All the Hearts

While Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to indulge in extra chocolate and sprinkle red glitter everywhere,  our family is part of the camp that prefers to celebrate love every day. We surrounded ourselves with hearts and a little extra sweetness all month long in February.

We had fun putting together a little Valentine’s themed goody bag for Isla. She received a great new book, gummy x’s and o’s, heart napkins for all of the little picnics and treats she likes to whip up, a little heart ornament, and a new heart sweater. I picked up all of the heart themed items when they were on sale after Valentine’s last year and tucked them away.Just Add Glitter was an instant favorite!

Madelyn joined us for a play date and some Valentine’s cookie decorating. For me, the joy of sugar cookies lies more in the decorating than the eating. (If I’m being totally honest, it’s probably a good thing that there are some cookies out there that I’m not crazy about!) We substituted almond extract for vanilla in these cookies, however, and they were miiiiighty tasty! We also made our own simple buttercream frosting with butter, powdered sugar, almond extract, and a bit of cream.The Valentine’s baking continued with these Love and Kisses cookies and we think they are just about the cutest little treats ever! They are wonderfully tasty too.  Isla helped measure and mix all the ingredients, meticulously coated each ball of dough in festive sprinkles, and carefully pressed the kisses into the cookies when they came out of the oven. We had as much fun making the cookies as we had eating them!THIS is how Isla and Cole brush their teeth together! And my heart explodes every time. They’re getting to an age where a genuine friendship is forming, and it is seriously the best thing in the world to witness!We drove to the cottage on Valentine’s Day and continued to celebrate with all the hearts and decadent treats throughout the weekend. Isla and I had so much fun making these sweet tissue paper heart sun catchers together, and they sure brighten up the moody PNW coastline. It might be my past teaching-self talking here, but I love having a laminator!Daddo made us tasty heart-shaped pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast.Cole LOOOOOVES whipped cream! Normally we make our own and sweeten it with a little stevia, so we don’t mind putting a squirt of it on his finger as a treat. We just had the canned stuff today, but Cole recognized it and started asking, “Mo? Ah-bee?” (More? Please?) He was so darn cute and using his manners, so we said, “Sure!” and put a little on his finger. He devoured it! Within seconds he was asking, “Mo? Ah-bee?” Not wanting to load him up on sugar, we hesitated. He looked back and forth between us and asked again, “Mo? Ah-bee?” Then he cracked the biggest grin and added, “Shoooor.” Oh man, are we in trouble with this kid!Cole is talking up a storm lately! His vocabulary is growing every day, which is super fun for us! “Heart” is the first shape he identified. None of us actively tried to teach him the word, but he picked it up along the way. One day Isla was wearing a shirt with a big heart on it and Cole walked up to her, pointed and proudly said, “Heart!” I am so pleased the first shape he recognizes is the one associated with love.Isla LOVES spending time playing games with her Nana. Her new favorite is Sorry! The level of strategy Isla has absorbed from their games together is seriously impressive!Lost in thought, enjoying his graham cracker and watching the “shoshen” (ocean).It took only one taste of a spritz cookie at Christmas time for Cole to learn the word “cookie”. He refers to most foods as “nummy nummies”. He is SO my child! Cole’s vocabulary is exploding lately and he is impressing us with new words and short phrases each day. My current favorites are “ah-go ah-go” (avocado)- not to be confused with “I go?” which is what he says when he wants to go somewhere. When he really wants something he asks for it, and then adds a long sugary sweet “shooooor” (sure) to try and persuade us. He loves pillows and soft blankets. He snuggles into them and says, “cozy!” Of all the adorable things Cole has been saying, I think “tic-o tic-o” (tickle, tickle) might be my most favorite because he can’t say it without scrunching his nose, drawing his shoulders up, and giggling.This dude seriously loves greeting the neighbors who walk past our cottage.Gopher holes make for endless fun. Who knew?!When Isla and I were making our Valentine’s Day heart sun catchers, Cole toddled over to investigate. He reached for the tissue paper squares, and as he typically does with fragile items, immediately began crumpling them. Isla and I noted how the crinkled squares looked sort of like flowers, and the idea for a collaborative art project was born! Isla drew a line of stems and topped each of them with one of Cole’s “flowers.” This has me totally inspired to think of other ways these two can work together to create art!