Sweeties

My 3 lovely ladies all wanted to attend the Sweetheart dance with Daddy this year. They were eager to get home from school and get changed into their finery. Kara really felt like she missed out last year, so this year she was very excited about going. She even asked for a specific hairdo, which is uncommon for her. Evie thought she was in trouble right before I took this picture.

Once she saw Daddy and realized he wasn't annoyed with her, she cheered right back up.

I made a gumball machine out of a glass bowl and clay pot. It turned out pretty cute. I was going to fill it with gumballs, but then realized I didn't want them to have a whole bunch of gumballs. So I got some fruit sours instead. It's not functional, you have to remove the lid to get the candy, but still cute, and they loved it.

I set out their gifts after they went to bed so they could wake up to a Valentine's Day surprise.

Our dollar store had cute little boxes, so I got those and crammed them with conversation hearts, pink sixlets, a small box of chocolates, and heart socks. I also had some treats that I got from the chocolate factory when I toured it with Kiersten's girl scout troop.

I made Ben a silly card. He was actually nicer about it than I expected. I made it cheesy as possible. The flash makes it hard to see, but I crossed off the s at the end of Sweetarts, so I could make it say, "To my sweetart". 

He loves Toblerone, so I tried to think of a cute saying to include one in the card. This was the best I could think of, though I'm still certain that there must be a more clever saying I missed.

The girls were very excited when they woke up. I heard them outside my door saying things like, "well, I'm going to wait til mom and dad get up before I go downstairs for breakfast". Since I've never had a V-day surprise first thing in the morning before, I knew they had been down there already, and just weren't sure if they were allowed to open their gifts without us.

They all seemed pretty pleased with their goodies.

Kiersten is so sweet, and spent some of her allowance to buy gifts for her sisters. She got Kara a purse and Evie a pink rose bracelet. Kara said, "I didn't know were supposed to get each other gifts". We told her that no one was supposed to give someone a gift, and that Kiersten had done it because she wanted to. Just as we had given them gifts just because we wanted to.

Evie did later try to give me the bracelet from Kiersten as a gift to me, but I made her keep it. But it is nice to know that she was trying to replicate the generosity.

Ben got some Amiibos I thought he'd like. Only the best for my special guy!

I got yummy chocolates that didn't last nearly as long as they probably should have. And something I've been asking for years from Ben, and finally received for the first time, a card with a hand written note. Dreams really do come true. I also got those tall tall tulips you can see behind Kiersten. They just grew taller and taller. I am going to replant the bulbs in my flower bed and see if they come up again next spring.

The girls also each got a movie. Evie got Barbie as Rapunzel. No one else enjoyed it, but that's why it was a gift for her, and not anyone else.

Kara got Hook, and loved it. Ben and I couldn't resist sitting down to watch it with her.

I knew I was taking a chance giving Kiersten the Little Rascals. I was worried she would think of it as a "boy" movie, but she has watched it about 7 times already, so I think it was a hit as well. I'm actually starting to get sick of hearing about it. I sometimes want to say, "yes, I know. I've seen that movie lots of times". But I just smile and try to be excited that Alfalfa put a frog down his pants.

Ben decided we should have a candle-lit dinner. We have nicer candlesticks than these, but couldn't find them anywhere. Luckily I spotted these forgotten tulip candle holders on Kiersten's shelf. So they worked for our purposes. There were also 3 Valentine's activity placemats left over from a few years ago at the bottom of my decoration box.

We went with the classic napkin roses. Easy and adorable.

These 3 were just thrilled we finally broke out the bottle of sparkling cider that was originally for New Year's Eve, and then Kara's birthday, and then Superbowl. It has now been consumed, and no longer sits forgotten and abandoned at the back of the pantry to taunt them.

And what did we eat on our fancy table? If you guessed heart shaped pizzas, you are correct. That is what we eat every year on this loveliest of holidays. Pizzarelli's this year.