Valentines Day 2012

The girls awoke to a new decoration in their bedroom. It's rather long and will have to be moved to a corner, but I thought they'd get a kick out of seeing the love hearts in the middle of their room when they stumbled out of their beds;

Nick and I have bought each other a combined Valentines present this year (which is arriving this Saturday!) so we had agreed to not getting each other anything else for the day.

Of course, Nick broke the rules and came home with a surprise box of Bon Bons for me;

I have fond memories of (when I used to work in the city) making special trips to the QVB in my lunch hour, to taste the latest flavours;

As I dived straight in, Nick was quick (too quick!) to ask me if I was going to share some with the girls. So I did. Very Reluctantly. (This was the only downside to my Valentines Day).

I had a special gift for the girls.... I made them a little drawstring bag using some cute fabric I found at Spotlight the other day;

Nick and I may or may not, at certain times, refer to our children as 'wild animals'. Thus;

I bought these bags of animals from ALDI for just 49 cents each and found the very cute printable from here. They were a hit!


There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of how lucky I am, to have my beautiful little family. Two perfect girls and my gorgeous husband = a very happy Me;

I must admit, I am always extra happy when Nick comes home and amidst the chaos, declares we have take-away for dinner. Like last night. As he went to pick up the pizza, the girls and I rushed around like crazy (C-rAzY!) to make our dinner a bit more special;

We pulled some chairs outside, grabbed a few tablecloths, vases and tea-lights and got to work.

The girls have got setting-the-table down to a fine art (they are well trained in this area. Putting their clothes away? Not so much). They took care of plates and cutlery, I tied jumbo ric-rac around the napkins;

Floral mugs would suffice for glasses and we used the spotty vase for a water pitcher;

Candle-holders the girls made last Valentines and a bejewelled wire rack (I still haven't figured out it's precise purpose) to hold the bowl for Garlic Bread;

Of course, the animals were all marched out;

Plenty to go around;

They came to graze at every corner of the table;

These pictures make me laugh. Like the giraffe trying to peer over the top of the bowl and Livvie asking, 'Do you think giraffes like garlic bread?';

Then Nick came home with our favourites (nachos pizza for us!);

The wine was good, the cheesy pizza even better (just ask Elly);

This was how we all felt afterwards;

We waited awhile, before Elly and I unveiled our surprise dessert;

After our trip to the mountains on the weekend, it could only be Apple Pie;

I had never made one before, so I was flying blind... but I did add love-hearts to the top of the pastry and that seemed to make up for the rest of it's appearance! I also added 4 x the amount of cinnamon required, especially for you, Nick.

And that was our little Valentines Day celebration. I hope you had a LOVEly day too!