I know that plenty of people scoff at the "commercialness" of Valentine's Day. My whole view on the "Hallmark Holiday" is, if they're trying to get us to appreciate one another and be nice to eachother--heck, I'm in. This year Bird is in a double classroom with 2 teachers, so she had 30 valentines she needed to provide. Combine that with Sprout's almost-20 and that's a lot of sugar and/or flimy cardboard squares to come up with. So we decided to do something a bit more fun and utilitarian. I had visions of something much more handcrafted and elaborate, but after I got realistic I came up with the following: Take some 
die cut bookmarks, stickers, and markers. Add children. Leave for approximately 30 minutes, and voila--homemade Valentine bookmarks. No, they're not entirely eco, not really sustainable other than the fact that they might not get trashed like a standard valentine would, but the kids had a blast making them, and they turned out pretty swell, if I do say so myself.Last week we headed up to the local bookstore I mentioned in my last post only to find it not only closed but entirely gutted. That was a bit of a blow. But the bakery we discovered seems to be doing well, so that's given me some hope. I feel so lucky to have a local place using local organic ingredients. Living in a rural area, we are pretty fortunate to have the local coffee shop, the bakery, and a few organic farms to choose from. The bakery's Saturday cinnamon rolls have become a new
family tradition. Today we went in and found that the buttercreme frosting was pink, and the maple frosted rolls had conversation hearts on them. I'd hoped, but was afraid it wouldn't be "natural" enough. These are my kind of people. Even more to that point: they had giant heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. Giant cookies for the win! Nothing says "forever" like a ginormous cookie. Tonight we're dropping the kids off at the Children's Museum for a few hours of fun and pizza while Beo and I run out to have some incredible Himalayan cuisine. An excuse to use a ridiculous amount of stickers, eat gratuitous amounts of sweets, and make some couple time? I'll take it! Happy Valentine's Day!
