Valentine's Day

I do love holidays.  I'll take any excuse to do some decorating and cooking, something fun and out of the ordinary!  The girls woke up this morning and found a small basket of goodies waiting for them.  Then Daniel made heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes for all of his girls.  Audrey also had a blast getting Valentines from all of her friends at school this morning!  (Our candy supply is now well stocked again).

I saw a blog post recently about a family who had a tradition of eating a candlelit Valentine's dinner together every year.  I thought that sounded like fun...why not give it a try?

When I told Daniel my idea, he wasn't so sure.  Meal times at our house are not always pleasant these days.  The girls are both in a super picky eating stage, and meals can sometimes just end up being a battle and not fun.  There was definite potential for this whole fancy, candlelit dinner to backfire on us.

Honestly, I almost didn't do it.  Audrey threw a big fit  just as I was getting ready to start cooking, which did not make me happy.  Minutes before this, our friends had just invited us over for pizza tonight, and I was tempted to forget the whole family dinner and go hang out with friends instead.  However, I had already set up the table and bought the food, so we decided to proceed with our dinner plans.  Audrey spent some time in her room, then Daniel had a long talk with her, and she came back with a better attitude.

I'm so glad we decided to go ahead with the dinner.  It was a lot of fun!!  Everyone got dressed up...even me and Daniel!  The girls picked their own dresses:  Audrey chose her Elsa dress up dress and Isla chose her Belle dress up dress (which is also the only dress up dress that fits her).  I wore my junior prom dress (it still fits perfectly!), and Daniel wore a tuxedo.

We pretended like we were at a fancy restaurant, showed the girls to their seats and brought them a drink.  We had Shirley Temple-like drinks (made from 7 up, a maraschino cherry, and some juice from the maraschino cherries jar).

Planning the menu was tricky, because I wanted to fix something a little fancier but also something that my girls would eat without complaint.  I went with this cheddar cracker chicken, which we all enjoy.  For Daniel, I made oven roasted potatoes and asparagus, a favorite of his.  (The girls had peas because I wasn't going to fight with them about eating potatoes and asparagus). I was going to make homemade rolls, a favorite of mine, but I ran out of time.  So I just picked up a loaf of Italian bread at the grocery store.  And we had a fancy bowl of fruit on the side.

For dessert, we had pudding trifles with chocolate and vanilla (tinted pink) pudding and whipped cream on top.

The girls did a great job of using polite manners through the whole meal.  All was going perfectly, until the very end.  Audrey wanted to help blow out the candles, but she got a little too close and blew hot wax all over her face.  She was fine, but it was a bit difficult to clean it all off her.  Kind of a bummer way to end our fun evening.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening together as a family.  I hope this might become a tradition for us!  And tomorrow, Daniel and I get to go out for a date by ourselves.  =)

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!