v day

Although I do think that Valentine's day is a little overhyped and just another day created by businesses to increase their sales--I mean, really, do you have to have a day set aside for love to let your loved ones know how you feel about them?--I really look forward to the visit from the Cupid.

I love decorating in red and pink, I love hearts, I love all the little valentines that get handed out in class. I just think it is a fun day.

Last year when I was helping out with Luke's valentine party I realized that I was a slacker. Everyone had these cute boxes and all Luke had was a plain white sack with his name on it. In my defense, the boys' school is weird when it comes to holidays. They can't bring treats on their birthdays, no costumes on Halloween, and I just assumed that bringing anything cute and fun on Valentine's day would be frowned upon. So this year was going to be different.

I went out and bought decorations: glitter, stickers, pom poms, buttons, jewels, the list was pretty long. I also had construction paper ready and enough glue for each of the boys. I was set.

The decorating of the boxes took all of 10 minutes. There was a drawing made of a transformer, a few sprinkles of glitter on the box, Nick actually did cover his box in pink paper but it didn't even go to the top so you could still see much of the Cheerios box underneath. So much for having cute boxes to show off at school but at least they did them with their own individuality.

But they did have fun decorating themselves.

It all started with this:




and then this:






and then things got a little crazy...







Needless to say, I have plenty of leftover decorations for next year.

The actual day was low key but fun. The boys had their parties and then off to the various activities after school. For dinner I made a new recipe which was absolutely delicious and I also made the rice that is paired with it and asparagus. We had virgin pina coladas in clear cups with cute grey and white striped straws, ate off white plates, with cute heart napkins and fresh purple tulips on the table. Then we had fondue for desert. I splurged and bought the "good" chocolate from Orson Gygis and it was worth it. Nicholas actually let out a sigh of contentment. It is hard to get these boys full and I think I accomplished it this night.

I love my boys (all 5 of them) so much and it was so nice to have a fun night together.

An absolutely perfect Valentine's day.