Spending Valentine's Day At HOME

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

10 Feb 2007 12:43 PM

If you have a spouse who is employed as a truck driver, traveling salesperson, active duty military personnel, firefighter, flight attendant, or pilot then you may find yourself spending Valentine's Day at home without a date. If you are lucky, you may be spending it at home with extended family or close friends. If you are like me, you will be spending it with your favorite 2-year-old.

My daughter and I are each other's dates this year... and we are already preparing for the big day. As you "Blues Clues" fans well know--"It's love, love, love day" and my toddler couldn't be more excited. To distract her from the fact that Daddy won't be here to join in the festivities (we'll save him some treats) I've come up with some room-by-room activities that will (hopefully) make this Valentine's Day one she will remember---in our own home sweet home.

Kitchen

You can't have a Valentine's Day breakfast without heart shaped pancakes, right? I bought a new heart shaped frying pan (yes, they do exist), which I plan to use for both the pancakes and to create heart shaped fried eggs. My daughter's favorite fresh strawberries will accompany the pancakes. Then, I will keep the red-and-pink color theme going by making strawberry and banana yogurt smoothies. For lunch I am planning to make heart shaped peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches (a heart shaped cookie cutter makes this job a lot easier). As for dinner, I thought I would order a heart shaped pizza from our local pizzeria. We'll toast the evening with glasses of strawberry milk and munch on the Valentine's Day cookies we already baked and decorated.

Living Room

We already started decorating the living room with construction paper hearts and red streamers. We will go to the balloon store on Tuesday to buy a couple of balloons (rumor has it my daughter will also be receiving a balloon bouquet from her "Secret Admirer" on Wednesday) to add to the décor. I received my Valentine's Day flower arrangement yesterday and placed it on the end table so we have a brilliant splash of color in the room as well as a wonderful fragrance. Finally, the most anticipated decorative touches (at least in my daughter's opinion) will be put out Tuesday night---heart shaped bowls filled with red-and-white M&Ms and other Valentine's Day treats.

Bedroom

Tuesday morning I will put red flannel sheets on my daughter's bed and add a few hot pink deco pillows (which will inevitably end up on the floor) around the base of her headboard. We hung a few Snoopy Valentine's Day cling-ons to her bedroom windows and will add some heart shaped felt cutouts to her felt board along with the letters that spell out: "Happy Valentine's Day!" (For Valentine's Day decorating ideas for the master bedroom room click here.)

Bathroom

I already put out some heart shaped soaps and hung up some pink hand towels. I have some pink champagne bubble bath that I will let my daughter use on Wednesday night. Finally, I thought I might use shaving cream to draw a big heart on the bathroom mirror and surprise her when she goes in to brush her teeth Wednesday morning... we'll see.

Hope these homegrown Valentine's Day ideas make your day a bit brighter! Related Articles:

Transforming Your Bedroom Into A Valentine's Day Retreat

Valentine's Day And Your Garden

Picking The Right Flowers For Valentine's Day---The Day I Bought Flowers For A Boy

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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