Valentine's Day

I will admit, Valentine's Day is not my favorite day of the year.  I decided to make it fun this year for the kids.  Breakfast was the best part of the day, so that's the part I will tell you about.  (Let me just say that the kids were in bed at 6:30 without stories or songs.  That might tell you how the rest of the day went...Back to breakfast...)

So for breakfast Mr. Blue and I made pink pancakes, strawberries, bananas, etc., set the table with red and white plates, and gave the kids a gift.  Breakfast was a lot of fun.  The kids loved their gifts.

We gave each of them two books.  For Mr. Orange:

and

For Miss Pink:

and

The books may seem a bit random.  Mr. Orange loves to have me read to him.  I usually fall asleep before he is finished listening to whatever I am reading to him.  He loves to pretend that he is Peter Pan and recently went with his Nana and Papa to see a production of Peter Pan.  He loves it.  I thought it was time that we read the actual story.  So far, we are really enjoying it.  As for Miss Pink, I thought this book fit her perfectly.  It's always one more thing with her at night.  At the end the mom falls asleep next to her bed which is pretty true to life at our home.  :)  

I have wanted to read poetry to my children for a long time.  Of course I have read Mother Goose and Dr. Suess and other rhyming books with them, but I wanted more classic poetry to read with them.  I have never been into poetry myself, but feel that it is important to have exposure to literary classics and poetry at a young age.  I found these books at Barnes and Noble (there is a whole collection that I have my eyes on) and figured they were worth a try.  My kids have actually really enjoyed them so far.  I've been surprised!  What I love about these books is that they have definitions of all the unfamiliar words on each page so that the poetry makes a bit more sense and you don't have to read it with a dictionary.  In the Shakespeare book, there are excerpts from different plays and a few sonnets.  At the beginning of each selection there is a brief description of what is going on in the story at that time.  At the beginning of both books there is an introduction that you can read with your children so that they will know about Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare or any of the other poets that you choose to read to them.  (Psst, don't tell, but these books have been a great introduction to poetry for myself.  I really enjoy them!)

If you want more information about the books, click on the pictures above.