learned about gravity. It makes a great mirror…and we can practice “kissing” our reflection. (We’ve just learned to “kiss” if you can call licking cheeks and then smacking our lips – two separate things – a “kiss”.)

Grandma Sturm also sent us a wonderful quiet book. I love it because it keeps her occupied during church.

 And, oh! I must not forget. We went out for breakfast one morning at Eat ‘n Park (a Pittsburgh staple) and Emry got her first Smiley cookie. Since I’m guessing this is a right of passage for a young Pittsburgher (although I will agree with Helen, a friend of Ed’s dad’s, that they really aren’t very good), we also took a picture of that.

Happy Valentine’s Day!