Love when Valentine’s Day falls on the weekend! While I am definitely in the fan club of not making a big deal out of Valentine’s Day from year to year, I am however a fan of sharing love with my family and taking the time to show them how much I appreciate them. We could all use a little extra love during a pandemic I think. Here’s how I’m planning on spending Valentine’s Day at home with my husband and three kids.

First off, keep it simple! In other words, don’t treat it like Christmas with lots of hoopla and presents. Kids are simple, even the teens, they want to know they are loved and that does not mean spoiling them. Little things go a long way.

Candy! My kids are candy fans, I mean, who’s not?! I bought special Valentine specific candies for them ~ conversation heart boxes, Dove chocolate hearts, Valentine tick-tacks and will put them in cute heart shaped bowls. All from Target online. I like keeping it to three.

Decorate! Even as simple as homemade decor. My girls are getting older and sadly not as much into crafts for holidays, but in years past we would make construction paper hearts and tape them all over the kitchen. This year I bought a love balloon, the one in the picture above, from Target. It comes with red and pink balloons too. It’ll add to the festive look, and I keep this all primarily in the kitchen/eating area even though I do have general valentine decor though out the first floor of our house. Have I mentioned I kept up our fake tree from Christmas and made it a love tree?! Yeah, went a little overboard with that this year!

Notes! Love notes are an easy way for kids to show their feelings without talking out loud about nice things about their siblings. I can hear “ughs” from my teens. This works well with my autistic girls, one in particular that has a slower processing quality and hates being put on the spot. I’m going to have us all write one nice thing about each other and have an area for every person for their love notes. Sometimes the kids will surprise you with what they have to say!

Going to add, family dinner together. We do this regularly, but being that Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday I’m going to make it an extra nice family dinner date night. That means I’ll make sure to make one favorite dish for each person; extra work, sure, extra love and smiles, you bet.

I’m thinking of also doing a picnic date night by the fire with my husband. I made these heart ice cubes this weekend to prep. I posted a video reel on Instagram this weekend of how simple. Little gestures!

I’d love to hear how you are spending the day!