Valentines Festivities

It's been a fun Valentines week.  Last week Mark and I went on a date that included some gift shopping for little Valentine treats to put in Jared and Lydia's mailboxes.  They so look forward to this tradition.  The mailboxes are looking old and most of the things we ended up buying didn't actually fit in the mailbox but it all worked out.

We really stepped up our game with their class mailboxes this year.  They both turned out super cute.  Jared continued his starburst Valentine tradition. This was either his 3rd or 4th year doing the same Valentine he's basically done it every year he has been at Baker Butler.  Lydia wanted to make a love bug/butterfly Valentine so it was a little more involved than I thought necessary but she was happy with them and it was nice to do a craft together as it had been awhile.

Lydia knew early on she wanted a camping theme and Jared came up with his basketball court pretty quick. Mark took care of the nets and they turned out great.  At first we only had enough white string for one hoop and were irritated that we would have to go buy more but then Jared remembered he had used some in our attic months and months ago so we could finish them in one setting.  So much nicer.
I was also so glad Mark was around to help make them.

 

I really enjoy making Valentines.  I had all kinds of good stuff left over from preschool and put it to good use!  We made sure to send some out to family members too which was great.  

Mark stopped by UVA to visit me today and brought some delicious donuts for us to share.  For the first time in a really long time (Like 9 years) I was actually not at home working or just being home on Valentines Day so it was fun to have him come see me at work. He had never been to my office before.  Yesterday after work I stopped by Trader Joes and grabbed some daffodil bunches for Jen and Jennifer at work and for Lydia and Jared's teachers. It was fun to have Jared and Lydia make their teachers special Valentines and to make some for my co workers.  I made Mark a mint ice cream pie and on the recommendation of a friend grabbed some guava passion fruit yogurt for him. She had posted a picture of the yogurt and talked about how it was like Brazil in a cup.  She also served her mission in Brazil.  I was really excited to give it to Mark and he loved it!  I was so glad.  When he saw it this morning he looked suspicious.  He had never put the flavors together and wasn't sure they would go but they were awesome.  

We had heart shaped pizza, strawberry Jello and strawberry floats for our Valentines dinner.  It was lovely to make the extra effort to show love for my favorite people this week.