Happy Valentine's Day

I had a good laugh this morning. For the last few days Kennedy has been saying she needed to go to the store to buy Valentine stuff. Chris and I didn't think much of it at first, but finally caught on to the idea that she wanted to spend all of her money to buy Valentine prizes for everyone. We thought that was very sweet, but explained that it would be better to save her money and just make everyone a card and that Valentine's day wasn't like Christmas, she didn't need to buy gifts. She finally realized we weren't letting her spend all of her money on candy, and instead stayed up until 11 pm last night making cards for everyone. I just kind of went with it as a "pick and choose my battles" thing.
Then this morning, I was getting Addie out of bed, and Kennedy came in and said, "Is it okay if we go downstairs?" I realized very quickly, she was thinking there was going to be a grand Valentine's surprise downstairs for her! Every year I have given my kids a very SMALL prize or treat of some kind--like a balloon--something small, but I think she was expecting Christmas or something. And to dash her hopes even more, I did have a small prize, but it was not downstairs, it was in my closet. She ran downstairs and I was laughing/feeling guilty as she searched the living room, kitchen, etc for her grand gift. So while she was doing this I quickly snuck their prize on their beds and told them to get dressed while I made breakfast. The kids were thrilled with their "I only cost $1" prize, and pillsbury cinnamon rolls with pink frosting so I guess it worked out okay, but I think maybe we need to have a serious talk around here about holiday commercialization!!!