Valentine's Day

I have a friend whose birthday is Valentine's Day, and as a present to her, her husband basically got in touch with a bunch of people and asked them to do acts of service for other people, and then share their experience in a book for Anna. (Which I thought was pretty much the best birthday present idea ever.) So my friend Lacey and I, made pillow cases and gave them to an agency that works with children in foster care. Then I also made a bunch of sugar cookies, and took them to people. (That way there was at least one project my kids could help with.)

 

I love making sugar cookies, but Josh has always said that they were "good, but probably not good enough to give to other people." I tried a new recipe this time, and Josh gave me the approval. We took them to my friend Alisha's family (with the button on the plate that you'll see,) then she was supposed to do service for someone else and pass the button on, and hopefully everyone would continue passing it forward. We also took them to the people I visit teach, and Meili's primary teachers.

 Definitely service that I can get on board with! (Not that there's a lot that I don't.)

 Here we are making our first attempt. Truth be told, most of this batch was eaten by our family. But that's okay! Win, win for everyone!

 As for Valentine's Day, which was on a Sunday this year, we had our obligatory heart shaped breakfast.

 

And our fun Sweetheart's dinner. We had a really hard time coming up with a menu this year, so it basically consisted of brisket, that my kids didn't eat, jello that they don't like, but was fun for me to make, rolls and vegetables. But once they got all their juice and presents, the didn't even notice!