Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was also my first day back and Ryan's birthday.  It was busy, to say the very least, but I survived and I think everyone had fun.  Rachel woke up a little before 7, sang me the good morning son and then climbed in bed with me and told me all the things she had done while I was gone.  When the big girls woke up, I let them open their Valentines from Grandma B and the Bowles and the present I brought from their trip.  Then we had to hurry and get dressed and ready.  After almost a week of just getting their hair brushed, I tried to do cute hair.  Liz wanted a heart in her hair, which I hadn't done in forever, but it turned out super cute.  Unfortunately, I didn't take the picture until after school.  Miriam had a ponytail with sparkles and Rachel got a side ponytail with sparkles.

I worked on laundry and unpacking and putting my house back together and then took Rachel to school.  I took my walk and then hurried home to work on laundry, make a shopping list and get ready for the day before going over to Liz's school.  Then I ran home and rotated laundry before picking up Rachel.  She had a cute little mailbox with Valentines from her friends.  We went straight to Target to pick up Ryan's birthday present.  I let her walk instead of putting her in a cart.  After picking up new ear buds for Ryan, I let her go up and down all the toy aisles touching and looking at everything.  I lucked out and found the Lil' Webkinz on sale, so I got one for each of the girls for Valentine's Day.  Then we went to the grocery store and then home where I baked a cake for Ryan.  It came out of the oven just in time to pick up the girls from school.

They had a bunch of fun Valentines from all their friends.  My favorite was the one Miriam made in her class!  Liz also made one in her class, but she gave it to her Valentine at school, Kameron.  We picked up Ryan from school and worked on homework and piano lessons.  Ryan picked chicken scampi for dinner, so I worked on that and finished his cake.  I taught a piano lesson while I cooked the chicken scampi and we finally sat down to eat around 6:30.  It was delicious, but no left overs!  I might have to make more next time.  Jim brought home presents for the girls.  He got Liz a frisbee, and she was thrilled; Rachel a pirate hook, and Miriam some mermaid bath toys.  All the girls loved their presents.  He surprised me with a beautiful box of See's candy with all my favorites and "Breaking Dawn" on DVD!!  I gave him his present of a white noise machine before I left and he loves it too!

We got dinner cleaned up and girls in the bath and then did cake.  Ryan told me he wanted a brownie, cake, ice cream dessert.  I told him I would work on it.  I used a marble swirl cake mix and swirled in brownie batter.  Then I put a layer of mint'n chip ice cream and then frosted it.  Interestingly, the brownie all went to the bottom so it was more layered than swirled, but it tasted really good and Ryan was a happy camper.

 

 

After I got the girls in bed, I tutored for an hour and then Jim and I watched an NCIS and went to bed!  It was probably the most exhausting Valentine's Day I have ever had in my life, but I can't complain because it was a great day.