our valentine's recap... a few days late

Yeah, yeah... I know in my last post I said I'd share what we did on Valentine's in "tomorrow's post" and now it's tomorrow plus 3 days...  But who's counting, really?

So, here's what Valentine's Day brought our way this year:

These girls share everything... including the prized "licking of the spatula."  This was after they helped decorate this ginormous cookie cake that my lovely mother made for our small group Sunday night:

And there she is.  My lovely mama.  My parents were here last weekend to watch the kiddos while we did our Young Families Valentine's Party.

Valentine's morning brought us making these funky yarn-heart thingies that I found in Family Fun (where else?).

 Daddy came home Monday evening with beautiful orange roses for moi (which I failed to get a picture of...) and funky light-up ones for the girls.

After getting jammies on (so they'd be all ready when the sitter arrived)... we did a Valentine's hunt.

I hid these hearts around the house and they had to hunt them down.  For each one they found, they got to tell us one way God shows His love for us (in exchange for M&M's for some incentive, of course).  I loved hearing the answers they came up with.  My favorite was when Millie said, "By giving us Uncle Mark and Uncle Scott."  Okay, so I need to be honest with you... this may have been in response to a hint, like... "Sometimes God shows He loves us by putting people in our lives to love us..."  But the idea that Millie thought of them was pure sweetness.  I'm sure it'll melt their hearts too.

Addie has grown so much in her knowledge of God that she was able to think more deeply to come up with answers like, "by sending us his son to die for our sins."  And then we were able to come up with verses to match her answers.

Shortly after, Tessha, the sitter, arrived.  She babysat 2 years ago one night when our usual awesome sitter (Emma!) was unable to and since she's getting married and leaving us very soon, we thought we should fit in one more night with her.  And, of course, the kids had a blast!

And then Chad and I headed out to our "secret" Valentine's spot.  We've always had luck with a certain restaurant in our town that is kinda "hidden" so no one thinks to go there for Valentine's or weekend nights.  I know it's not good for them, but it's awesome for us when we want to get seated right away and enjoy some yummy food!  I'd love to tell you the name of it, but... I'm just not so sure I want to take the risk... ;)  We highly enjoy getting seated the minute we enter the doors!  Okay... so maybe, if you live in the area and your dying to know... I may tell you if you plead your case.  ;)

After our lovely meal, we headed to none other than the Home Depot!  I know, super romantic, right?  But Chad bought me an electric fireplace to warm our basement when it's finally finished - they were clearancing at half off!  So, we joked that he truly lit my fire on Valentine's Day! ;)

*****

After a winter with lots of snow... (in fact, this snowman and fort were built with Baba Cornie just last weekend... in nearly 50 degree weather, so they had already started to melt by the time I snapped these pics)

 

... we were super excited for our 68 degree weather yesterday!!!

I didn't have our camera out yesterday to capture us riding bikes and doing sidewalk chalk, so I had to run out this morning and snap this photo for "proof."

Now the snow is all gone and I'm praying desperately that it'll stay that way!

(Although it's only in the 40's today...)

BRING ON SPRING!