It should be %Y-%m-%d:
>>> s = "2014-04-07"
>>> datetime.datetime.strptime(s, "%Y-%m-%d").date()
datetime.date(2014, 4, 7)
According to the documentation:
%Ystands for a year with century as a decimal number%m– month as a zero-padded decimal number%d– day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number