We'll be celebrating Valentine's Day as a family this year. This is mostly because the month of March will be very busy for our family due to a series of events for my photography career, which means the three of us will rarely be together as a family. In addition to ensuring Jeremiah and I have a few moments to gaze lovingly into each other's eyes, I've been brainstorming ways for our family to celebrate our love for each other and our love for our family on Valentine's Day. Here are my ideas:

1. Interview Z to find out her thoughts on love. Potential questions: What is love? How do you show someone you love them? How do you know they love you?


2. Allow Z to interview us if she wants to.


3. Read the story of Cupid and Eros.


4. Bake something. Z loves to cook with us and I've been wanting to make bread lately. I'm thinking we might pull out the pretzel recipe or make a nice loaf of bread for dinner.


5. Make a special treat. These s'mores in the waffle iron look pretty good - and we have some Sweet & Sara's vegan marshmallows that we need to use.


6. Make a card for distant relatives - Z loves to do craft projects and has been expressing a desire to keep better in touch with her Grandma and Grandpa and her cousins that live far from us. Better get a move on this! Maybe we'll deliver it digitally.


7. Play a game - we got quite a few fun games appropriate for Z but that we all enjoy playing for Christmas.

Here's a great resource for simple pop-ups for older kids or for parents and young kids to make together, courtesty of the creator of some of the best pop-up books on the planet. Can't wait to try a few of these with Z!

If you are like many parents in America, Halloween can be a dreaded time of year for one reason: excessive amounts of sugar! We can recognize that your average trick-or-treater is not going to bring home a "moderate" amount of candy. Rather, most kids will bring home an INSANE amount! According to a Kids' Health website survey of about 1200 kids, "Most kids said they get at least 50 pieces of candy, with over 44% saying they get more than 100 pieces." If this number frightens you (not to mention your dentist), consider donating your candy to help support the troops this year.

There is a non-profit charitable organization called Boatsie’s Boxes whose staff gather and ship supplies and packages to soldiers. They have not been able to send chocolate since May because of the extreme heat temperatures, so this is a perfect time of year to gather your Halloween chocolate, spare your teeth a bit and pass along!

My brother, 1LT Christopher Moskoff, is a Colorado National Guard helicopter pilot. He spent a year at Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2007, and reminded me of the value of sending packages to our soldiers. "It was the highlight of the week to get a care package. We have very few luxuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but getting a care package was the best reminder that your family and friends still miss, love and support you," he said. You can find the mailing address for sending donations to Boatsie's Boxes here.

If you want to avoid the cost of shipping your candy, look for a local dentist who might be taking donations. We have a dentist in Boulder, Colorado who is accepting donations and PAYING $1 per each pound of donated candy! He will then pay the shipping costs to send the candy to U.S. troops.

For younger kids (under 4), they might not even notice the candy contents had diminished. But for older children, it can be a great learning experience about sharing with others, donating to charities and eating sweets in moderation.

And if you are still looking for another way to disperse your Halloween candy, consider starting an unlimited sweets drawer experiment like we did. (And be sure to let us know how it worked.)

And whatever you choose to do this year, we hope you have a very happy, healthy and safe celebration!