This Valentine's Day Wins

• The night before, Max and I put together his valentines.  Each child got 4 army guys with this note attached: "I would go to battle to be your Valentine!"  Max felt a little bad about giving them to the girls, but I told him girls like army guys too and Kelly came out of the bathroom shouting, "Yeah, Max, I like playing with army guys!!!"  Besides, I knew he would be getting plenty of Barbie/Tangled valentines the next day and wouldn't mind those.  
• I supplied pink, heart-shaped pancakes and orange juice for breakfast.  The kids swore they were so much yummier than regular pancakes and each kiddo ate three!
• Made pink, heart-shaped (I'm sensing a theme) rice crispy treats with Max for his Kindergarten class.
• Got to take Max (and Adam and Reyes) to school instead of putting them on the bus since I needed to take the treats in.
• Met the desperate eyes of a Kindergarten teacher who wanted me to stay and help her take each child around to deliver the valentines to their classmates.  It was SO fun to see their excitement.  They all wanted to stop and talk to the person they were giving the valentine to and tell them what it was and why they would love it. Thankful for Marcela keeping Kelly and Everett while I dropped the kids off so I could say yes and help out.
• Stopped by the dollar store to fulfill the dreams of my super easy-to-please children with a single gift and candy for my hub's gift, then stopped and got the few missing ingredients to make my husband's favorite dinner of all time - Crispy Chicken Costoletta.
• Hid the goods in my bathtub.
• Kelly helped me put all of the notes on the candy for Ty's candy basket (kind of like a candy poster, just in a basket).  The candy served the purpose of saying what I wanted to say...not so much meeting the desires of my husband's heart.  But I did throw some strawberry twizzlers in there for him. :)  And then he let me eat his Twix last night.  What a man.
• Picked the kids up from school, came home and looked through Max's valentines.
• Got started on dinner before Ty walked through the door...he was so excited when he saw what I was making.  He helped me get dinner ready and then I sent everyone upstairs to put laundry (it was also laundry day yesterday) away so I could get the table set.
• Set the table with candles, dimmed the lights, and put everyone's little (emphasis on the little) Valentine gift with accompanying homemade valentine and balloon by each of their plates.  They were so excited when they came downstairs. It made my heart happy.  When we started eating Max said, "I bet we're the ONLY family doing this right now!"  Probably not, but I'll let him go on thinking that we rock. 
• We ate the very delicious dinner (I think it's better than the same dish at the Cheesecake Factory) and then - my new favorite Valentine's Day tradition - we went around the table and everyone said what they loved about each person in the family.  It will go down in my memory book as one of the sweetest family moments ever.  My heart felt like it would burst and tears were just under the surface.  Could have something to do with the pregnancy hormones, but I likely would have been choked up non-pregnant as well.  Everyone was so genuine and sweet.  Everett would insist on it being his turn and then he would say, "I yuv (love) Mom" and "I yuv Dad".  After Max had said a few things he loved about Ty I asked, "Is that all?"  "Well, that's not ALL I love about him!  I love SO many more things about Dad and Kelly and Mom and Everett...." Kelly was a little shy/embarrassed when it was our turn to talk about her, but she warmed up to it quickly.  Did I mention I loved this?!
• The kids played with their new toys for a bit while we did dishes and then we were off to Max's basketball game.  

I was exhausted last night, but so happy and content.  I love my little family and loved the memories made, and traditions begun, yesterday.  This morning Max said, "Yesterday was the BEST day EVER!"  I agree.  Perfect day.  Minus the laundry.  And lack of a single picture which makes this post kind of boring.  Other than that, perfection.