I don’t know how it’s happened but Valentine’s Day might be my new favorite holiday! The color scheme, the candy, and the opportunities for curated childhood magic make it pretty much the perfect day for me.

Last year, my sister-in-law hosted a Valentine’s Day tea party for a bunch of a little girls and it was so much fun! It hadn’t occurred to me that I could do more parties than just my kids’ birthdays. My husband probably isn’t happy that my eyes have been opened in this way but it’s his sister’s fault! It’s my turn to host this year and I have a few ideas but I always start out with my four key party necessities.

Decor Theme: Vintage Valentine’s

I feel like there’s no such thing as going overboard when it comes to Valentine’s Day; the holiday in itself is a kind of overboard extravagance of chocolate and pink and hearts. So I want to take advantage of that and have really classic Valentine’s Day colors and motifs.

Activities

This is normally the hardest area for me but this is actually where my V-Day planning began. We decorated sugar cookies with the kids over Christmas and they had so much fun and it’s such a kid friendly activity. I was just going to do it for Ella and Jack but then thought, why not spread the love? So our Valentine’s Day party was born. To make it more curated, I’ll have the different colored icings in pretty bowls and all the cookies will be heart shaped.

And when we’ve all had enough, we can make cards and play outside (thank goodness for warm winter days in the south).

Food

Cookies. Duh. And yum.

Showstopper

So, I like to keep these a surprise for the big day but for anyone new to following me, I’ll explain what it is. For every party I do, I like to have some decorative focal point that perfectly captures the theme of the party. It’s my favorite thing to do and it’s the saddest to take down. Here are some from the kids’ birthday parties over the years:

I’m really excited for this party and I can’t wait to see Ella in her sweetest, pinkest element. I’m a homebody and I’m terrible in big group social situations but something about hosting parties transcends all of that. Maybe it’s seeing my kids so happy or getting to be creative or just getting to share a piece of myself with my family and friends. Or, most likely, it’s that when you’re the one hosting the party, you get to stay home 😉

xo

eb