valentines 2010

The standouts for this holiday this year:

-Samuel's cards.  The way he writes his name.  It's not that he can't do it write.  It is that he is entertaining himself as he is writing.

-She did butterflies.  Kind of like last year but the kids at this school hadn't seen them yet.

-For the teachers I drizzled chocolate on some fortune cookies, put them in a Chinese take out box and attached the note.  I didn't make it up.  

-Eva used her birthday party decorations for her Valentine box and it turned out so pretty.  

-I stopped by Eva's Valentine party and took a few pictures.  The mommy in charge of the snack made chocolate covered strawberries.  She is a mommy after my own heart.

-Samuel came home from preschool with this heart bag.  It said "Cole" on it.  But Samuel didn't care.  

-On the actual day we usually have fondue for dinner.  Since it was my niece's birthday party that night, we had it for lunch.  We always have artichokes, too.  Eva loves them.  And I love that she loves them.

-We stopped by my friend, Erma's, house to drop off a valentine for her.  She pulls out these GIANT heart cookies that she made for my kids.  The kids were thrilled at the size of these things.  The thing that cracked me up is that Erma showed us the cookies that she made for her grandkids and they were these little circles.  I love that she loves our kids and that my kids love her.  

-Though I don't have pictures, I can't leave out that my kids were definitely showered with love from all of their grandparents.

Love Day 2010.  Posted.

Valentines. Our style.

Look what Eva came up with (I did the ribbon, she did the butterfly). I love her. I knew getting Samuel to write his name on all the cards would be a feat in itself. So we went with store bought Power Ranger cards.

Samuel started getting obsessed with cutting out hearts. He went through our valentine-y paper, the scraps, more paper from his room, and finally, the newspaper from the the recycling pile. The bigger the better with this kid. The had to move to the floor for these valentines (note: valentines=hearts in these kids' minds) because they covered the counter.

Who needs Halloween? Look at all of this. Back in my day, it was a few conversation heart in those flimsy envelopes. Times sure have changed.

At home, we celebrated with, you guessed it, food. We did fondue. I don't know how to do anything small. We had artichokes (Eva loves them), roasted veggies (cauliflower, potatoes, mushrooms, squash, broccoli, potatoes...), chicken, apples, and of course, bread. Karl like the traditional Swiss cheese fondue and I like creamy Parmesan. So we make two.

For dessert, we had Karl's (he didn't invent it but it is a standard in his family) hot fudge with nuts, marshmallow, pretzels, pineapple, strawberries, mandarin oranges, and of course, bananas.

Yes, the Melting Pot is expensive for a reason. This was a huge production. I get kind of tired just looking at these pictures. But it was fun. Totally tasty.

(Note: Samuel is still not ready for the long handled sharp fork.)

In honor of the recession, we kept the budget low this year. Look what I found for Karl (he is a plant lover). I'm so nice.

valentines. our style. 2008

This year we made little cookie bouquets and delivered them to friends.

Eva modeling her headband and her valentine box from preschool.

We celebrated this day with fondue.

And unrelated to Valentines day...

Samuel had a phase where he wore these blue goggles all the time. Found this photo and it cracked me up just remembering.