Valentine's Day 2014

Valentine's Day is always one of my favorite holidays.  This year my husband was actually home, so we decided to throw a little party and invite our good friends.  I usually just do breakfast for dinner with the kids and chocolate fondue, so it was nice to have something a little more special this year!  I tried to go with a wine pairing party theme where we not only paired wine with cheese, but with chocolate too.  Turns out that to do it right we would have ended up with way more wine left over than we wanted and it would have been way too much food.  So we enjoyed doing a little cheese and chocolate tasting, but the wine we drank by the glasses instead of sipping!

 

Note:  This is the kids cheese/fruit tray.  

 The girls were excited to get Valentines from family with cash and target cards inside.  As always, we spoiled them with roses.

Valentines Day 2013

I am a little behind on blogging.  I blame pinterest.  So I am going to attempt to catch up!

Valentine's Day this year was so super fun.  As tradition goes I made the girls breakfast for dinner and we had chocolate fondue for dessert.  I set a pretty little table complete with roses and gifts.  Daddy was out of town working again this year, so he had special gifts for them.  New dresses! 

Judging by the look Lauren's face...this might have been the last year we do the chocolate fondue.  She didn't love it this year! 

Sarah also had her Valentine's Cotillion.  It was so cute and she had so much fun!

We had lots of fun preparing for the day.  Homemade Valentine's for Sarah's friends and heart shaped cookies to give as gifts!  Such a fun day! 

Daddy and I were even able to get away for a little retreat to Terranea the week before for a little R&R and spa time!

Valentine's Day Wrap Up

Valentine's Day this year was really great for us. It was on of the first I can remember that Charlie was actually home with us. Instead of doing some romantic evening out just the two of us, we decided to have family dinner at home and make it special and fun for the kids. Of course the girls had a blast during the day at their schools having parties, making crafts, and eating sweets. So it is always hard to top the fun that they have at school. SO when they got home I had a little Valentine's table set with goodies for each of them. I then made them breakfast for dinner (one of their favorites!) I attempted heart shaped pancakes, but was having some technical difficulties with that. They loved them just the same regardless of the shape. Whew! Then I made sausage, bacon, and had strawberries and yogurt for them. While all this smelled divine, Charlie and I opted to try the Thai place down the street, so he went and got take-out. We had chicken satay, yellow chicken curry, and chicken pad thai. It was really good, but not as good as Sea Siam in Keller, TX. I will say, though, that here in Hermosa Beach and the South Bay, there are about a hundred different Thai places in a 5 mile radius, so we will find one we love. I am sure of it.

For dessert we had chocolate fondue. You can tell by the pictures that the girls LOVED it. Every time we do fondue I ask myself, "Why don't you do this more often?" It is always so good. We had pound cake, strawberries, and bananas with the chocolate. YUM! So it was a nice evening at home and a great Valentine's!

Never was there a story of more woe....

Than that of Juliet and her Romeo.


Another outstanding performance today by Texas Ballet Theater at Bass Hall. Season tickets to the ballet has turned out to be one of the best purchases I have made all year (well, last year). The sets, the costumes, the music, the DANCING....all amazing and captivating. I was once again..moved to tears. Originally this was to be a romantic date for me and my Charlie, but I totally forgot he was going to be away at the Olympics when I bought the tickets....so Sarah became my Valentine's date. She was great. She behaved so well, and was so good during the performance. I know the storyline was a little deep for her and sort of went right over her head, but I know she loved it anyway. She came home dancing in the living room for a good half hour, so it inspired her! What a wonderful afternoon with my Sarah!

Happy Valentine's Day

From My Sweets to yours.....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Bingo

Here is yet another fun crafty thing I am doing this week. I love being the room mom for Sarah's class and one of my main duties is getting to help plan the 2 parties they get to have a year! So I successfully pitched the Bingo game idea to the teachers for the holiday party and they loved it. So much so, that they wanted me to create a Valentine's version of the game for the Valentine party! It is super easy to do....I just grab free clipart from the web and make a game board out of it and then mix the pictures around until I have enough that are different. I them cut out each picture and put it in a baggie, so the room mom's can "draw" the picture and announce it to the class. We will use conversation hearts as the game pieces! Super easy and the kids love it!

Full Valentine's Mode

That is what we are in at my house! It all started today. Sarah and I hand-made Valentine's for each child in her class and for her teacher. I have been dreaming of this day since I new I was going to have babies. I was just waiting for her to get old enough to really be able to make them herself. Store bought valentines can be cute, but can also be boring. They also don't capture the spirit of making something and doing it with love. So this year I vowed would be the year that we made them from scratch. What fun we had!

It took us about 2 hours to make 22 valentines.
What do you think?

Can you tell which is mine and which belongs to my six year-old?
I am not sure if she is really pretty craft for 6, or if I am not-really that crafty for 33.
They were not Martha, that is for sure, but we both liked them!

I love these with the "vintage" Holly Hobby valentines and paper doll valentines form the 50's. Thanks mom for saving all those!

Sarah loves doing arts and crafts and we both got inspiration from each other. What a fun afternoon.

The Valentine fun is just beginning. We still have a Valentine Bingo game and heart-shaped cookies to make for her party at school. I am in charge of her party at school being the room mom. They will decorate cookies, make visors, play a bingo game, and exchange their valentine's. Thankfully Lauren's daycare party is low-key and I am just taking apple slices for that. Our Valentine's week will be capped off with going to see Texas Ballet Theatre's rendition of Romeo and Juliet! Oh yeah..... and I will make the girls heart-shaped pancakes Sunday morning!

Happy Heart Day!

And oh what a day full of hearts it was!!! We started off the day with heart shaped pancakes! Of, course. That is Sarah's favorite breakfast! We then all exchanged Valentine's and gifts. Charlie, as usual, spoiled the girls and me. Flowers, clothes, stuffed animals. I think an itunes gift card was good to reciprocate the giving! NOT! He always goes above and beyond. That is one of the many reasons why I am so happy he is MY valentine! Then after Sarah's dance class she had some of her little friends over for a playdate and Valentine crafts. They enjoyed making Valentine collages and paper rose bouquets. After a little dress-up and pretend play they had heart-shaped sandwiches (of course) and Valentine red fruit cups. Heart-shaped chocolate cookies were sent home in their little goodie bags! The adults had sandwiches and strawberry salad. See photos below. It was a fun little day and will end with none other than Heart-shaped pizza and some family time. Maybe if we are not totally exhausted, the hubby and I can pop some popcorn and watch a movie later! Treat! Well, I hope all 2 of you who probably read this blog have/had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Hearts to you all!