Door Love Notes

One of my favorite Valentines Day traditions is my “door love notes”. Every year starting Feb 1st until the 14th I leave a heart taped to each of my kids’ doors with something I love about them. By the end of the 14 days - this is what each of their doors look like...

Door Love Notes circa 2017

It can be as simple as “You’re a good friend” to “You have a beautiful smile”. The goal is to speak life and positivity a little extra during this time, and to give them a full visual to see how amazing they truly are.

(This is also great for teachers - add a note to your door each day for your students to read as they come into class and watch them light up when they see all the amazing things your think about them!)

I do reuse some of these each year, but I also try to add more specific ones that apply to what they are doing at that time. Like for my son, I want to tell him what a good reader he is because he's been working hard to improve his reading. For my daughters I will talk about their cheer and tumbling skills they are working on, or my oldest and her new love of drawing.

Now, I'm slightly annoyed I only just thought of this this year, it would have saved me a ton of paper over the years - but, instead of cutting out new hearts to add to my collection, I decided to laminate them and use dry erase markers so I can easily update them every year. I also laminated some of my "staple hearts" to keep them in good condition year after year.

This year for my new hearts I decided to try and "connect" more with my kids. I have a middle schooler, and we all know how uncool middle schoolers think their parents are. So, I’ve enlisted the help of my 15-year-old nephew to help me become “cool”. I had him translate some “cool kid slang” for me so I could make some valentines that she would get. Will she probably roll her eyes and cringe when she reads them – absolutely. But will it also be a funny memory of the time in our lives we are in…also yes. See if you can spot my newest additions - and shout out to my nephew, Cooper, for helping me become cooler.

The planning...

The results!

This is another simple, cheap and easy thing we do that the kids look forward to each year. I don’t go over the top for most holidays (I’m sort of a minimalist when it comes to décor, etc) but I love finding simple ways to celebrate with the kids and make it memorable. And I truly hope this is one tradition that they will always remember, and that even made a difference in their lives. Heck - maybe it will be passed on to my grandkids one day too!

Love - V