valentine's dinner

So here's a few pictures from our Valentine's Dinner.

I had set out some candy on the table for decoration and Trey pushed a chair over to climb up and reach the candy.

caught in the act

Realizing mom is holding a camera (and she doesn't seem to be taking away the candy :)

 My 5 Valentine's (see what I mean in my last post about everything being the same from the previous years. Oh well! At least I'm documenting it.)

Drinking Strawberry Lemonade

I loved this idea when I saw it. Heart Shaped Tomatoes! It even encouraged the boys to try them since they aren't big fans of tomatoes. Except for Peyton who loves these and ate any he could reach.

Peyton eating fondue. (If his eyes look red, it is because yes, he was crying, he was having a very emotional night from lack of sleep the night before. He would squeal - yes squeal - with excitement when he saw the chocolate or dip in a marshmallow and then burst into tears when there was too much chocolate or when the food got stuck in the chocolate. It was actually rather amusing. Poor kid.) 

For some reason Cole wanted me to take a picture of him making this face (and since none of the other pictures I took turned out any better, I decided to post this one.)

The fondue was really easy and delicious! I actually do have a fondue pot but didn't realize I needed to buy some kind of gas for it, so it was just in a bowl, but nobody seemed to mind and it made clean up much easier.)

easton's valentine

I saw the cutest idea here and really, really wanted to do it for Easton's Valentines for his class. He was hesitant at first, but once they were done he LOVED them. I think they are so stinkin' fun!! Isn't it the cutest idea?! Plus he didn't have to write his name 26 times, which I'm sure would have not been pleasant for either of us. :)
All I did was take his picture while holding his fist out, print them off, and then stick the sucker through to make it look like he's holding it. Super easy and super cheap!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We had such a nice Valentine's Day this year. I decided I wanted to do something with our boys this year, since they're all my sweethearts. :) I decided we would make a nice dinner and have it by candlelight. Here's the menu: Steak, Lobster (both from great sales this week), Baked Potato, Broccoli, Rolls, Strawberry Lemonade with Red Heart Ice Cubes, and ending with Chocolate-dipped Strawberries that the boys helped me make. I think it was actually one of the best dinners we've ever made (how could it not be?) and surprisingly easy. The boys LOVED eating by candlelight! Easton said "This is the coolest dinner EVER!" And that had nothing to do with what he ate- he doesn't like potatoes, the meat (steak) was too spicy and the lobster was funny, but I guess he did love the special drink and dessert.

Peyton (I did take pictures of the other 2, but they were funny pictures, not that this one is that great...)
My Four Sweethearts

I'm pretty proud of my first attempt at making these :)
For Valentine's Seth got me an entire golf club set. Which is very exciting because that means we now have something new and fun to do on dates together. (You also need to understand I have told Seth that I never want flowers - I'm just not that kind of person - I want something lasting, not that will die... so this really is a very sweet present for me.) I am a little nervous about how it will go with him teaching me. My first experience was when we were dating we went to a driving range and after missing the ball 15 times in a row I just gave up. My second was going with him and some friends to a course, just to watch them golf. It was a little cold so I had my hands wrapped up in my sweatshirt. While riding in the cart Seth took a turn rather fast and since my hands couldn't get out fast enough to grab on to something I went flying out of the cart. (I was not harmed.) So hopefully I will have much better golfing experiences to remember...
I got all of my boys different baseball hats, Seth is always wearing hats, so I think I did pretty good. :) The boys all love wearing them too, especially Peyt.

Peyt showing off some of the hats (he put the first 2 on by himself and then asked me for help for the third)

Our Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day was really very simple. We had a breakfast of pink heart-shaped pancakes, which all 3 boys seemed to enjoy, with eggs and bacon. Then we played with their new cars racing track, which I've decided is my new favorite toy. Peyton can sit and watch the cars go around and around for a very long time. Then for dinner we were going to make heart-shaped pizza, but I took the easy way and bought a pizza crust mix and it was supposed to be pressed onto the pan, rather then rolled out, so that made it difficult. But I don't think the boys would have even noticed had the pizza been heart-shaped. But they each got to make their own pizza and they absolutely LOVED that. As their pizzas were cooking I noticed a small fire in our oven. I wasn't sure if it was just some food that had fallen down but I turned the oven off for a minute and then noticed that the coil part (or whatever it is) had completely broken in 2! I have no idea why or how it did that, but I still had to cook the pizza I made for Seth and I. I quickly put the pizza in, hoping there was enough residual heat, and left it in a while. I also broiled it for just a little (cause that part still works, as well as the stove) but we still had a little soggy crust in the middle. Bummer. Oh well, it was still yummy. We were going to do something all together after dinner but the boys woke up very early that day and really needed to get to bed, cause when they are tired they can be kind of cranky, which leads to us not having a good time. But overall we still had a very fun day.