valentines day

Going through the valentine loot collected at school parties looks a lot like Halloween, unstuffing stockings at Christmas, and Easter egg hunts. What a bounteous candy harvest to get us through till the next candy holiday!

I was "valentined out" by the time Valentines Day actually arrived that I'll admit my family got nothing, NOTHING, from me in celebration of the occasion. I'm rather disapointed in myself for that, but sometimes that's just how things work out. It all started with a RS mom and tot activity on the previous Friday in which I was in charge of the food. I made huge batches of taco soup and chicken noodle soup and served orange slices, rolls, pbj sandwiches, cheesesticks, and cupcakes to go along with it. We had a fabulous turnout with lots of moms and about 50 kids. Fortunately there were a half dozen cupcakes left over, so I guess those qualify as a Valentine treat for my kids. On Sunday morning I helped Ryan, Jacob, & Matthew get their valentines put together for their school classes. With the ginormous class sizes at our school, it makes for a lot of valentines! Then I was dingbat that somehow got myself into volunteering for two school valentine parties on Monday. I prepped a bean bag game and prizes for Jacobs class and then headed down to Ryans class where I was in charge of more games! I came up with some great ideas, apparently, because everyone seemed to have fun and not think anything was "dumb", which is definitely considered "success" when you're dealing with 6th graders! I had offered a few ideas to other moms for food treats in the classes that day, which they used, so I felt pretty good about that too. Mark arrived home from work with a card, some dark chocolate, and tickets for a play I want to see at the new theater. We had spaghetti for dinner, which everyone likes, and then had FHE and watched the valentine Simpson episode where Lisa gives Ralph the choo-choo train valentine card. So with all that, I can say Valentine's Day was officially celebrated.