Valentine's Day is almost upon us. Children of all ages will exchange cards, hugs and candy hearts. It starts as young as kindergarten, and continues until the kids discover that sometimes "love" is more fun in private.

I know this will make some folks mad, but maybe having little kids make Valentine's for their peers is a bad idea.

To illustrate, here are some examples, both personal and fictional.

Valentine's Day is, for many people, a very special time. It can be difficult, however, when you have kids to keep that romantic feeling alive, especially without excluding the kids. A diamond bracelet or pearl necklace may be beautiful and great to receive, but perhaps there are better ways for parents to celebrate a day of love and caring.

I've collected my suggestions for the best gifts, goodies, and games for families to keep love -- and fun -- in their lives. If you've got more suggestions, I'd love to hear them; feel free to post them in the comments!



So there you have it, the best of the best for this Valentine's Day. Or is it? Got any suggestions for this list? Let us hear about them in the comments below!

After every ad for flowers, chocolate and sweet romantic moments, my wonderful, tragically unromantic husband laughs boldly and whispers: "Sucka!"

He actually can be romantic, he just doesn't like to be told to be romantic. By Hallmark. So the only way I'm going to get to celebrate Valentine's Day is with my kids -- and that's just how I like it.

Now that our little Prince is 7 and the Princess is 4, the Year of the Valentine here. A search for cute ways to celebrate turned up a story about how, due to our overly kid-centric culture, V-day is widely considered less of a romance opportunity and more of a fun family affair, with moms baking heart-shaped pancakes and decorating the living room with pink paper chains and hearts rather than dressing up in a satin teddy or thinking up new ways to wow him. Hmm ... I do like pancakes.

But then one psychologist warns that turning this special holiday into a family event can rob couples of the potential for a deeply romantic night of tender bonding. Some moms also fear that turning Valentine's Day into a family celebration provides another opportunity for "celebration creep." The "Celebration Creep" is not a Chuck E. Cheese mascot, but the idea that if you celebrate everything, kids won't be able to tell what's worth celebrating.

I see their point, and I guess that could be the case if a family acts like Valentine's Day is a good reason to paint your whole house pink before flying your crew to Italy so they can learn a romance language. But truthfully, any anti-celebratory sentiment makes me a little sad. This is my Valentine's Day year with my kids. So stop raining on my pink parade!

This February 14th, will we be making Valentines? Yes. Heart-shaped pancakes? Maybe. Pink ponies?? Ah, no. And what I also won't be doing this year is making last minute reservations at a local place for a second-rate, overpriced prix-fixe meal, nor will I wait expectantly for a Tiffany blue box that isn't coming.

For us, family-style Valentine's Day is a happier, calmer way to add a little sweet-themed celebration to our lives. And my husband and I will surprise each other with romance on other, non-romance-prescribed days. We both like it better that way.



Do you think a family-fun Valentine's Day is a beautiful idea or just another example of "Over-Celebration Nation." and we should leave the love holiday to the grown-ups?

Sabrina Weill is editor of PrincessLovesPink.com.

A teenage girl is suing her teacher for calling her ugly. According to reports, the freshman was called ugly by her teacher and kicked in the rear end by her choir teacher .

The alleged altercation took place in front of Jade Ray's classmates. Ray says she was humiliated and is seeking $75,000 to make things right. Ray wanted to be a part of a group singing Valentine grams and asked for permission of her teacher to do so.

Teacher Heather Hargett 's response? Calling her ugly, a brat, and then kicking her in the rear and ordering her to leave the room. That doesn't sound like any of the teachers I ever had in school! The fourteen-year-old's claims are being taken seriously by school officials.

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Do you have a favorite valentine, perhaps even an all-time favorite? I do. Well, I might.

My dad used to be my valentine. When I was little he would either send or bring me flowers and a sweet card. I was very happy and felt like the luckiest girl in the world to have my dad for a valentine. Once I was in high school I had various boyfriends who gave my candy, cards and flowers. They were sweet and so were their gifts and we had a lot of fun canoodling and, you know.

Then after college I got pretty serious with one of my valentines, who is now my husband. He was (and is) a very special valentine indeed. It wasn't because once he gave me a gift certificate to Victoria's Secret or made sure he picked up my beloved chocolate twizzlers (I'm not really a candy person). It wasn't even his choice of cards--of which, by the way, he is the master hands down.

Really, it was that he loved me. And he told me that he did. All the time. And he meant it. He could have given me nothing, or a box of rocks, and I wouldn't have cared, because I had him--and he had me.

Now I have a brand new valentine, one I'm just starting to get to know. He's only about ten months old but boy is he a dosey. And he loves me--this much I can tell. And I love him too. Luckily my husband is in love with our son as I am, so he doesn't mind that I have a new valentine.

Which is my favorite? Of ALL TIME? Hard to say--different kinds of love lead to different kinds of valentines. I couldn't pick. Rather, I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world to have so much love in my life, whether it's Valentine's Day or not.

Of course, there is another valentine lurking out there somewhere. His name is Paul Newman. He is definitely a favorite of mine. I mean, he hasn't sent me candy or cards or flowers or anything, but I know he wants to.

What about you? Do you have a favorite valentine--or valentine memory? Or are those too special to share?

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If you're pressed for time (or money!) you can make a valentine tribute out of just about anything at all.

Leaves can be arrange in the yard or snow piles at the end of the driveway can serve as the perfect canvas for showing family members how you really feel.

(Seeing how embarrassed junior high and high school boys get when people honk and wave is an added bonus!)

There's even a Flickr group dedicated to hearts found in nature. Give it a look to be reminded that love can be found everywhere .....................and not just on Valentine's day.

Valentine's Day is today and what could be better than a bit of love from a son? Not only does this boy hold a mom's heart in his hands but it also tastes great! What a perfect shot for this day of love. Thank you, jenn jenn for sharing this bit of love with us all at Image of the Day!

February will bring some fun changes at Image of the Day. We will continue to feature as many great reader submitted pictures as possible. However, we will be asking you, the readers, to vote on the images at the end of the month. So keep the pictures coming and get ready to vote, vote, vote! And don't get bogged down by themes, just show us who you are and how you live with your gorgeous small ones.

If you'd like your own picture featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr Pool - We'll select an image every day to highlight. Remember: we're on the lookout for shots with interesting backgrounds, cool angles, or original composition. Be sure to read the intro on the main Flickr page for more information and limit your uploading to 5 photos per day.

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I don't know when this obsession with robots started in my house, but then again, I never thought I'd get excited at the sight of a fire truck either.

In my quest for robot slogans for my husband's Valentine's cards, I came across a slew of robot Valentines on Etsy. Seems there's a whole lotta folks out there who think nothing says love like robots. Check out the gallery and stock up for next year!

"I'm horrified." That was my response when Rachel showed me the valentine's she had put together for Jared's class. There was one bag for boys and another for girls. I'm big on gender equality and don't think there should be girl's this or a boy's that. I believe that girls can do anything boys can do and that pink is a perfectly acceptable color for boys.

Rachel disagreed, however. "I know the age," she told me. "Boys will freak if they get pink. Not everyone is raising their kids the same way we are." She's right, of course, just as she always is when it comes to matters of education or early elementary-school-aged children. Although I don't like it, I know I cannot force other parents to raise their kids my way. And so Jared brought two separate bags of valentines to school.

The Acme Heart Maker makes it easy to personalize conversation hearts to share cyberly with everyone on your computer contact list that are WAY more fun that the chalky lames ones in real life.

Remind your teen to stop on the way home with a pink "GET MILK", send a friendly "YOU SUCK" to the co-worker who drank the last of the coffee, and thrill (or scare, in my case) your husband with an "I M PGNT".

If these were available in real life, I'd converse only in conversation hearts all day long, just for fun.

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According to a survey conducted by Yahoo!, people spend nearly $200 on Valentine's Day gifts. That's $200 that could be spent on new tires for the minivan or a digital camera or even savings for college. Rachel and I have been together for nearly twenty years and while we don't love each other any less, I think she'd skin me alive if I spent $200 on her for Valentine's Day.

Instead, what she really wants is a card or at least a note. According to the Yahoo! survey, a lot of people agree with her. Two-thirds of the respondents said that gifts aren't important and almost all said that loving thoughts were more impressive than expensive gifts. Even high-tech love notes are okay -- text messages, e-mails, voice-mails, and the like each got the okay from about a quarter of the recipients.

Personally, I think the idea of a single day to take care of expressing all your feelings is kinda silly. Would it be okay that I went out boozing and sleeping around all year so long as I made sure to get Rachel lots of candy and flowers and jewelry on Valentine's Day? I don't think so, but that's what Valentine's Day feels like to me. It seems to me that if you need a specific date to force you to show your feelings, than those feelings aren't really strong enough to be the basis of a long term relationship.

What do you think? Do you express your love all year long or just on Valentine's Day? What about your spouse? Or is Valentine's Day a requirement in addition to the rest of the year?

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I always loved the book, Charlotte's Web, where all the animals and Fern worked together to turn Wilbur the pig into a star, saving him from the slaughter.

A pig in England recently became a huge star by being born with heart-shaped spots.

Valentine was born 10 days ago on Byford's Farm in Taynton, near Newent, Gloucester, in England. Eric Freeman, the farmer who breeds Gloucester Old Spot pigs, said this is the first time he has seen a piglet with such a clearly shaped mark.

Freeman, a founding member of the Gloucester Old Spot Pig Breeders' Club, has been breeding these pigs for over 25 years. The pigs have recently returned from near extinction. In describing the breed, Freeman stated, "There has been a lot of interest because they are a fatty breed and it's a different taste to the normal type of pig - it's much more succulent."

Hopefully, Valentine's recent popularity will spare her from the slaughter the same way Wilbur's popularity saved him by his best friend Charlotte.

Once again, St. Valentine's Day is upon us. I won't lie to you -- once I got past the age when kids were required to bring valentines for everyone in the class or else bring none at all, I don't think I ever got any, so I might just be a little bitter. But still, I'm not sure I see the point of passing out cards bearing false sentiments.

I'm not saying Jared doesn't like anyone in his class -- quite the opposite, in fact -- but he shows that everyday by playing with them, sharing with them, and just generally being a friend to everyone. Do these valentines, with a pre-printed, generic message really add any value? What do they learn from giving or getting them?

On the other hand, it is something kids do and I don't want him to feel left out; perhaps it is more about a social tradition than any meaningful expression of emotion. I certainly don't want Jared to feel like an outcast. And so he is bringing valentines to school for all his classmates. I'm not convinced, however, that it's the right thing to do.

Sometimes in the mornings, I go for a walk. It's then I best appreciate the cool crisp of the day, the snow bluish gray, clouds that seem to be caught in the trees. My boots crunch through the surface and I make my own tracks, laying a trail in the windswept field. I'm reminded of the Snowy Day and the little boy in the book and his stick. It also occurs to me that lately, all my references are to children's stories, so firmly rooted am I in the world of my kids.

But there are advantages to this way of living: I find myself paying attention, since I've been a mom. And more often, I see the world from a child's perspective, which is filled with newness and wonder. It feels like a second chance: I used to love the world in this way, when I was a child, only in growing up, I mostly forgot. Now, I hope I can remember to look with a child's eyes, even when my children are grown.

I walk until I reach the dilapidated wooden shed that holds an abandoned Kenmore electric range and a lime-green wringer washer, dented on one side. An old headlight hangs from the wall, next to rusty hubcaps and part of a screen. My eyes take in each of these things, trying to see them clearly, as they are, just as they might look to a child, when I notice something I've never seen before--an old branding iron. The brand is in the shape of a heart.

On my way home, I notice other things too, like the way the wind sighs through the trees and makes the barbed wire sing; the way the snow pools in the draws, which is where the trees grow, and that there are other tracks in the snow besides mine--coyotes, and rabbits, and deer. The deer tracks look like little upside-down hearts.

Today is Valentine's Day and I'm seeing hearts everywhere.

I think about the symbolic giving of hearts, versus the real giving of hearts. I remember long-ago Valentines when Tom and I were a new couple, and I used to get that flipping feeling in my stomach just being near him. Then later, days full of love still, but different. I never tired of watching Tom hold our first baby, Carter, in his arms, knowing this man was the best father I could have chosen, if I'd been thinking ahead that far.

Our second pregnancy brought more surprises: twins Avery and Bennett, and Avery's genetic condition. One of the things I was told to expect as a new mom to Avery was that my marriage would suffer. My experience has been that Avery's diagnosis was an opportunity to learn about my husband: the chance to see him in a new light, watch him love without expectation of reward, without any guile or deceit or self-interest. Simply, love. Seeing Tom with Avery, I realized that the man I married is a person I deeply admire--my guide, my partner, my strength when I don't have any, a soul I'm honored to know.

Down syndrome, the diagnosis, with all its statistics and uncertainty and unknowns, is still sometimes scary to me. The worry, and the fear, are big and powerful and looming, not different from the fear I occasionally feel for my other children, but more lonely, because there are fewer people walking this path with us.

The best way to quiet my uneasy mind, I've found, is to look at what's in front of me--the things I can count or touch or hold. The number of months Avery has been healthy; the purple crayon marks in the shapes of letters; the boy, himself.

It's easier, then, when I set aside what I've been told to expect, or the things I read, and just look at my life, Avery eating yogurt in the mornings (he calls it "yo-yo"), or the children racing around the house playing tag. Blanket forts and library books and sugar cookies; later in the day, macaroni painted pink and red, glued on cardboard hearts for Daddy.

I don't know what the future holds, for any of us. I think of the many hearts around me: heart-shaped branding irons and deer tracks in the snow and 3 little boys, proud of their artwork for dad. All I have is today, and this heart, and my love to give. It's not a mistake to give it. Of this, I am certain.

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Most radio stations give away prizes like concert tickets or days at the spa. However, a radio station in Charleston, West Virginia is promoting themselves as your "I Hate Valentine's Day station."

WKLC-FM or Rock 105, took applications through 4 p.m. yesterday and at 5 p.m. today, will award one listener a free divorce that includes 10 free hours of attorney time with Charleston attorney, Rusty Webb.

Not everyone celebrates Valentine's Day with candy, flowers or jewelry. Plenty of people are single or separated and might not feel like celebrating. The station manager, Jay Nunley, states that only people who are serious about getting a divorce should enter the contest. I would hope that isn't something that needed reminding.

"Sure we can give away concert tickets, and we do," said Nunley. "That's going to make you happy for a little while. This is the chance to make someone happy for the rest of their life."

While this might not be the most romantic Valentine's Day prize, I bet there is someone out there who will be able to use it. I know firsthand how expensive attorneys can be.