Our Valentine's Day

Valentine's day at our house is pretty low key. Matt and I hate to fight the crowds to go out to eat so it is usually spent at home ordering takeout and cuddling watching a movie with our little family. I remember growing up my parents always got us little gifts for Valentine's and I remember loving it so Matt and I have continued to do that with our girls. I was pretty excited I had put together a love day menu and some fun activities for the day but then Hallie's preschool announced they would be doing a Valentine party the day of. I was bummed but Hallie was so thrilled to get to exchange Valentines and do various activities with her friends so we made the best of it and scaled things back at home. The night before we set our the girls gifts

 Gracie got the little Sophia dolls that came with a bunch of pieces for a tea set, a balloon, and some gummy princess candy.

 Hallie got the heart balloon, some gummy candies, a book, and what they call in the dancers world "foot undies" Hallie has wanted these for months

 Hallie was super excited when she got up and found the gifts. I heard her come up the stairs and say outload what are these for....are they for me?

 I think this balloon kept her busy for longer than I had anticiapted

Then Hallie was off to preschool and Gracie and I partied at home. Once Hallie got home she had a friend over and then both girls had a nap. Once they got up it was time to get ready for our dinner company. Originally we had planned to order take out and hang at home like we usually do but then we had some friends invite us to join them at their house for a nice dinner. It ended up they had some things come up at their house and they asked if we would be willing to host and we said yes. We had another set of great friends stop by to bring the girls valentines so we invited them to join us as well. It worked out perfectly and we had one of the most fun valentines day ever. Matt and the guys grilled steaks on the grill, we also had steamed green beans, grill asparagus, twice baked potatoes, pasta and potato salad, spinach and strawberry salad, and a fruit tray...we had plenty of food for sure. Oh and I can't forget to mention we had amazing and delicious cheesecake for dessert. Here are some of the older kids who sat at their own table.

And here is the whole group minus me(I was taking the picture). After our bellies were full we started a movie for the kids and ended up watching most of it before we decided to play some games while our kids were entertained. After about an hour we decided to call it quits for the night and get our kids home to bed since it was about 9:30. I don't know that I can really put into words how much fun we all had. The kids played so well together...they shared and were kind so the parents could actually enjoy ourselves. In my experience it has been hard to find couples with kids that everyone for the most part gets along and when everyone leaves my house doesn't look like a cyclone hit it. It was a great day filled with some of the people I love most. Happy Love Day!