Valentine's Day

I think Valentine's Day is becoming such a fun holiday for our family. Before we had children, yes, there was the romantic aspect of it, where Newel got me flowers and we went out to dinner, etc. I remember our first Valentine's Day together after we were married, he cooked for me, my favorite food, shrimp...that was so sweet of him...since, he's pretty allergic to them, and just touching the shrimp makes him itchy.

As the years have gone by, we like Valentine's Day, but it's not a huge deal for our family. A couple of years ago, we had our first Valentine's Day party. We invited some of Arden's courtyard friends to come over and decorate cookies. It was fun...it was memorable. Especially, seeing the children devour their heavily iced cookies. From that day on, Valentine's Day has become a fun holiday for us...not just the romantic stuff, but also a day to celebrate the love we have for our children, and our friends.

This year, being in a new place and just getting over my issues of being here, blah blah, etc., I debated whether I wanted to host a Valentine's Day party...After all, it can be a lot of work. I figured, if I was going to do it, we might as well go all out...as much as we could. So we invited Arden's primary class, our primas, and Mayita's friends over and called it the White Children's Annual Valentine's Day Party...pretty official, huh? And the party was held at the White House...yes, cheese, but catchy.

Preparations started a few days earlier, where the children and I baked cookies, cupcakes, planned games, went shopping, etc. It was really nice including the kids on this project and spending that time together, planning for the party. We made this big heart to play "Pin the nose on the heart" game.

Friday afternoon, our guests started to arrive. We made an arts and crafts activity, followed by the pin the nose game, and finally, decorating cookies and cupcakes.

We had a lot of people over, but it was so much fun. There were a lot of great cookie artists, but even better cookie/cupcake eaters.

The following day, being the actual Valentine's Day, Newel had a father and son date, where they went out to lunch and to a basketball game.

Mayita and I hung out. When the boys came home, they brought their girls flowers. Mayita really liked her rose. Later, that evening, Newel and I enjoyed went out for a nice quiet dinner, without our children, and without interruptions. It was a good Valentine's Day.