Happy Valentine's Day!

All ready for Valentine's Day celebration!

Our family

Sophia & Mommy

We had the biggest ever Valentine's Day celebration today. It's not usual for me to invest so much energy into a holiday that is not even a birthday or wedding anniversary. This year I had 3 reasons to make tonight's evening at home extra special. First, everything is overpriced on Valentine's Day, so going out for dinner at a restaurant was out of the question. Plus my husband & I are such homebodies to start with. Second, 4-year-old Gerritt & 2.5-year-old Sophia have been anticipating Valentine's Day celebration for weeks. I even bought some decorative pink & red foam hearts last year, knowing this day would come. Leaving the kids at home with my Mom so my hubby & I could have some romantic time alone just didn't sound that appealing. Third, it was going to be my Mom's first Valentine's Day celebration since her recent move to the US.

Babushka with her flower present


The heart-shaped chocolates


Another surprise for babushka - the heart-shaped chocolate cake!


With my husband working full-time & my Mom & I barely keeping afloat with 3 little kids at home, holiday preparations had to start in advance. Gerritt & I decorated the living room wall with hearts this past weekend. My Mom & I did a Costco run & bought a dozen of red & pink roses. We also picked out the kids's outfits & bought a few pink heart-shaped balloons yesterday. The only things Gerritt & I did today were buying potted pink cyclamen at QFC & chocolate heart-shaped cake & cookies at the French Bakery to surprise babushka. I made spaghetti & meatball/steamed artichoke dinner earlier this morning, & my husband baked some oysters right after arriving home from work.


The KISS heart-shaped cookies were a hit!


The celebration was a success! With Jacob only tolerating being awake for 45" at the most, we had to do our family photos first. I also wanted to photograph Gerritt & Sophia before they messed up their outfits with chocolate & spaghetti sauce. My Mom came in handy as our personal home photographer & took a few photos of all 5 of us. We barely made it in time before Jacob started to get fussy. After babushka put Jacob to bed, we had dinner followed by the chocolate cake while Gerritt & Sophia danced to Lady Gaga. After filling their bellies, it wasn't too difficult to convince Gerritt & Sophia to save their heart-shaped cookies for a tea party with a friend the next morning.


Gerritt & Sophia smiling for the camera

Jacob's first Valentine's Day


Jacob & Daddy

Our house overflowing with various shades of red & pink hearts & flowers was a perfect place to celebrate this year's Valentine's Day. I honestly couldn't have traded seeing my Mom's & kids' joyful faces & hearing their happy laughter for the most romantic restaurant in the world. I love my family!


The kids' tea party the following morning