Valentine Dance

O.K. I didn't have access to all the Valentine pictures I wanted because after putting some on our portable hard drive, it started having issues. To make a long story short, we have access to our pictures again. So... I can now share pictures from Jet's Valentine dance (see blog post from March 13, 2026).

I really do think Jet had similar moves to Lucky at that age (see blog post from February 14, 2020).

 

And some before and after Valentine celebrations at school. 

Sunday Sketches

The Sunday after Valentine's Day this year, Jeremy and kids did Sunday Sketches of a Bewick's Wren. It was based on a wren we saw in Oregon on our trip in 2024 (see post from July 21, 2024).

 

Jeremy

Nichole

Jr. Jr.

Lucky

Jet- So Jet didn't draw a Bewick's Wren. In Primary his teacher helped him draw a Valentine axolotl. Why not?

 

Valentine Days

Sadly, we don't have access to some of our pictures from around Valentine's Day so this post is missing some pictures. Oh well. Here it finally is:

 

O.K. Finally getting to it. Valentine's 2026.

I already told you that Jeremy made chocolate covered strawberries for me. Chuckle. He made them early enough that they got eaten up before Valentine's Day even came. 

The week of Valentine's Day, there was a kindergarten Valentine dance at the elementary school, just like when Lucky was in kindergarten and Jet was a baby. 

Jet and I dressed up and went and danced and had refreshments and danced some more and were excited when Daddy came to join us. He had a fair convention that day but made it back for the end of the dance. 

I think Jet has similar moves to Lucky at that age.

 

The day before Valentine's Day was when the elementary schoolers had their Valentine parties and Valentine exchanges. Lucky's class invited them to decorate boxes to hold their Valentines. Since Lucky is preparing for the school play, Alice in Wonderland Jr., many things are Wonderland themed right now. Lucky brought a Mad Hatter's hat as his Valentine box. I supplied the materials (empty oatmeal box, fabric, another cardboard box, cardstock) and Jeremy helped Lucky make it into a hat. 

 

This year, like last year on actual Valentine's Day, Jeremy and Nichole were at Life, The Universe, and Everything symposium. 

Let me stop right here and share something funny that happened during prep for LTUE. Jeremy printed off a list of classes/panels so he and Nichole could see what they both wanted to take and what they had that overlapped.

 

Mom: Nichole, Dad wants you to look through Life, the Universe, and Everything to see what things you want to do. 

Jet: Nichole, Dad wants you to look through the telescope at the university holes.

 

Thank you. Back to Valentine celebrations.

While Jeremy and Nichole were at LTUE, Jr. wanted an excuse to eat ice cream so he rationalized this.

It was Single Awareness Day. Single people eat ice cream when they don't have a date. Yes! Great excuse. And my husband wasn't with me for Valentine's Day so I should eat ice cream, too.

Reminder that I fully support the Daddy-Daughter date at LTUE (my husband did make me chocolate covered strawberries. I love chocolate covered strawberries).

We also had heart-shaped pizza for dinner or broken heart pizza as it is cut.  

I did get a nice hug from Jeremy that night. He didn't completely forget me. Heh Heh Heh.

 

The next day, I made a fancy dinner to celebrate since Jeremy and Nichole were home that day.

A great way to celebrate love with food is by using recipes from Whisk Me Away by Michelle Wright. We had some fun during and after dinner based on the Regency Era. 

For dinner, we had Green Bean Almondine with Rice Pilaf (both from the cookbook). We also had ham but I didn't use the honey glaze from the book. We rounded it out with modern day rolls and ice water to drink.

After the kids set the table in our normal use what dishes are in the cupboard (or dish drainer), mismatched or not, manner, I showed them a picture from the book of how a proper dinner table should be set. Ha Ha.

While we ate, I read to them what the book said about Regency dinner party etiquette, which made some of them do the exact opposite because that's what kids do.

After dinner a few of us decided to play a Regency game from the book. "Forfeit."

We used Lucky's "hat" to hold the forfeits and we had a blast playing together. We had the youngest of us and the oldest of us playing so it was a good game for all ages.

I love family time. And I love that we can have the whole family be involved in a holiday that doesn't have to be just for significant others. 

I do enjoy time with just my husband but we do get to do special things together other times, not just Valentine's Day and anniversaries (and did I mention that my husband made chocolate covered strawberries for me?). 

I would never try to go out for Valentine's Day to a restaurant or something like that anyway. Too crowded. We did stop by the grocery store to get some milk after I picked Jeremy and Nichole up from LTUE on Valentine's Day, though.  

I hope my children know they can always celebrate with us. There are so many reasons to celebrate. 

 

Update: We have access to our pictures again. I put some on another blog post on April 11, 2026. 

Other Things Going On Besides Valentine's Day

Besides Valentine adventures, we celebrated or pretended to celebrate some other holidays. 

I'm sure when I finally blog about Valentine's Day(s), it will be anticlimactic.

In the meantime...

February 11 was National Peppermint Patty Day. I ate one. I wished Jr. a happy National Guitar Day that day. He can play the guitar.

February 12 was Charles Darwin's Birthday. I thought of a discussion that happened during our Galentines activity. We were talking about the comedian Tim Hawkins and someone brought up how he has a bit about Darwin. I mentioned that Charles Darwin's birthday was coming up and we joked about celebrating. It turned out I was too busy that day to do anything except think about how it was Charles Darwin's birthday.

February 13 was National Tortellini Day. I realized the tortellini we had was too old so I made something completely different for dinner- red-and-white mostaccioli (with penne). 

I have no pictures to go along with these celebrations. Huh.

Oh well. Blog later. Bye. 

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

While you're still waiting on Valentine adventures, here are some teasers.

Since Jeremy knew he wouldn't be around for Valentine's Day, he made chocolate covered strawberries for me the week before.

 

O.K. O.K. O.K. I have to stop right now because of something funny I just discovered. 

O.K. I am the type of person who types with her fingers on the home row keys. Shout out to elementary school on a dark stage typing on the computers with the green screens. It worked well for me. I don't look at the keyboard while typing (except for numbers/symbols that are on the same keys as the numbers above the letters). Often I'll type in the dark. I just realized something while typing that my husband made chocolate covered strawberries for me.

If your fingers are over to the left one key from the home row keys, if you try to type "for" it comes out "die." Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

So I was trying to type that he made chocolate covered strawberries for me but I was distracted or something after typing "strawberries" so I put my fingers in the wrong places and it came out he made chocolate covered strawberries die. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Actually, I'm the one who made them die by eating them. Bwah ha ha ha ha ha.

O.K. I think that's enough to share for this blog post. I hope you got a good chuckle from it like I did. 

Blog later.

Things to Share but No Time

I have Valentine things to share but I don't have the time right now.

We had several days of Valentine activities which is why it will take time that I don't have.

Sooooo...

One morning, Jeremy sent me this picture before work.

Oooooh. 

I ran out to get a picture of our sky. Not as brilliant, but still cool. 

O.K. Thanks. Blog later. Bye.

Mostly Valentines and Galentines

Galentines!

Nichole and I took some bonding time together near Valentine's Day. It was actually on February 11 which was Peppermint Patty Day. We went to the Orem Library and picked up a movie to watch. It was Follow the Fleet with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Then we had some fun with shadows in the park. It was one of the last days they had the lights on. 

We stopped by Winco and picked up some peppermint patties (and other treats since Nichole doesn't actually like peppermint patties) then we went home to watch our movie. 

Jr. made us some popcorn. What a sweetie.

Love bonding time with my gal. 

 

February 13 was National Tortellini Day. I made Hamburger Soup and added tortellini to it. 

February 14 was Valentine's Day of course. Here's how I celebrated:

When I sent the kids off to school in the morning, I encouraged them to spread love and kindness.

I went on a walk by the lake and got to see some cool ice stacks. I saw a bald eagle in a tree as I was looking around.

I stopped by the library to pick up a book on hold, the movie, Penguin: Spy in the Huddle, because I completely forgot to get it for Penguin Awareness Day in January, and my own "Blind Date with a Book." The book turned out to be Meet Me at the Museum, which I still haven't read because I've been reading so many other books.

I said "Hi" to Libby the Librantula. I always love it when she's out where I can see her.

At home I cleaned up the aftermath of Valentine box construction. I love to see the creativity in my family.

This is how Lucky's Rockhopper Penguin box turned out. 

Jeremy helped Lucky design Valentine's for the kids in his class. Each design had a different bird with courtship info about that bird.

I baked bread.

I made sack dinners for Jeremy and Nichole to eat at Life, The Universe, and Everything symposium they went to again this year.

Jet and I picked up Nichole to take her to the conference with Jeremy.

We had heart shaped pizza for dinner. The boys made sure I cut it in a zig zag way. Oh no. It's a broken heart.   

I got to listen to Jr. Jr. and Jet laughing together and just being plain cute.

 

February 15 was National Gumdrop Day. I forgot to get the gumdrops out for that holiday so we had gumdrops the day after with cookie candy flowers the boys put together.

 

February 16 was National Almond Day so I had a salad with almonds in it for lunch. 

I had Jr. make a Valentine's dinner for Jeremy and me since Jeremy wasn't available on Valentine's Day. Jr. made Ogre Stew from The Fablehaven Cookbook.

Wow. Plenty busy around Valentine's we were.