Valentine's Day

Saturday, of course, was V-Day. Now that Anya is old enough to really participate in things, I had a lot of things planned. First, I had bought some cute plastic plates and cups at Target with hearts on them. We used them for all our meals. We got the kids a little stuffed animal and a heart shaped box of chocolates, and of course everyone got a card.

For breakfast I cooked heart-shaped pink pancakes. Of course cooking them turned the outside brown so Anya later told someone we had brown pancakes!

After breakfast Ms. Gail came over to bring the kids their gifts: a book to share and a stuffed animal for each of them.

Chris did yard work most of the day. We haven't been to crazy about the landscaping of our yard since we moved in. There are a lot of things that we like (I have hydrangea bushes which I never had before, 2 Japanese Magnolias, camellias, azaleas, and some irises), but there is more that we hate. The bushes in the front (of which I have commented on before) were way overgrown. Last year about this time Chris trimmed them back, but 6 months later they were already in need of another trim. Well, Chris borrowed Dad's tiller (which he actually enjoyed using!! Boys and their power tools!!) and now most of the bushes in front of the house are gone. Also, on the side of the house that faces Myrtledale there is landscaping that is about 5 feet thick from the house. There are nandinas (which we both hate) and tons of ferns. Chris obliterated about 1/3 of it. We are going to plant some smaller bushes in those two places, and I want some irises, lilies of the Nile, and daylilies. We want things that won't need more attending than once a year.

After naps, Anya and I made pink heart shaped cupcakes. In the picture I was showing Anya how to get eye level with the measuring cup. She was doing it with me. A future cook!!! After I made the icing, I had her help me do one, but she wasn't very interested and just wanted to eat it.

Ms. Gail and Olivia came and watched the kids so Chris and I could go to the LSU Basketball game. I know, it doesn't sound like much of a V-Day date, but we had gone to Juban's last week for a early V-Day dinner. We hate going out on Valentine's Day, and Juban's has become our traditional V-Day date. We also have decided to not do gifts; we would much rather spend the money on a great dinner and time alone with each other.