Valentine's Day 2012

Valentine's day celebrations always start on Feb. 1st for us.  We get out the V-day decor and then the kids get to start checking their envelopes on the back of their chairs every morning for love notes from Momma and Papa.  Sometimes I forget and they are so disappointed.  It is fun to watch their faces light up when I read to them reasons why they are loved.   We made a batch of sugar cookies and made half into mini fruit pizza's at Marilyn's one night and the other half we decorated for Uncle Adam.  

 There was a LOT of icing going on some of those cookies.  I wonder how they fared en route to Boston?

 Hopefully he felt loved by the mass of cookie, candy and icing that I'm sure was unrecognizable by the time it arrived. :)

 We sure had fun with the process. :)

  

On Feb. 14th we had our traditional family valentine's dinner.

Some family favorites: pan fried herb salmon, sauteed brussel sprouts, fresh green salad, and onion brown rice.  I know weird.  But my kids really do love salmon and brussel sprouts.  The other day we were in Costco and found said brussel sprouts and Zina and Wilson started running around yelling, "YEAH!! BRUSSEL SPROUTS!"  And some guy look at them in disbelief and said, "Are you kidding me?  How'd you do that?"  It made me laugh and I don't know how I did it.   They just like them.

After dinner Papa surprised us all with one last love note in our envelopes along with our favorite candy.  And he also came home with the table centerpiece for me. 

Thanks honey!

 After dinner we played red rover (per Zina's request).  I was a little sceptical but it was actually pretty fun and had us all laughing.  Sammy kept running back and forth saying, "Momma team,"  "Papa team"

Then Liz showed up and promised me that she would put all the kids to bed. wink wink.  The cries and wails of "momma don't leave" soon turned into giggles and whispers and Mark and I slipped out the door for a little Valentine evening of our own.  We went to go to your typical Valentine Movie, "The Vow"  but it was all sold out.  So we bought tickets to another movie and then went to it anyway.  I tried really hard to not have anxiety for breaking the rules.  Mark laughed at me but I can't help it!!!  I felt better when I realized there were tons of extra seats so we weren't keeping someone from their movie.  Anyways we both enjoyed the show and the evening out with just the two of us.

Thanks Liz.  You're the best!  

And here's Sammy helping put away the V-day decorations. 

So grateful for all my loves this February!