Happy Valentine's Day

This morning I was surprised (as much as anyone with an exuberant two-year-old can be) with a heart-shaped box of dark chocolate-covered strawberries. So sweet!

Two Valentine cards accompanied the big red box. One was handmade by Little Sprout and Big Daddy and the other one was a "lil' lovebug" card that both Little Sprout and Big Daddy embellished with fancy signatures.

After naptime, Little Sprout had a Valentine's Day finger painting activity that involved heart-shaped potato stamps and champagne corks as well as fingers. I had cooked up some washable finger paints on the stove. Here are more recipes for edible toddler paints you can make at home. It was fun and we now have artwork drying outside on the deck to show daddy when he gets home.

Update: The finger painting is now dry and I've decided to use it to make cut-out hearts for a home-made card for Big Daddy. Cross your fingers that this turns out, since I'm making it up as I go along. Ha, ha!

I was planning on making meatloaf for dinner, until I scanned back through old blog posts and found one where Big Daddy had made a three-pound, heart-shaped meatloaf for us last year!
Ha, ha! Looking at the photo still makes me laugh.

So here are my second try at dinner: heart-shaped, Sweet Griddle Cakes.