Valentine's Day for us is special, because we had our first date on February 14th of 1996 - 14 years ago!! We always make sure to do something special.On Sunday morning, the kids awoke to find their rooms had been decorated once again. That is something I started last year. I didn't do as much this year, but they each had some hearts and cupids on their walls by their beds and some read hear garland strung around their rooms and hanging from their ceiling fans.
They each also had a gift bag with some little things from Colin and I. Cady got a Fancy Nancy card game, a Care Bear coloring book and some candy bracelets:
Colton had a new GI Joe, and cool card game called Bandits (lots of fun - he, Colin and I have been playing it all weekend when we take breaks from painting) and some Valentine Nerds.
I then baked some cinnamon rolls which I shaped like hearts:
After breakfast, it was a quick run to Lowes to get all the stuff we needed to begin painting the inside of our house (step 1 of getting it ready to sell) and to Sams Club and Albertsons to pick up stuff for dinner. Colin and I had already decided to do a nice dinner at home with the kids in honor of Valentine's Day. Cady, my little "Fancy Nancy" fan, asked if we could "get fancy" that night for dinner, before she even knew we were planning a special dinner! She had asked us that before, but we never did it, so Colin and I agreed that Valentine's Day would definitely be a good night to "get fancy". So, after an afternoon of painting, we fixed a nice dinner, decorated the dining room and got dressed up. Cady picked out one of her very fancy dresses she wore around Christmastime. I fixed her hair in a bun, put her tiara on her, a necklace, bracelet, and her silver hoop earrings that she always wants to wear, but I don't usually let her. She even had me put tights on her and wore her "high heels" (they are VERY small heels - but she thinks they are the grown-up kind)! I don't have too many dresses, but was informed that is what I was wearing, so I picked one out, threw it on with my black boots and put some jewelry on. My hair had been under a hankerchief all day while we were painting, so there wasn't much more I could do with it other than just pull it back. After finishing my make-up, I asked Cady what she thought and she said, "You look a little fancy!" After seeing my sad face, though, she said I looked, "very fancy - just like a queen!" (the following pictures were all taken in our kitchen - in front of our newly painted red accent wall)!
Colin and Colton each put on a tie and their cowboy hats (Colton wasn't too thrilled about the tie).
Valentine's placemats, our fancy glasses and some of the decorations from the kids' rooms definitely made the dining room look fancy!
Sherri gave us a red velvet cupcake mix, which I thought was neat, because I had been planning on making those from scratch for our Valentine's dinner anyways! Thanks, Sherri! They were yummy and saved me a lot of time!
After painting hard for most of the day, Colin and I were ready to dig into our fancy dinner!
On the menu was broccoli, asparagus, noodles with butter (for Cady), shrimp (placed in the shape of hearts by Daddy), raspberry cream soda...
...and crab legs!!
Colin and I used to buy them and have them for dinner on special occasions a lot before kids, but this is the first time since then! Colton loved them, but Cady - not so much. She's not really a shrimp lover either - hence the noodles! Oh well! More for the rest of us! :-)
Colin and Colton each put on a tie and their cowboy hats (Colton wasn't too thrilled about the tie).Valentine's placemats, our fancy glasses and some of the decorations from the kids' rooms definitely made the dining room look fancy!Sherri gave us a red velvet cupcake mix, which I thought was neat, because I had been planning on making those from scratch for our Valentine's dinner anyways! Thanks, Sherri! They were yummy and saved me a lot of time!After painting hard for most of the day, Colin and I were ready to dig into our fancy dinner!
On the menu was broccoli, asparagus, noodles with butter (for Cady), shrimp (placed in the shape of hearts by Daddy), raspberry cream soda......and crab legs!!
Colin and I used to buy them and have them for dinner on special occasions a lot before kids, but this is the first time since then! Colton loved them, but Cady - not so much. She's not really a shrimp lover either - hence the noodles! Oh well! More for the rest of us! :-)She did like drinking her soda out of the fancy glass (and soda for dinner is rare around here):
She also liked squeezing fresh lemon on her noodles and I enjoyed getting pictures of the faces she made when eating them:
(We also have a new red accent wall in the dining room, as seen in the pictures above).
(We also have a new red accent wall in the dining room, as seen in the pictures above).After dinner and dessert, Cady wanted to do some dancing. Her idea of dancing is not the two-step, however! Colin tried that and all she wanted to do was be lifted and spread her legs and arms out like they do on Dancing with the Stars!! It was so funny, and I should have taken some pictures, but I was cleaning up the kitchen while I was laughing at her and the faces Colin was making! :-)
It was wonderful time and my favorite part was having Colin and the kids with me for a long weekend! We painted all day today, too - something we will be doing the rest of February, at least. It is looking great and I will be sure to post pictures as we finish.
Hope you all had a great weekend and a wonderful week to come!
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I also made something for Colin. We both agreed no gifts this year, but I never count the homemade stuff! I made him 10 felt fortune cookies and each one contained a Hersheys Kiss and 1 reason I love him (there are way more than 10, though). I purchased a decorated take-out box at Hobby Lobby and then made a tag for it:
He liked it and the kids had fun watching him open each one (while Colton tried stealing all the kisses)!
All you do is use cupcake/muffin liners to make flowers and put a message or picture in them! So cute and easy! Colton even used a white one and then decorated it with a yellow marker to make a sun! We did grandparent cards this way, too and they are my favorite homemade cards we have ever done! They can be done for Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and any other holiday/special occasion, too.
By Wednesday, I thought she was doing much, much better, but she fell asleep on the couch right before we had to take Colton to soccer practice (there was no way I was letting her practice - it was cold and wet) and I knew she still wasn't 100%. Then, yesterday, she woke up in a great mood, but still had a low-grade temperature but was up playing and being her silly self. When I gave her her lunch and she didn't touch it, I knew something was wrong because it was egg noodles with butter and anything with noodles and butter is her favorite! Sure enough, her fever spiked higher than it had been all week and she fell asleep and stayed that way for 4 hours. We woke her up at 6 when Colin got in and you could tell she just wasn't feeling good. I knew her breathing was fine, though, and had spoken to the nurse at her pediatrician's office, who told me it sounded like a viral cold and to just keep doing what we were doing (decongestant, humidifier, lots of liquids and Motrin and Tylenol for the fever) and to bring her in if she had trouble breathing or her temp reached 104 or higher. Poor Baby!
