It was January. I was exhausted from work, and I started thinking of all the things I needed to plan and have organized for the next few months coming up. One of those being Valentine’s Day. And I started to feel a little resentful because I feel like the last few years I keep seeing more and more ideas of gifts for kids on Valentine’s Day. As though the expectation was shifting that I now had to be prepared to gift them a Valentine’s basket and needed one more holiday to have to buy for and put together.

That’s silly, isn’t it…the way we’re able to compare ourselves to some other’s standard of parenting and motherhood.

So I talked myself out of the need to buy my kids a full blown basket of gifts that would invariably end up broken or not played with. And instead, I’m going simple.

They’re going to get a special breakfast of pancakes with red sprinkles. Sprinkles make everything festive, and little treat bags of X’s and O’s Gummies from their mommy & daddy.

For Valentine’s for school this year, they are taking individually wrapped goldfish snack bags. I made this design to add to the front of them, and printed them on sticker paper.

And our family tradition has always been to make homemade pizzas for Valentine’s Day dinner. Nathan and I have done that for years pre-kids and it’s all the more fun with the kids! Although I do have to buy an extra bag of cheese because the boys do a lot of “taste testing.”

I hope your Valentine’s day is fun, and you’re reminded how much you’re loved!