VALENTINE'S DAY at Mie's House

Before I get started, yesterday I forgot to add the link for Valentine's Confetti.  I seriously worried about it all night.  So, here it is.  I will tell you that I highly recommend checking that recipe out because if you can find M&Ms that match your seasonal colors (and you can) then you can use this recipe for any occasion.  I will also tell you that the hardest part for mie was microwaving the popcorn, I sadly admit.  I burnt 2 1/2 bags of popcorn trying to get the timing right.  That's shamefully embarrasing and yet proof that I usually cook on the stove and in the oven.  


And yes, I did get all my V-day stuff prepped, except for the gift for hubby.  Still thinking that through. 


My husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday by going out to lunch.  We went to Genghis Grill for some Mongolian BBQ - he had a traditional teriyaki bowl and I had a seafood dish.  Yum!  We even got a discount, presumably because they noticed my husband's "official"ness though he tried to hide it.  Awesome.

Then he offered to take mie to Starbucks.  This is a big deal because he doesn't do Starbucks.  He doesn't do coffee.  He doesn't do warm drinks.  But he offered to take mie there anyway.  I didn't feel quite like Starbucks so instead I suggested ice cream.  It was about 37 degrees outside and raining, but ice cream it was.  They still had some pumpkin flavor they were trying to get rid of so they were discounting it to 99 cents for two scoops.  I didn't need that much but it was only 99 cents afterall.  When I was nearly finished with both scoops I noticed a poster on the wall that said "1/4lb dips".  I was hoping that meant for a double scoop and not per scoop because that was just nuts.

We joked about how you couldn't have a REAL date without going to get ice cream.

He gave mie a gift.

I assure you this is a wonderful gift for mie.  I used it last night.

I still owe him a gift.  I have no idea what to do for him.  I'm stumped.  I do have a Reese's Heart king size candy waiting for him but somehow think I need to do more than that.  Argh.

Last night I finished all the V-Day prep for the kids.  I didn't take any pictures because when I was done I had 4 plastic bags from Kroger, each containing the stuff that was needed for each respective kid.  They each had a drink of some sort (bottles of juice or Capri-Sun waters), Summer & Logan had goldfish crackers for their parties, each had a paper lunch sack with their valentines - all signed and everything, and each had Valentine's Confetti bags in there for their teachers.  This prep was super helpful.

After I got all that mess cleaned up I prepped the gifts for the kids from mommy and daddy.  I didn't go all out this year because we're trying to be frugal and furthermore they'll come back with plenty of stuff from school - how much candy does a 1, 2, 3, and 5 year old need afterall?  Yeah, so here's what we ended up with:

Each kiddo had a shirt to wear and it was attached to a little bag that had a valentine's heart stuffed with candy, some Kit-Kat valentines, and a toy for their age (Logan had two Batman books, the girls had sunglasses, and #10 had a ball).  Fun times.  

I put it up on the fireplace hoping they'd see it when they came downstairs and they'd get all excited.

The reality is that in my home the kids all wake up pretty groggy.  So, they had no idea about the gifts until later.  

What they did notice were these:

That's right, I woke up "early" to make them pink, "heart"-shaped pancakes.  I even offered to let them put strawberry syrup and whipped cream on them.  They were already kind of freaked out that #9 got to eat breakfast with us (she usually eats at school and gets dressed while the other two eat) and that the pancakes were in fact pink.  So, they settled on their usual - peanut butter and syrup.  

Except for Summer who won't get peanut butter and syrup until she neatly eats with a spoon or fork and stops putting it in her hair.  Syrup and PB in her hair on Saturday's is one thing - before school is a whole nother thing mommy isn't ready to deal with yet.  She received whipped cream instead.  She wasn't thrilled about it.  She picked it up with her hands and said "EWWWW".  Then I told her it was ice cream.  She was good.

My hubby and I even ate the pancakes together with the kids.  What fun.

While the kids were eating I pointed out their gifts.  "Did you find your gifts yet?" I said.  Then they did.  Logie was totally excited about it.  I reminded him of the fit he threw at the store when I asked him to pick out gifts for his brother and sisters and instead he wanted stuff for himself.  "I told you I had a plan for you", I  said.  Then I kissed his forehead.

They didn't get to open their gifts until they were done eating.  They loved them.  Of course they wanted to immediately eat the chocolate inside.  I wanted to immediately take the stuff away and get them dressed.

I won.

Then I realized Logie wears uniforms and couldn't wear his special shirt.  *Hand to forehead*

SO, I told him he could put it on under his uniform shirt and if his teacher said he could take off the uniform shirt he could do that at school.

Fun times was had by all.  Especially mommy who danced around this morning (not usual) making pancakes (especially unusual), with red food coloring trying to get them to turn into hearts.  Too fun.

Tonight we don't have plans.  We'll eat dinner together and maybe we'll make ice cream sundaes. 

That strawberry syrup and whipped cream has to be used sometime.