Lots of Love

Mondays are supposed to be "Mexican Monday" at our house, which means we pick up dinner from the taco shop.









I ❥ Mondays.










:o)





But Valentine's Day fell on a Monday this year, and we couldn't stray from tradition.









So we made our "Howard Family Love Pizzas" (heart-shaped crusts):
























With "Pepperonis D'Amour" (cut into heart shapes):



























And topped it all off with some hand-made LOVE-ly heart shaped cookies which I got the recipe for that very day from a Martha Stewart magazine:

The girls were looking forward to the heart-shaped ice cubes also, but I lost my Valentine Ice Cube tray. :(

Then, on the very morning of Valentine's Day, I found it! A Valentine miracle if there ever was one.

And then, while the pizzas baked, it was time for the thing the girls had looked forward to MOST all day:

finding their loot.

I got these super cute, personalized teddy bears online and I couldn't wait to give them to them.....

....along with cards, new books, hershey kisses, a new pair of Valentine socks, and some jewelry:

It's not very fun to just GIVE them all their stuff....they had to FIND it first.

Jesse took care of that part of it; he bought a bunch of baby food jars, emptied them out, washed them, took the labels off, filled them with tissue paper and a special treat, and a small clue as to where to search for the next one.

The girls REALLY had to work for it too.....getting the lids off those things took a good 5 minutes every single time!

And each and every time they found one and went to open it and didn't have the mammoth strength required, they would moan "Daaaaadddyyyy!!!". It was pretty funny.

(He has a habit of putting lids too tight on things.....2 litres of soda, milk jugs, pickle jars....it's impossible to open them after he's closed them)

Eventually they found their way to the garage, where everything was set up and waiting for them on the dryer. They were excited to say the least:

Funny how even though they know the drill, they enjoy the hunt as much as the end result of getting their stuff.










Funny, too, how lumpy heart-shaped pizza & heart-shaped ice cubes in your Shirley Temple can make you feel!

❥❥❥❥❥