Love is in the air....

I love holidays! I love Valentines Day! I was plotting so much the fun things I was going to do with my family, that I completely forgot to have my kids sit down the night before and carefully plan what they'd do for their friends...and forgot to send them with Tyler that morning. Luckily, I planned to go to the party anyway and brought them.

I got 2 dozen balloons the night before and spread heart confetti all over the floor from the kids bedroom, through the hallway, and to the family room where there was a small stuffed animal for each of them. I made heart shaped french toast and decorated the table, too. For Michael, I got him an engraved medal with his stas from the race he previously ran and placed with a great time. He got me chocolate covered (not just dipped) strawberries per my request every year from a local ice cream shop.

After I sent Tyler off to school, Matthew, Alyssa and I went to a little party for Alyssa's age girls. We have a fun little bunch from church, so that was fun to get together. They made and exchanged Valentines and jumped on the trampoline. I think Matthew enjoyed being the only boy.

My mom drove into town with my grandparents (from Utah) just in time for me to drop off Matthew and Alyssa and head over to Tylers school for his party. I've brought the little ones before and they do okay, but it was really nice to enjoy my time with just Tyler at school. Whenever I can, I take the opportunity to do that, no matter how much I have to shuffle because it is important to me and I know it means a lot to him. While his class was at recess, and I began to help decorated the room with a few other moms, Tyler passed out his invitations to each classmate (others did it that morning, but we forgot ours). We had a nice 15 minutes just the two of us in his classroom looking through his Valentines and him telling me about things around his classroom. It was a great bonding time, just the 2 of us. When the rest of the kids came in, the party began. Games, treats, stories, it was done. I took Tyler home with me early (I don't ever hesitate to do this) and caught up with everyone else.

My friend Stacy very kindly picked up our pre-ordered dinner for us, and met with my grandparents briefly. When Michael came home, we had heart shaped pizza's for dinner and sat around and chatted the evening away. A nice mellow ending to our Valentine's Day.

Cake Pops I made for our family and those I visit teach

Suckers mailed from Gma Duke