Love Day

I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day in general. I think it's weird. You just randomly pick one day a year to tell your swain-dog you love them? Weird. You should be telling your swain-dog that all the time. And your swain-dog shouldn't be questioning why you started calling him swain-dog in the first place. IT'S TOTALLY NORMAL AND ROMANTIC. And the thought of waiting in line for hours to go to dinner just because it's Valentine's Day is horrific to me. Do you know what happens when I get hungry? Bad things. Very unromantic bad things.

So instead of risking a homicide scene at an overpacked restaurant, we celebrate Valentine's Day as a family, and it is THE BEST.

It starts off very romantically with an annual, never-to-be-missed (except that one time when I had a baby in the NICU and thought I should spend the day with him) date with someone very special: my sister. There is also nothing weird about spending Valentine's Day with your sister. THESE ARE ALL NORMAL THINGS, PEOPLE. Please reinforce this idea with Rylee's husband whenever you get the chance. 

Anyway, we always get together and make dinner and magical treats together, and it is so fun. 

This year we did chocolate drizzled strawberry/banana/marshmallow/brownie skewers and homemade Italian sodas. I forgot to take a picture of the adorable skewers all lying festively together because I was too excited about eating them, so this is the best I've got:

The boys helped put their own skewers together. Well, Caulder and Tukk did, while Rand spent his time sneakily slobbering all over Tukk's while Tukk wasn't looking. 

Then we had a romantic, one-candle-light dinner of chicken alfredo. Remember that one time I actually decorated for the dinner and turned all the lights off and had the table looking all fancy? Yeah, well that dinner rapidly disintegrated into farting at the table and the boys all mooning each other on the trampoline, so I've given up on the table decorating. This is all they get. They don't notice the difference, anyway. 

The swain dog enjoyed it, even without fancy decorations.

And he gave me the greatest Valentine's Day gift of all: he helped Caulder make the dreaded Valentine's box while I was at work!

The boys loved dinner (especially the sodas), and Tukker summed up the day by telling Rylee "I ate 2 bags of fun dip, licked a sucker, ate an Oreo, a chocolate covered marshmallow, a brownie, a chocolate covered brownie, and sucked on a ring pop for a while. Oh! And drank some Gatorade!"

Total Valentine's Day success!