Specifically a baby girl.

3 surgeries and a gazillion different medications later, Marcy and her Happy Hubby finally surrendered the idea of getting pregnant.

And then the Lord called them to adopt.

9 months, 5,786,532 official documents/paperwork, and 3 trips to Russia later…

They are bringing home their sweet precious girl in two weeks!!!

The whole process has been ‘a different kind of labor’ as Marcy testifies, but one that has proven God’s faithfulness time and time again.

There is absolute truth in Jesus’ words, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

I couldn’t have been more thrilled to be the one to throw her a special Adoption Shower.

Here are some pics of how it turned out…

Since the shower was just a few days before Valentine’s Day and they are adopting a little girl, the colors pink and red with lots of hearts seemed only appropriate!

I also found this quote from HERE about adopted babies growing in their mommies hearts to be perfectly inspiring for the heart fest that was this event.

There were also lots of martyroshkas (or Russian Nesting Dolls) – since little Evelina is from Russia.

We put together a sweet little clothesline of photographs from Marcy and her Happy Hubby’s trips to Russia.

I think it’s almost uncanny how similar Marcy and Evelina look!  Only our great God could do something like that!

My favorite thing about the clothesline was an adorable T-Shirt my friend, Abbie, made for the occasion.

She used some fabric to make an outline of Russia with a tiny little heart over the city of Moscow – about the place where Evelina’s from.

Man, it’s stuff like this that makes me WISH I knew how to sew!  I have to take my hubby’s shirts to my mom for help when the buttons pop off!

I scoured Pinterest for some yummy recipes.

The Princess Punch shown above can be found HERE.

This delicious chicken salad and grapes recipe can be found HERE.

Cheese and crackers (no recipe needed!), but what made them special were all of those magical little heart toothpicks!

Everyone was going crazy for this Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chip recipe from HERE.

Sticking with the heart theme – a friend brought this whimsical tray of Heart-Shaped Melon Chunks on popsicle sticks!

You can find that recipe HERE.

And it wouldn’t be a Happy Home Fairy party without my famous Broccoli Salad of Wonder (which you can find HERE).

Marcy happens to be one of the most talented artists that I know, so she has a lot of super amazingly talented and artsy friends.

One friend in particular, Megan, is an incredibly gifted cake decorator (on top of a million other artsy skills).  First on my to-do list when planning this shower was to enlist her help!

I almost cried with happiness when she brought the finished result to the party.

This shower did not seem like one where the traditional Baby Shower Games (see a great post about Baby Shower Games HERE) would work, so with some prayer, I came up with a couple of neat activities for the guests to enjoy.

First, a friend of mine baked a huge batch of martyroshka-shaped sugar cookies and we gave everyone a time limit of 10 minutes to decorate their martyroshka cookie with some provided supplies.

It was a blast!  I could not get over how creative these women were!

Marcy, of course, was the judge and got to pick her favorite design.

Here she is (on the left) with the winner!

Another game we played was a special Adoption Quiz.

This was really cool because I wanted the guests to get a window into what the whole adoption process was like for Marcy and her family.

We worked together and came up with about 20 questions for guests to attempt to answer.

Some of the questions were, “How many hours is the flight to Russia?” “What does the name Evelina mean?” “How many months of paperwork did it take to prepare for this adoption?” and so on.

My favorite question, though, was this one…

“How many times was Evelina offered up for adoption but saved especially for Marcy and her family?”

The answer?

31!!!!!

Can you believe that?!  God had a plan for Evelina to be a part of Marcy’s life FOR SURE.

Finally, we had all of the guests put their fingerprint on this beautiful tree.

Our pastor’s wife shared a brief thought on how the process of grafting is the fusing of a branch from one tree on to a separate host tree, during which it becomes a living and fruitful part of the new tree.  That new tree is changed forever as a result.

Kind of like how Marcy and her family are ‘grafting’ Evelina into their own family tree in order to bring God glory with all its fruitfulness!

All of the fingerprints are a symbol of our commitment to help Marcy and her Happy Hubby raise little Evelina and support them in the training of her precious heart!

We had a beautiful time of prayer.

People prayed for everything from a peaceful flight home with Evelina to even asking God to handle all of the details of the bonding/attachment phase of adoption.

And before everyone left the party, they got to take with them these cute party favors featuring a tag with Marcy’s dedicated Adoption Bible Verse and a little tin of mints – to remind each guest to pray for Evelina and Marcy whenever they popped a mint!

It was a wonderful afternoon of celebration.

Now we all just can’t wait to meet her in just a few weeks!

Happy Adoption Shower-ing!

The Happy Hubby sighed a bit on the inside because we had not been able to (afford) go on a vacation since before the Happy Buddy had been born.

So when the lady opened her mouth and said she felt led to offer her family’s home in North Carolina to us for a little getaway, the Happy Hubby almost cried with delight.

And thus started the plan for our Happy Home’s North Carolina trip!

I have to be honest.  Having a two-year-old has made me a little less excited about travel.  A friend of mine put it perfectly, “Vacations with little ones are not vacations.  They are more like RELOcations.”

I was nervous from the beginning!

But God has a way of working things out…

It wouldn’t be a vacation without a few stops at Cracker Barrel along the way.

We spent the night in Savannah, Georgia.  I was kind of excited to see Paula Deen’s restaurant.

I think we ate at Chick-fil-A about 7,894 times along the way as well.  Those little playgrounds helped the Happy Buddy cope in between such long bouts of sitting!  And we NEVER would have made it without the portable DVD player.

Once we hit the mountains, the Happy Buddy was a little confused about why suddenly he had to wear so many layers (when he is used to running around in 80 degree Florida weather).

But a friend lent him that super cool hat and you’d have thought that thing was surgically attached to his head by the end of our time there.

The first couple of days of vacation were kind of rough…

Toddler+lonnnng drive+lack of sleep+new sleeping quarters=a hundred million meltdowns a day.

The picture above captured one such meltdown when I saw this awesome giant stuffed bear on a sidewalk bench and really wanted a photo op.

The Happy Buddy apparently did not want to say cheese at that particular moment.

We laugh about it now.

There was a neat 50′s-themed soda shop downtown that we enjoyed!

We bundled up and went on a hike one day.

There are my two handsome boys and their walking sticks.

These images were the rare moments where the Happy Hubby and I were not carrying our little buddy.

At one point, after we had been carrying him for a long stretch, the Happy Hubby set him down and he took two steps, stopped and said, “I need to take a little break.”

Haha!

But, man, that glorious view at the end of  our walk was so worth it.

We found an amazing park.

And driving into town to the local grocery store to ride in the ‘cool cart’ and get a free cookie was the highlight of our days.

When it was too cold and rainy to venture out, the Happy Hubby and Happy Buddy held jam sessions.

And then our little rocker rocked so hard that his drumsticks broke.

Of course there was some fort building.

And a funny game that the Happy Buddy invented where he threw a ball down the stairs and we had to chase after it.

Between carrying a 35-pound kid on a 2-mile hike and chasing balls up and down stairs, I got a pretty good work out on this trip!

But my favorite thing of all on our vacation was when the Happy Buddy went to bed and the Happy Hubby and I played Battle Ship for hours on end.  I wish I had some pictures to show you of me winning almost every time!

By the end of our trip, we were all so grateful to the Lord for providing us with such a special vacation.

And the Happy Buddy was thankful to be back in his crib.

Thanks for bearing with this post!  I just wanted to record a little pocket of our time away.  And y’all are like my family, so it felt right to share!

Happy North Carolina-ing!

So I put together this simple Teacher Appreciation Wreath featuring all of the precious littles that these amazing women minister to each week!

First, I wrapped a styrofoam wreath form in a roll of pink and white polka-dot ribbon that I picked up at the Dollar Store.

Then I cut out a bunch of paper hearts, glued each child’s picture to the heart, added some stickers, and hot glued the hearts around the wreath.

It took some time, but it was easy as pie and incredibly cheap to make.

Plus, the teachers LOVED it.

I think Teacher Appreciation Week is in May, so ‘pin’ this project for future reference if you get in a jam and need a quick/frugal idea!

Or, you could make a wreath featuring the people in your own Happy Home and display it proudly for all to see!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Wreath-ing!

]]> http://happyhomefairy.com/2012/02/17/teacher-appreciation-wreath/feed/ 0 glittermagic IMG_0422 IMG_0425 IMG_0424 http://happyhomefairy.com/2012/02/15/valentines-day-recap/ http://happyhomefairy.com/2012/02/15/valentines-day-recap/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:25:12 +0000 Happy Home Fairy http://happyhomefairy.com/?p=6811 ]]> So, Valentine’s Day didn’t go exactly as I had planned…

I spent most of my day with another man besides my husband!

First, I decided that I would wake up early and make a special Valentine’s Day breakfast for the Happy Hubby.

I decorated the kitchen with banners and hearts and a table dressed to the nines in pink and red.

When my alarm went off (at 5:30!), the Happy Hubby was already heading out the door to study for his morning class.

We had just enough time to exchange a quick Valentine kiss and then he was off!

So the Happy Buddy and I dined on some pink oatmeal.

Then the Happy Buddy and I drove to his preschool where I was in charge of his Valentine’s Day party.

That went great – except I forgot to bring the camera.

We did a small craft (I transformed all of the Happy Buddy’s classmates into Valentine Bees – click HERE to see directions for this project).

We ate lots of red food (pizza, strawberries, raspberries, and apple juice) and all of the Happy Buddies decorated sugar cookies with pink frosting and Valentine sprinkles.

I caught my own Happy Buddy dipping his plastic knife into the icing can and then licking it.

This happened about 3 times.

Click to Buy

We also read a wonderful story about God’s love.

After school we came home and gave our neighbors’ Happy Home a Heart Attack.

There’s my little accomplice.

Later, I went about fixing a lavish romantic dinner (steaks, homemade macaroni and cheese, roasted asparagus…) for the Happy Hubby to come home to… but then when we chatted on the phone he reminded me that he had another class that evening until 9:30 pm.

Haha!

I tell you.  I have been having the worst case of pregnancy brain EVER.

So I asked the Happy Buddy if he would be my Valentine’s Day Dinner Date.

We made a heart-shaped cake using THIS simple technique.

We decorated it with M&Ms.

I think he liked it.

I’m pretty sure that kid had more sugar on Valentine’s Day this year than he has had in his entire 2 and a half years!

He kept giggling and saying, “I love Valentine’s Day.”

When the Happy Hubby finally made it home that night, I had a trail of Hershey’s Kisses leading him to a plate of some super fancy leftover frozen pizza (of which I plucked off the pepperonis and cut into hearts).

Then we snuggled on the couch and watched our favorite TV show and ate way too much chocolate.

I happened to be celebrating the fact that I only gained 1 pound since my last appointment with the OB.

It didn’t go exactly as I had planned, but I can’t think of two more amazing men (albeit one is a little short) I’d rather have as my Valentines!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day celebrating with your Happy Homes!

Happy Valentine’s Day-ing!

Are you planning a fun dinner with your Happy Home for Valentine’s Day??

Here are a few last minute dish, drink, and dessert ideas to make it truly special.

Bless This Mess featured this sweet little idea if your Happy Buddies are Snapple lovers.

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At Second Street made this special Love Juice for her Happy Buddies by giving them a decorated bottle of water and a packet of Hawaiian Punch powder drink mix.

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I love these happy little Pink Milk Heart Cubes from A Subtle Revelry.

What a fun thing to pop into a glass of milk and serve alongside some homemade chocolate chip cookies as a dessert!

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At the Workman Family’s Valentine Dinner they enjoyed homemade French Bread Pizza with the pepperoni cut into little heart shapes.

Don’t have time for homemade?  Simply pick the pepperonis off of a frozen pizza, cut them into hearts, stick ‘em back on and bake!

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Or, if pizza isn’t your thing, then your Happy Buddies might get a super kick out of this Valentine Spaghetti from Kitchen Fun With My 3Sons.

I laughed for like 5 minutes straight when I saw this!

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The Happy Buddy would love it if we served these fun Heart-Shaped Hamburgers from Happy Little Art.

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And these Heart Dogs from Family Fun would be a great addition to your Valentine Dinner as well!  They are sooo easy to make!

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Bakerella shows how a box of Oreo Cakesters and a heart-shaped cutter can become extra cute and extra delicious.

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Oh, and don’t forget that everyone attending your Valentine Dinner must wear one of these easy peasy Paper Plate Heart Hats from Alpha Mom.

To end the evening, why not hide some of these FREE Printable Love Bible Verse Cards under everyone’s plate at the dinner table?  Go around and each person can read aloud some of the great truths of His love for us.

That’s what Valentine’s Day is all about!

Happy Valentine’s Day Dish, Drink, and Dessert-ing!

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are a few websites/articles that have really blessed me in my pursuit of honoring God with my marriage and having some fun!

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The one piece of marriage advice that keeps ringing in my ears is to date your spouse.

This article featured at How Does She? has 8 Dating Tips that will spice up the time you two love birds spend together.

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Once you’ve brushed up on your dating techniques, check out this post at Six Sisters’ Stuff that has the BEST list of 50 Fun and Cheap Date Ideas.

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You might be thinking – as I so often do – it’s HARD to actually GET OUT when you have a little one under your roof, so here is a fantastic list of creative things you and your Happy Hubby can do together – all while your Happy Buddy is sleeping in his bed!

This list has really helped me to be intentional about that precious time I have with the Happy Hubby after the Happy Buddy is sweetly dreaming.

Check it out at Simply Modern Mom!

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Another fabulous thing you can do at home is whip out this Emergency Romance Kit from Happy Home Fairy.

Just what you need to regroup after a long day!

Plus, you could make a few for your friends to enjoy with their Happy Hubbies!

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When we CAN get out on a date, I am definitely going to try this Bookstore Date from The Dating Divas!

The Happy Hubby and I both love to read, so I think he will have a blast with these super fun (and totally free) activities.

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Blessed Mommy posted 101 Ways to Tell Your Husband “I Love You.”

I agreed with everything she said and think that if you choose a few to do each day – your marriage will blossom into something so sweet and so strong and so pleasing to Jesus.

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Print this FREE Printable from Just Make Stuff and stick it in an 8×10 frame.  Use a dry erase marker to answer the question each day for your Happy Hubby to read and be encouraged.

They need to know we are on their side!

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Or pop one of these FREE Printable Love Notes from Crafts and Sutch into random places around your Happy Hubby’s things for him to find.

I personally like to stick notes for the Happy Hubby under the toilet seat lid – haha!

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And, finally, I really enjoyed this article about Valentine’s Day Expectations from one of my favorite daily reads, The Generous Wife.

Her wisdom will really help you make sure that Valentine’s Day is a blessing for you both.

Now go give your Happy Hubby a call or a text and let him know how much you love him!

Happy Marriage-ing!

“I have found the one my soul loves…” Song of Solomon 3:4

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Family Fun starts things off with a mixture of gummy bears and Teddy Grahams in a plastic bag all held together with a cute “Bear Hugs!” tag.

A frugal and delicious Valentine!

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Instead of sweets, why not hand out some bookmarks with your Happy Buddy’s beary special thumbprint?

Sweet and Lovely Crafts has all the instructions for this easy keepsake.

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Skip to My Lou features these FREE Printable Bear Lollipop Covers.

All you have to do is print them, fold around a lollipop and add some ribbon!

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You can find another FREE Printable over at My Owl Barn.

This cute Bear Valentine Card would be a sweet thing to attach to a new little plush teddy bear at your Happy Buddy’s breakfast place on Valentine’s Day morning.

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Many Happy Homes are zeroing in on 1 Corinthians 13 this month – aka the Love Chapter in the Bible.

I had to giggle at how Almost Unschoolers celebrated the ‘“Love bears all things” part of the Scripture.

LOVE it!

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The Happy Hubby and his family looooove them some Honey Bear.

There are seriously almost table wars over who gets it first for their biscuits at his family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

This FREE Printable Bee Mine Tag from Make It Do would be a great Valentine’s Day gift for him.

Maybe on the back of the tag I could write, “I can’t wait to get my paws on you!”

Teehee.

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And, finally, when I saw these easy peasy Bear Plates from Meet the Dubiens, I got beary excited!

How cute would it be to present your Happy Buddy’s after school snack on one of these???

I wish I could give all of you a big bear hug this Valentine’s Day!

Happy Bear Valentine-ing!

It was just the thing that made me feel better when I was sick, cheered me up when I was sad, and tasted really great alongside those chicken patties we ate so many of.

Now I make it for our Happy Home and I can’t even tell you how much the Happy Hubby loves it.

Applesauce Jell-O couldn’t be easier to make, but the 4 hour chill time might drive you crazy as you wait for its deliciousness!

Ingredients:

• Large (6 oz) box of Strawberry Jell-O
• 1 large (24 oz) jar of applesauceStep 1 – Pour the Jell-O powder into a large bowl.Step 2 – Pour 2 cups boiling hot water into the bowl.Step 3 – Stir for 2 minutes, or until Jell-O is completely dissolved.Step 4 – Pour the jar of applesauce into the bowl.Step 5 – Stir and then put the bowl into the refrigerator.  Chill for 4 hours or until Jell-O is firm.Step 6 – Scoop the Jell-O into a bowl and serve on Valentine’s Day as special part of your Valentine’s Day dinner! Happy Valentine’s Day Applesauce Jell-O-ing!

I am.

So I have been busy collecting some fun game ideas to make it a blast for everyone!

1.  Heart Treasure Hunt – Pick up a package of heart-shaped erasers (I saw a pack of 50 Valentine-themed erasers in the dollar bins at Target).  Hide the erasers around your house or classroom.

Then send your kids out for an un-BEAT-able treasure hunt!

2.  Licorice Race – Have each family member (or player) put the end of a long piece of red string licorice in his/her mouth.  Then everyone must put their hands behind their back.  The first person to eat the whole piece of licorice – without using their hands – WINS! 

*This is quite hilarious.  You better video it.

3.  Spin the Bottle – Not what you think!   Wayyyy better than that version you played in middle school!

Play the game as a family, but change the rules…  Whenever the bottle points to someone, the spinner must say something nice about that person.  Then they can give that person a Hershey’s Kiss.  So sweet.

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4.  Paint Yourselves Red – Give a prize to the family member who can wear the most red and/or pink to a special Valentine’s Day dinner.

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5.  Heart-a-Stack – Making a tower of hearts isn’t as easy as you think!

Buy a few bags of small conversation hearts.  The object of the game is to build the tallest tower in an allotted amount of time (like 30 seconds).  When the time is up, the players counts their hearts to see who is the winner.  This is so much fun!

“Romeo and …..” the opposing player says “Juliet”.

Continue down the row of players and then the other team starts…. “peanut butter and …..” – jelly.

“Cookies and…….” – milk.

“Eggs and……” – bacon.

“Cinderella and …..” – Prince Charming.

“Samson and …..” – Delilah.

And so on.

I played this game at my birthday party last year and we had so much fun.

Here’s a video to understand how it could work.  We divided into two teams and whichever team finished going through the list of pairs provided was the winner.

Here are the printable sheets of pairs we used in case you want to play this with your Happy Home.

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7.  Valentine Present Pass – Here is a fun poem to read while passing special Valentine presents.

Every time the word ‘pink’ is read, a present gets passed around a circle of players.  The person holding the present at the end of the poem gets to keep it!

Pink, pink!

Our favorite color

Is pink, pink, pink!

And we always write letters

with pink, pink ink!

We like our lemonade

to drink, drink, drink,

but especially when

it’s a pink, pink drink!

We always use dishes

that are pink, pink, pink!

And wash them all clean

in a pink, pink sink.

If we had some pink paint

we think, think, think

we would paint the whole world

in pink, pink, pink!

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8.  Love Pox – This last game is my FAVORITE.

Sassy Sites has all the instructions (and some adorable pictures of her Happy Buddies all covered in Love Pox), but the idea is to stick Love Pox (red and pink circle stickers) on another person and at the same time tell them something you love about them.

This would even be a fun game to play in the bedroom with your Happy Hubby…

Wink, wink!

Now I hope you’ve got all the fun you can handle!

Happy Valentine’s Day Game-ing!

Today we are celebrating the kiss.

But not just any kiss… Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses – a Valentine candy essential.

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How fabulous are these FREE Printable Kiss Stickers from Shindig Parties To Go?

You just print the FREE file on adhesive paper and then use a circle punch to cut them out.  Stick on to the bottom of a Hershey’s Kiss and voila!

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I’m loving this easy Valentine Ring Bling craft from Mom On Timeout.

The perfect little gift when you can’t afford the real thing!

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If you’re watching what you eat, instead of dining on Hershey’s Kisses, why not make this adorable Kiss Craft from Meet the Dubiens?

These little guys are so easy to make, you just need a few supplies.  Get the instructions HERE.

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Isn’t that a sweet image?

Craftaholics Anonymous came up with this simple way to make a big visual impact when serving Hershey’s Kisses at your Valentine’s Day party.

Think scrapbook paper and toothpick… Check it out HERE!

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This idea is for the Happy Hubbies out there.

Peanut Butter Fingers made a Trail of Hershey’s Kisses leading all over her home for her Happy Hubby.  He found the above poster at the end.  What a great treasure!

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These little Valentine Pretzel Dots from Waltzing Matilda are too cute and too yummy and too easy not to make this year for friends and family.

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Send your Happy Buddies to school with these sweet Hershey’s Kiss Mice from Floral Showers.

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Or you could make a troop of these Hershey’s Kiss Gnomes that I found HERE.

There’s Gnome-one like you!

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Another great Kiss idea from Mom on Timeout… Make a beautiful bouquet of Hershey’s Kiss Roses for your Happy Buddy’s teacher this Valentine’s Day.

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With just 3 ingredients, Bakerella shows how to whip up a batch of Oreo Kisses that will satisfy the sweetest of tooth-s!

I don’t know about you, but after this post, I am going to be doling out plenty of kisses this Valentine’s Day.

Both chocolate and real.

It’s going to be a delicious holiday!

Happy Kiss-ing!

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.” Solomon 1:2

“You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.” Luke 7:45