Valentine's Day is officially over and boy did I have a fun-filled 5 days! The kids kept us on our toes and as you can see, we stayed busy! Beside their treat mailboxes and conversation hearts, we had to make a Valentine mailbox for Hudson's school - I saw the monster idea on-line somewhere, so we went from there - and a sack for Harrison to carry his Valentines to school. He quickly got hooked on my Cricut machine and battery operated heart punch. He was so enamored of them, that we have a bit of a heart overload, but it is his sack and I told him he could decorate it any way he wanted - you should see the back! We also made the handprint pictures as gifts.
Then, just when we thought we had finished our Valentine crafting and cooking, Mommy called to ask if we could "whip up" a little something for the 7 teachers. Good thing I've been doing this forever and have quite a go-to file. If we had had a bit more time, we would have crafted something, but time was short so we went to my Red Hot popcorn recipe. It is YUMMY and relatively easy. Sometimes the hardest part is finding the Red Hots. This year after sending my husband on that task, he finally found them at the Dollar Tree. We just downloaded the tags and tied them on some Valentine bags and we were good to go!
The mailboxes were wonderful "motivators". Nana would put a small treat in them and raise the flag when "requests" were being followed. Then, when they weren't, treats would be removed. It was amazing how quickly they caught on to that concept. We only had one lost treat the whole time.....and thank goodness for that, as it was one of those "this will hurt me more than it hurts you" moments. Look at those faces. How could you really get mad?
We drove the kids home on Sunday afternoon and our daughter and her husband returned that night. We stayed over and then headed home by way of Dade City where we got to eat in our favorite restaurant. It is always decorated for Valentine's Day and this year was no exception. This has kind of become a tradition of ours and it is surprising how something so simple can be so important. I guess I'm a simple kind of gal. Don't need the reservations at some fancy restaurant and waiting in long lines. We sat by the fire, had a glass of wine and our favorite meals and life was good! The place can only be described as "eclectic", but we love it!
Now we are back in Ocala. I have commitments the next few days but am looking forward to Friday. Our weather is breathtakingly beautiful ...72 degrees and not a cloud in the bluest of blue skies... and I am chomping at the bit to decorate for spring with all of my St. Pat's thrown in for good measure...can't wait. Stay tuned.
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