Valentine's Day Lunches

This morning, my precious Fancy came downstairs, all groggy and wobbling, and said in a half chipper, half sleepy voice, "Momma! It's Thanksgiving Eve!"

Me: (blink, blink) You mean Valentine's Day Eve?

To which she nodded emphatically, came over and hugged me, and proclaimed, "I bet that NO kids will be playing outside after school tomorrow!"

Me: Why?

Fancy: Because it's Valentine's Day! That's a day you should spend loving on your family!

I just love her sweet soul. I asked her if she'd like to go on a hike through the woods tomorrow after school. She wants to. It's going to be fun.

For lunch, of course I couldn't just pack up boxes as usual. I had to make them festive while keeping the foods wholesome and as whole as possible. Here's what I came up with...

Everyone has basically the same foods. Cubed ham, heart-shaped cheddar, Babybel cheese, TLC Cherry Vanilla cereal bars, strawberries, sweet baby peppers, white asparagus. Bay has grape tomatoes and Army Man has some raspberries. Raspberry Lemonade to drink.

I found free printable cards at About.com and I printed one for each of the girls' lunch boxes.

What's Valentine's Day without a little chocolate? Ghirardelli squares in dark chocolate with mint filling, dark chocolate with raspberry filling, and milk chocolate with caramel filling end these lunches on a sweet note.