Okay, so I'm kinda crazy . . .

So, this year I decided that Valentine's Day was going to be a fun family holiday aimed at creating a little bit of magic for Aven. She's at such a fun age and any deviation from the norm is very exciting for her. Since I really hate the corporate greed aspect of Valentine's Day I also decided that all gifts would be homemade (this came as a slightly unpleasant surprise to Ian- sorry Ian.)

So, after spending WAY too much time on Pinterest I came up with my three gift ideas:

A pack of cards for Ian. 52 cards with one thing on each card that we love about him. I had to translate Etta's and Grace's comments, but it all worked out.

I gathered all of Aven's old, broken crayons, chopped them into smaller pieces,  and made them into heart shaped, multicolored crayons. Fill a silicone baking mold with crayon pieces and bake at 225 for 15-20 minutes.

And for Etta May, a heart made of white fleece and red felt.

As if homemade gifts weren't enough I also decided that we were going to have a fun and fancy Valentine's dinner on Valentine's Day, because saving it for the weekend is for chumps. Also, it's not like I work full time and have two small children (what was I thinking?!).

We served the following foods in heart shapes: black bean burgers, carrots, and strawberries. Avocado is a little hard to make into a heart shape, so we just ate it as-is.

For dessert we had frosted sugar cookies and Ian's present to me: delicious homemade chocolate truffles in various flavors (raspberry, strawberry, anise, and mint).

 I would personally like to thank all the coconuts out there. I couldn't have made those cookies without coconut margarine and coconut milk. Coconut milk was also instrumental in the making of those truffles.

It was a lot of crazy preparation, but in the end it totally paid off. We all had a great time and it was so nice to have a celebration in the doldrums of late winter. I will definitely do my best to make this type of Valentine's celebration our family tradition.