Valentine's Day Weekend 2016

What a fun weekend we had.  Hope you did too.  I love Valentine's Day.  It's always fun to have something out of the ordinary to celebrate to make an ordinary day special by giving/making treats and little gifts. A little bright spot in the dead of winter.  Not that winter is all gloomy, but it's fun to have something to look forward to.

Shanna wanted to bring cookies to school for Valentine's Day and I signed up to bring some to Elden's class too.  I softened some butter for the frosting....I thought only 15 seconds.  I must have pressed 1:15.  I was really shocked when I opened the microwave!


I frosted the cookies before school that morning.  I made a nice mess. The opposite counter was worse, ha ha.


I went to Elden's party later that afternoon.


Elden and his classmates made the cutest Valentine boxes.  His teacher loves crafts and activities, which is so fun.  I should have taken a picture of the line-up of boxes.  They looked like cute Valentine boxes from Monsters, Inc. or something. 


These kids were so excited to get Valentines from school.


We had a fun, busy Valentine weekend!   Friday night we drove up to my sister's house in Tyson's Corner.  All the kids fell asleep on the way up and immediately laid down when we arrived.  Steph made a yummy brownie tart and we adults stayed up talking.  It was really, really fun.  Early Saturday morning Steph, Lee and I went to the temple and did a session.  We went to the 7th floor to show Steph the Priesthood assembly room, but sadly it was locked.

We arrived home around noon and did some Saturday stuff.  We took off a little later to go to the baptism of my friend's twin boys.  They used to live nearby and in our ward,  but moved about 50 minutes away.  I found out that my friend is the new Relief Society president!  Here I am with my friend Megan and one of her twin boys.  I used to teach the boys primary a few years ago.


That night Lee took me on a Valentine's date.  It was a surprise and he told me to dress up.


He took me to Ciro's for dessert (we had already eaten dinner).  We got smoothie-type drinks, an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms and dessert.  I have an amazing talent of tying a cherry stem into a knot, in my mouth.  Fingers-free.  I know, I know.  So cool.  I'm a good kisser.  Ha ha.  Not that you even wanted to know! 




The stem was broken so it was a little harder....still tying the knot.  But here is a picture of our fun drinks.


Ta-da!  A knot!  Not the prettiest, but still tied!


Stuffed mushrooms.


Lee ordered a lemon mousse dessert.  Lemon overload!  It was really yummy though. 


My all time favorite from Ciro's, their chocolate cake.  YUMMY!  So, so glad they didn't drizzle raspberry sauce ON the cake.  Chocolate and fruit combined do not make my mouth happy. 


Valentine's morning Lee set up a tiny hunt for me.  Cal took me on it.  I found some yummy treats!  Thanks Lee!


The girls made some wood art for Lee and I as gifts.  It's always fun to see gifts our kids create for us on special occasions.



We enjoyed whole-wheat waffles for breakfast. Delicious!


Growing up my dad always gave us kids a Valentine card with a Little Debbie treat.  With my help, Lee does the same.  He even rings the doorbell and runs away, like my dad did.  So fun. The kids were really excited to get a fun treat.






And nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but there are five Laurels (young women in our church congregation ages 16-18) that will graduate this spring. I gave all of them a copy of The Total Money Makeover.  The book focuses a lot of getting out of debt, but it has such great advice in there like never loan people money, don't co-sign loans, always buy vehicles with cash, budget your money, don't go to a school you can't afford, always pay tithing, and use a budget every month.  I have always been so grateful we found some great money tools before Lee graduated optometry school.  In addition with great teachings from my church leaders, this book gives more specific steps with what do to with money. Lee and I have greatly appreciated that.


Hope you had a terrific Valentine's Day!