I 'heart' Valentines

Fondu for dinner was such a hit last year, all the kids asked if we were going to do it again...I need to have this on our menu more often, once a year doesn't really make you good at the technique-and the beautiful thing about this meal is that it keeps my kids at the table...they eat, they talk, they take turns at the fondu pot and we all enjoy an evening spent home together.

We now only have to make Valentines boxes for half of our children, which is great, because I am not into making Valentines boxes...poor Porter wishes I were. His classmates make boxes with pully systems, levers, and very advanced graphic art. Our boxes? We take 30 minutes with wrapping paper, old scrapbook punches and whatever glitter glue isn't dried up from last Valentines day! Of course, we do the obligatory valentine for each classmate with some form of sugar attached (I'm not an ogre, just don't take tons of time for a box that's getting ripped open at the end of the school day and looted for all its sugar content).

Our 'cookie for breakfast' tradition has lasted over 6 years. I think this will be its last. We went from store bought cookies (Great harvest) to home made this year. Most of the cookies were still out on the counter a few days after Valentines. That's a good sign that this tradition has run its course. Fun while it lasted. May it rest in peace.

photo taken totally out of context (this was in Hawaii; no I don't wear flowers around my neck in February) but I didn't snap a shot of my Valentine on this day of Love. We celebrated the weekend before with a super fun date; tennis, thai food, a 'drive in movie' which means watching a movie while sitting in the back seat of John's car while it is parked in a parking lot so our kids don't disturb us while we watch) and yummy hot chocolate and waffles from Bruge's Waffles and Frites. I gifted john little things through out the week. He gifted me new green jeans; oh how I had been pining for GREEN jeans. he done good I tell ya!

My favorite part of the entire day was that I made my kids stay HOME from swimming and dance to be with us for dinner. I know their teachers and coaches were annoyed, but sometimes you've just got to be a family ya know? And sometimes it feels good to remember that I am in charge, not the coach or the teacher, of my children and what they are involved in.

I didn't snap a picture of our huge heart Valentine, hung in the picture window, made by yours truly. That's another long standing tradition, and I love that one so I'm keeping it even if the kids say they don't care about it anymore. I think its fun to declare my adoration for the people I live with in such a public way one time each year.

I hope I show it privately a hundred other ways when it isn't Valentine's.