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Before the Super Bowl game airs, it seems that a winged little boy carrying a ow and a quiver of arrows dangles in the air, and the smell of those little pastel sugar hearts with quirky sayings dominates the candy aisle. Valentine's Day changes when you have children. Let's face it. What babysitter wants to come and sit with your child while you go out for a nice dinner where you don't have to cut up somebody's chicken and conjure up a magic potion to keep your little one quiet in his seat? After all, your babysitter would rather go to dinner with their special someone, too.
 This year, Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday. Here are some ways to celebrate a ŽÍovely day with your family. Start your family's morning off with heart-shaped pancakes. Using your favorite pancake mix, add a couple of drops of red food coloring to the batter. After the pancakes cook, use a cookie cutter and cut out hearts or cupids. Instead of drowning the pancakes in maple syrup, try topping your pancakes with strawberries or raspberries and whipped cream.
For those of you with more culinary skills or wanting to create something extra special, try making chocolate French toast. Using your normal recipe for French toast, simply add two tablespoons of cocoa powder to the egg mixture before coating your bread. Serve with confectioner's sugar and sliced strawberries. After a hearty breakfast, plan a visit to your local library or bookstore with younger children and pick up and read the classics like Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown or Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. For older children, try picking up Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or Elizabeth Barrett Browning's love sonnets.
After reading excerpts from the play or some love sonnets, ask your children what they interpret the meaning to be. Browning, then unmarried, wrote a series of sonnets for her husband-tobe, Robert Browning. How could Valentine's be Valentine's without sweet treats? For a quick and easy cookie, take prepared sugar cookie dough and using your child's thumbs, press into the cookie twice, at an angle, to make the shape of a heart. Sprinkle the hearts with red and white sprinkles and bake for ten to twelve minutes at 350 degrees. If you want to give some away as gift s, make a small packet out of red or pink colored cellophane and tie it with silver ribbon.  After the baking is done, think out of the box. Instead of allowing your little one to drown paper hearts in glue that is as thick as the fog in a Hitchcock movie, create a book that will help them remember who loves them not just on Valentine's Day, but all year long. For children as young as two, a simple pattern; such as, "Who loves (fill in your child's name)?" Include a picture of your child with the family member or friend along with the next line, "Aunt (fill in the appropriate name) loves (fill in your child's name)." For preschool children and young schoolage children, try creating a family love mobile. Using dowels, construction paper hearts and pictures of each family member; including aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins, children will have a fun visual of who loves them. Older children can be encouraged to try their hand at creating a Valentine card using their own poetry. After reading sonnets or excerpts from a Shakespearean play, middleschool-aged children can consider following a rhyme scheme similar to what they've read or taking a quote from Romeo and Juliet and illustrating the meaning behind some of the more famous texts. Of course, Italian lovers are famous throughout history. What better way to celebrate the day of love than a fun family dinner over a big bowl of pasta and sauce or make a family heart-shaped pizza. And, for dessert, try a family-friendly version of fondue while playing Candyland or Scrabble. Simmer heavy cream with chopped chocolate over low-heat. Be sure to continue to stir as burnt chocolate is definitely not a crowd-pleaser. Serve the fondue with strawberries, bananas, raspberries, pineapple, graham crackers, pretzels and marshmallows. A dessert of chocolate fondue is the perfect way to end a sweet day of family fun.  Regardless of how you spend your day with your family, take a photo of what your love for your spouse and family has created. And, when your children are in bed and you fi nally sit down with your Valentine, you can share a chocolaty kiss with the remainder of the fondue! Now, what can be more romantic than that! |
