Getting ready for Valentine's Day

Emma is old enough to be excited about Valentine's Day (and every other holiday!) now. (They did Chinese New Year at her preschool, too, and she loved it!) She's been bringing home crafts, having me cut out hearts for her to decorate with markers, etc. But I thought that making 17 valentines (one for everyone in her preschool) would probably be a bit much for her attention span. So when I went to the store last night (I needed desperately to get out!) I picked up a box of strawberry cake mix (on sale, of course), some Valentine's Day cupcake papers, and some candy hearts. Emma is going to help me make cupcakes tomorrow and decorate them for her class, and take them in to preschool with her. She is very excited.

On top of that, Grandpa (my dad) must have somehow known that I've been lamenting not being able to get to See's lately, not even for Valentine's Day. He got us gift certificates, and he asked whether he should give them to us or stop by and get some for us, or whether I would like him to try and get off in time to pick us up and take us tomorrow. Of course I chose "take us tomorrow!" That will be a lot of fun for the girls AND for me. I love going to See's (and not just 'cause they give out samples! ;) It's just a fun place!)

And on Friday night Jeff has promised we will all go out to dinner (probably the Glendale location of Conrad's because it's the only place around open 24 hours-- actually the only place open past 11 or so. Well, the only decent place, I don't count Denny's, and even our IHOP closes at 11-- you have to drive a lot further to get to the nearest 24 hour IHOP. And it's fun, and the kids like it-- they give them coloring pages and crayons, and the two of them can share one kids' meal because the portions are so big! Plus the food tastes like someone actually cared how it would taste when they made it, they have yummy specials... Mmmm, I think Friday they even have the famous "steak soup!" Man, that soup is delicious-- ground sirloin, all kinds of veggies, and they put something special in it, that I can never quite duplicate at home...) We're not going on Thursday because we figure Emma will be wound up enough after preschool, and I'll want to get out more desperately on Friday, and it might be less crowded, plus of course Jeff gets paid on Friday. ;)

So actually, all in all, we're doing quite a bit for Valentine's Day this year. And here I was lamenting that we wouldn't get to do anything at all, other than make cards. :) It's nice when everything works out.