Happy Valentines Day 2021

Happy Valentines Day! Even though we're stuck at home, we're still finding fun things to do. 

We're on a mission to walk 500 miles together as a family this year, so most nights after dinner, we're out walking the neighborhoods. While we're walking we see all sorts of interesting things. This Valentines tree was so beautiful! We took detours on a few walks to see it. 

We celebrated in our own way too. Just a heart made out of red lights on the front bush, but at least it's something. 

This house had so many pink lights. Alli was in awe. 

I love it when people decorate. We love celebrating holidays. 

Here at home, Alli is making sure we've all got the spirit. She's left magnetic hearts on the fridge for everyone to see. 

And on Valentines, she drew pictures and made little heart Valentines for everyone. 

My little heart said "thank you for making dinner every night", and my picture has me saying "taste test time". Does she know me or what? 

Mommy's valentine said "thanks for being kind to me". Love you girlie. 

Theresa and I made valentines cards for the kids too. It was a team effort. I drew the hearts. Theresa and I both cut them out. And with Theresa's better penmanship, she wrote out the messages. 

I used the glue stick. Alli is in the background working on more cards. 

These kids have so many people thinking of them during the holidays. 

From Grammy and Grandpa, Asian Pears were a big hit, plus rice sticks, and sugar sticks. 

Gram and Pop Pop sent matching masks. Hercules (my favorite!) for me and Ian. Marie (from the Aristocats) for T and Alli. 

Along with scotch tape, books, pens, post-it notes, and rice krispy treats. 

From Aunt Rita, Uncle Ty, Aubrey, and Ethan, they got a bunch of candy, stickers, pencils and giant valentines hearts. 

Mmm, Sixlets are Aunt Rita's favorite. 

The kids liked the cards that T and I made. 

Plus all the candies, chips, and balloons. 

Their cousin sent them puzzles of hearts, plus cards for all of us. We facetimed them and chatted for a while. 

Every major holiday, the kids put their decorations along the wall. When it's over, all the decorations get moved to the stairs, so at the stairs you'll see a ridiculous number of drawings celebrating everything since Halloween. 

They were pretty happy with the candies they got. 

Yum!

For dinner, it's tradition to have fondue on Valentines. We've been liking these chocolate dipped strawberries more and more versus chocolate fondue though. Alli and Theresa made chocolate strawberries and chocolate pretzels. 

The plan was to just do fondue and chicken, but Ian made an off-hand comment yesterday about a certain kind of pizza, so I thought I'd surprise him with it. I was working on a very short timeline, so instead of taking the usual 2 hours to let my pizza dough rise, I was tossing this one into the oven only 45 minutes after I mixed it together. 

Theresa - You're making Ian a pizza too? You're spoiling him more than Grammy. 

Dinner is going to be fantastic tonight. 

So yesterday, Ian's comment was that we should have Fondue Pizza! I made a pepperoni pizza like usual and then drizzled fondue cheese on it. Looks pretty good to me!

Ian wasn't so impressed. His favorite meal of all time is cheese fondue, and he didn't want to mess that up with pizza. Alli thought it was delicious though. 

My plate tonight. Ordinarily we'd have a rotisserie chicken, but Theresa wanted to try something new. Tonight she made a delicious homemade Teriyaki Sauce and mixed it with some chicken we have cubed. It was so good that Alli kept wanting more and more!

Dinner was really really good. We didn't leave many leftovers. 

Hands behind his head. This boy is satisfied. 

Our plate of dessert looks great. 

Chocolate covered strawberries are pretty delicious! Happy Valentines Day!