Our Valentine's Day - Yes I do realize it's nearly 2 weeks later!

Our Valentine's Day actually started a day early as Grant surprised me with a few gifts from one of my favorite stores, Bed Bath and Beyond! The "family" gift was a Orville Redenbacher's™ Gourmet® Hot Air Popper, which we used right away and have enjoyed several times since. It is amazing how much better fresh popcorn with just real butter and salt on it tastes!

He also got me a kitchen scale, which I have been wanting for awhile. I often see recipes that list measurements in grams or ounces and couldn't make them easily. Now I can!!! My husband is really awesome.

It was a chilly Sunday morning, but I made the kids go out on the deck for a couple of quick shots.

Sisters!

All four of my munchkins. Don't you just love Ellia's slippers? They're little bunnies! Grandma got them for Annika a couple of years ago and now Ellia wears them. I get so many compliments on them!

We started off the day with whole wheat pancakes topped with berry syrup, this time made with strawberries and raspberries, and whipped cream. A BIG hit with the kids!

Grant and I had also made cards for the kids telling them some things we love about them that were on the table with some little candy hearts that they ate as appetizers for breakfast!

We went to church as usual, had a light lunch afterwards and the usual naps for the kids.

Our small group, which normally meets at our home on Sunday evenings, had originally planned to cancel the Valentine's Day meeting. Turned out that we had to cancel the meetings the two weeks before that for various reasons and since some of us don't really make a big deal out of Valentine's dates anyways, we decided to go ahead and meet. Two of the couples couldn't make it, so we had the other two over for dinner.

I made Chicken Parmigiana and our friends brought salad and bread.

I had also made sugar cookies on a stick (and some not) for the kids and as "party favors" for our guests.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake was the finale for the adults. Yum!

We had a great time visiting with our friends and sharing stories of first dates and how we fell in love with our spouses. It was a really wonderful day and I wish Valentine's Day was always on a weekend so we could spend the whole day together as a family.