Valentine's Day

Okay, so Mark and I don't usually do anything for each other for Valentine's Day....just make pizza at home. That's our tradition. But this year I just REALLY wanted to do something special for Mark! So, with the help of Pinterest (of course), I did the "14 Days of Valentines". Mark seemed to really enjoy it, so I figured I'd share :)

The basic idea is that you do something special every day for the 14 days leading up to Valentine's Day. Because we are doing our Foster Care classes every Tuesday and Thursday night, that meant Valentines day was out of the question...so I started a day earlier and we celebrated on Monday the 13th!

The original blog link can be found here, and she did a super cute job! There are free printables for each of the 14 days too. http://www.mommybydaycrafterbynight.com/2012/01/14-days-of-valentines-free-printables.html

I started to print them off, but decided I wanted to write my own notes...mostly because I was going to change the wording on some of the days, and it felt more "special" to have handwritten notes. But her printables are SUPER cute!

Each day there was a special treat (most of them were really inexpensive, but I tried to make the gifts get progressively more fun as the days went on), and then the note. I would leave the note and the treat on the kitchen table so that each day when Mark got home from work that would be the first thing he would see! Here they are...

Day 1: "You ROCK my world!"....I did a Nerd Rope, because Mark doesn't like Pop Rocks.
Day 2: "I'm so FORTUNATE to have you"...a box of fortune cookies (which Mark loooves!).
Day 3: "I hope you CHEWS me to be your valentine"...a bag of marshmallows (another Mark fav)
Day 4: "Love Potion #9"...a label that I put on a glass bottle of Coke.
Day 5: "I love you more than chocolate...and that's A LOT!"...Snickers bar.
Day 6: "You make my heart BOUNCE"...a box of golf balls (for whenever it gets warm enough to golf again!)
Day 7: "I HEART you"......a heart-shaped box of Ghirardelli chocolates.
Day 8: "Hey there CUPCAKE, I love you!"...a cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy (local bakery).
Day 9: "Will you OFISHALLY be mine?"...some fish!
Day 10: "Howdy Partner, do I have a SHOT at being your valentine?"...Nerf guns and a little after-work war (see pic below!)...he REALLY liked this one!
Day 11: "I've got a CRUSH on you"...bottle of orange Crush soda.
Day 12: "It's a TREAT to be your valentine"...I made some Lemon Bars (I rarely make these, because I don't like them that much, but Mark loves them!).
Day 13: "10 Things I Love About You"...a list of 10 things I love about Mark.
Day 14: My special Valentines Day night! I did a bunch of balloons above the kitchen table and above our bed. Then made our traditional pizza, with cinnamon rolls for dessert. Then we played the "Love Game" (also found on Pinterest)...the details of which, I shall not say :) Here is the link to the game though: http://designdininganddiapers.com/2012/02/day-4-the-game-of-love-with-the-real-housewives-of-bucks-county/#.T0LUaiOWRJN

The verdict is in, and Mark says this was the "BEST" Valentines day ever! Yippee! I guess I pulled that one off pretty well (I just hope he doesn't expect me to top it next year!).

Mark did good this year too, he got me a big bouquet of pink roses (my fav!) and a cooking class for us to do together! It's a class that will teach us (hands-on) how to make 3 different kinds of rib marinades/rubs, and then we get to eat the ribs. I'm so excited!