How Do I Love Thee...

Valentine's Day started a couple days early for our family this year. The kids get to have Valentine's Tea at school - a time to learn about manners and etiquette - on Friday (the 12th). The boys seat the girls and then bring them a cookie and drink. They dress up in their Sunday best for this, so it's the real deal! I couldn't believe how excited Josh was to dress up! He came up Friday morning in his red dress shirt, black slacks, and a red tie! He was looking so dapper! Here he is after school on Friday. Doesn't he look so grown up?!?! (For the record, I posed him this way - his natural pose is, shall we say, a little too manly!)

Emily took her dress to school to change into/out of so she wouldn't have to worry about what to do at recess in a dress. So, I don't have any pictures of her. But this was a big deal for her too - she asked me to put some curls in her hair!! It's an amazing day when she actually WANTS to get her hair done!

I had a lot of fun putting some things together for Jared. I had the kids take them to him at work throughout the day on Saturday. We did rice krispie treats shaped like Hershey's kisses first,

then they took him some fortune cookies I had made the day before.
They were so yummy, but a TON of work. Probably not something I'll be doing very often!
After that I had them take him a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of his favorite salsa from a restaurant here in town. The kids had so much fun being my messengers, and Jared said he really enjoyed it. On the way to our first drop-off, Josh wondered how Jared would know all these things were from me, because I told them to tell him this was a special delivery from a secret admirer. I just had to laugh at that one! I assured Josh that Jared would surely know they were from me!

Jared brought these beauties home for me on Saturday afternoon - aren't they gorgeous?!?! They smell soooo good too! Just what I needed!
We had a fun time as a family Saturday evening. We had orange chicken and rice, which we ate with our chopsticks, and then I surprised the kids with fortune cookies. They were so excited that they got to have some too. They had wondered earlier in the day why all the good stuff was all for Dad!! They were so excited to read all the fortunes I put in them. Then we sat down and watched part of Disney's "Around the World in 80 Days."

Cupid made a visit to the kids on Valentine's morning. They each got a new shirt, a personalized rice krispie treat (shaped like Hershey's kisses), and a bag of treats.
I would call this Valentine's Day a complete success! It was fun to see the kids going out of their way to be extra nice and to surprise their loved ones with Valentines. I just wish we could keep the lovey-dovey feelings going all year long!