The Day of Love

I can't say I ever gear up too much for love day. I do try, in my own way though, to make the day special and fun for the girls. I think my envisions always supercede what actually ends up happening... for example, for our V-day, I had envisioned having a scrumptious breakfast made by Jake (which he did WANT to do), enjoying a day together as a family maybe decorating cookies or doing a craft, running a few errands together, coming home and having a nice "romantic" dinner for all of us and then Jake and I off to enjoy The Lion King that evening. This is what ended up happening... the girls woke up bright and early which woke us (uh, I mean, me) to chattering of "mommy, I'm hungry," "mommy, I want to watch cartoons...", "mommy, mommy, mommy!"... you get the idea. So mommy drags herself out of her warm and cozy bed and makes the girls breakfast- nothing special, just plain old cereal. I did decide to be patient to see if Jake was going to hold up to "his vision," so I did my day-to-day daily chores to keep busy. About 9:30 I decided to scrap that whole idea and make the breakfast myself since I was dying to try this new recipe our friends gave us for German pancakes. So, as I put the pancakes in the oven to bake, Jake tootles down (I guess he WAS going to make breakfast, I just beat him to it). Darn. We did enjoy AMAZING pancakes and homemade buttermilk syrup that I think might have led me into a sugar comatose the rest of the day. Oh well, tis the holiday, right?! Meanwhile, the girls had been dying to paint the day before, so I, feeling a bit guilty I didn't have a super-cute anything planned for them, quickly cut out some hearts and let them go to town painting them for the babysitter that was to come later. They loved it and I loved that they loved it! Phew.

Later we had a surprise visit from my little brother. He came and grabbed Kennedy so they could do a secret Valentine delivery. She loved spending time with her uncle. After she got home, we quickly threw ourselves in the car to run a few errands. By time we got home, we had only 1/2 hour to throw together dinnner, eat dinner and "pretend" it was special. SO not what I had planned! I did manage to throw a few goblets on the table pushed aside by our earlier craft! The girls were a bit grumpy by that point so Pieper watched cartoons while we all ate (or somewhat enhaled) our dinner. Good thing I planned something easy to make. With a kitchen full of dirty dishes and left-over dinner still on the stove, we hurried to get dressed and ready for our play. We rushed to get the babysitter, rushed into Seattle, and rushed to our seats. The Lion King was great, the costuming amazing and the night enjoyable with just the two of us.

(Please be kind, I wasn't going to post this picture since I resemble a VERY pregnant lady these days!)

So, all and all, it was a good Valentine's day. Somewhat unpredictable, a little chaotic, but then again, don't are visions always outdo our realities??? So, my note to self for next year... I'm going to stick to the K.I.S.S. method- keep it simple, stupid. Happy love day to you all!!!