Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a little recap of the big holiday at our house - like always, I wish I'd taken MORE pictures, but my family thinks I'm crazy enough as it is! The evening beforehand we spent some quality time with the kiddies because Justin's school plans were such that we didn't think we'd get a lot of his attention on Valentine's Day itself. We were wrong! Anyway, we made valentines in the afternoon (I too, had to just about tie my kindergartener to the chair to get him to finish the names!) and baked cookies to decorate later on. The kids made mini pizzas for dinner, and we decorated cookies for the neighbors. I don't know why we do that, to be honest, because more often than not we either end up eating half of them or throwing them away, but the activity itself is pretty fun. :-)
Hard at work on Valentines...



Can you see Izzie's "Happy Valentine's Day" in there? I thought it was too cute!



We had a big Valentine's Day breakfast early before Justin and Erick had to be at school. You can see Audrey's favorite part! I tried to get each child's favorite breakfast food in there, and this was hers. Yes, they're pink marsmallows... it's a holiday, right? Each child had a skewer on their plate, along with their valentine from Justin and I. Izzie and Erick each got watches and couldn't be any more thrilled, which is kind of fun. We always got cards from my mom and dad on Valentine's Day left on our plates for some meal, so I guess that's where that tradition comes from. I remember one year earlier in our marriage when I started doing that, and forgot to tell Justin of my plans. He felt awful on Valentine's Day morning that everyone had a card on their plates but me and the kids actually pointed it out. We're better at communicating those things now, I think.

Here's a look at Erick and his breakfast... Oven pancake and ham with those yummy berries on the side. I STILL think it sounds good. That could be because it's dinner time here... it's like that "don't shop when you're hungry" thing, because everything sounds good again...

Justin spent some time outside making the kids this amazing "igloo"! It was a lot of work, and I think they were genuinely impressed with his skills. I'm just glad he was willing to pass on that little bit of info for posterity's sake. Mom's not into klondike-ing it.


Peek-a-boo!!!

A little LEGO action later on....


Other festivities for the day involved my helping out in the morning with Erick's Valentine Party in his Kindergarten class, Izzie's going to gymnastics with grandma (which she LOVES!), and then going to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Swenson to Olive Garden! Justin and I had talked about going out to dinner that evening, but my friend who was going to watch the kiddies ended up with some sick kids of her own, so without definite plans of our own it was easy to cancel, stay home, and take out Cafe Rio instead. We lit a fire in the fireplace and watched kid movies for a while, and this is how Justin finished off HIS busy day...

Isn't he too cute???

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!