My Vday weekend update starts with a mini celebration this past Tuesday. Like the geek that he is, the hubs has spent 12+ hours over the past two(ish) months re-watching (in order) all of the Star Wars movies to refresh his memory before seeing the new movie on the big screen.

Now, if you’ve been to our house, you know that we have a pretty small TV. So, each of these 12 Star Wars Hours were spent curled up about 2 feet from the TV. Anyway, I told Mark I needed him home early so I could workout on Tuesday night, but instead surprised him with tickets to go see Star Wars at the iMax 3D theater. He was very pleased 🙂

On Thursday, Charlie brought in a little gift for her classmates. Because this is a religious school that does not celebrate Valentine’s Day, we kept it nice and general. But of course, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to give valentines 🙂

I’ll do a full blog on the sensory bottles “we” made for her class, but the gist is that while I had hoped it would be something C and I could do together, it turned into me binge watching “The Fall” and making 12 sensory bottles until around midnight. BUT, the kids loved them!

  

On Friday, we went to my parents’ house for dinner with my bro! As always, it was great being able to see him and giving C the opportunity to fall even more in love with her quirky uncle.

  
  
Saturday morning, C went to gymnastics (where she was a little gymnast rockstar, according to Daddy) and then we went to our favorite spot, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, for a Valentine’s Day Ice Cream Social with our friends.

Charlotte loved it! She pointed out every single baby she saw, she peeked into every stroller, ate her first cup of ice cream and about 2.5 cheese sticks, she discovered Mr. Potato Head, did her first exercise class, and played with her best girls, Ellie & Ari.

C’s face when Mommy says, “Say Cheese!”

And when Mommy says, “Say puppy dog!”

That evening, it was time for Marky’s VDay date that he planned for me. Not only was I surprised that he had planned anything (no offense, love), but I was so pleasantly surprised by our activity.

We went to Sur La Table for an Italian cooking class and it was fabulous! We had so much fun. (Thanks to Milly for watching the tiny one and giving us a night out!) We cooked a tasty salad, tenderloin and pasta carbonera… with custard for dessert. We had such a great time cooking and enjoying each other.

Definitely a perfect Valentine’s Day celebration.

  
On Sunday, the actual Vday, I decorated the bathroom mirror with little hearts (cut out from Charlotte’s beautiful artwork) that listed just some of the ways I love my sweet man.

 Then, we were off! It was Baby Day!

First stop: the hospital to visit my beautiful friend who just had a tiny little man on Friday. Will. Oy. How cute, huh?

Then, we played cupid fairy and dropped off some cupcakes at a friend’s house who just recently had a little guy.

With all the driving (probably 2 hours total), I decided to give C her Valentine’s Day gift from Mommy early. I’ll do a separate post, but I made her a memory game with cards featuring our family. She LOVES THEM!

And our next stop: Another baby visit! This time we were off to our friends’ house to meet their newest addition, Mackenzie, and play with their older daughter, Madison. We brought lunch and caught up and watched the girls play. Charlotte is finally at an age where she’s really playing with her friends. It’s a blast to watch.

  
  
  
  
By the time we got home, it was 2 or 230 (we left the house at 9am). Thankfully, Charlotte napped right away so we could all get a little rest in. Then, Mark’s dad and step mom came over to see the little lady and brought us some dinner on the cold snowy evening. It was great!

All in all, a total whirlwind of fun and love.