Valentine's Day

 With President's Day and remote learning on Friday, we basically had a 5 day weekend for Valentine's Day, and we made the most of it!

Th girls spent the weeks before in anticipation, with lots of pink clothes and treats. Maddie chose pink cupcakes for her FHE dessert.

And Daryn showed off her adorable new dress from Gigi.

Reagan and I spent a lot of time working on her Valentine's box- my first time making one as a parent! It turned out so cute. She chose an oven as a tribute to her love of baking.

Reagan and Daryn both worked hard on their Valentine's for their class. Reagan made custom bookmarks for each one and Daryn made these adorable critters (and posed them with her butterfly painting). And the best part was, they did them all by themselves!

The girls had fun parties at school and then it was time for a party at home! We invited a few little friends over on Friday afternoon for a Valentines tea party. We spent Thursday night and Friday morning getting everything ready!

And everyone had a great time! 4 big girls and 5 little girls. 

They were all very fancy and proper for about 20 minutes and then ran around screaming for an hour. So exactly what you'd expect.

Immediately after the tea party, Meagan arrived to babysit so Lance and I could go on a date!

The kids love when she comes. We're lucky to have her!

First stop on our date was picking up my car, which had been in the shop all week. (Cramming everyone into Lance's 4runner while he took the train was not super fun, but I'm grateful we all fit.). My car was getting fixed because I was in an accident on Feb 1, when I didn't see a car coming and pulled out of our neighborhood and hit them. Scary stuff. Everyone in our car was fine, but they did have some minor injuries and their car was totaled. 

After getting my car, we went to Zupas, shopping, and then got a couples massage. We stopped by home quickly so I could feed Dixie, then we had a late dinner at Tiburon in Salt Lake. It was a truly delightful and relaxing evening. 

Saturday morning, we had a yummy breakfast and stopped by the church to heart attack the bishop's office (we made the hearts for at-home Activity Days).

We started a new incentive program with the girls, when every time they read 15 new books (Reagan and Daryn love to read, but I noticed they were re-reading the same books over and over again), they got a special date with Daddy! The first one was ice skating. It's been a great motivator, especially for Maddie who is still learning and not always loving it. Reagan and Daryn finished the same day. I'm impressed that it only took them 7 weeks (we got them lots of new books for Christmas to read). 

Reagan was up first, on Saturday evening. Checking out the new Ice Ribbon in Bountiful. 

And TonyBurgers after!

Sunday, we had a nice holiday at home. We got to go to church, so of course the girls dressed up. And we stopped by the temple after- can't believe how fast it's going!

Lots of progress from a month ago to now:

After church I told the kids I wanted one picture of them in their pretty Valentines clothes. They all sat on the couch, and I sat on the table to get the right angle. Unfortunately, right as I sat down, Reagan yelled "there's a chocolate right there!" Yep. I sat right on Daryn's caramel chocolate and smushed it flat. There was no recovering the photo op after that. Even bribery couldn't salvage it. 

The best we could do:

Daryn got her date on Monday. She also chose TonyBurgers. (The real winner was me, who got delicious burgers brought home both nights.)

The girls both had a blast. And they are both officially better ice skaters than me. I can't believe how well they do. They're so beautiful and talented and smart! The perfect end to a great holiday weekend.