Valentine's, 3 day weekends, new game

Ready and waiting for dad to come home

 We kept our annual tradition of not setting foot out of the house for Valentines.  The kids dressed up and ran our 'restaurant' for us again.  I love this tradition.  Alicia and Isaac especially get into their waiter/waitress duties.  This year, Ian dressed up just so he could have some of our 'bubbly' that he loves so much and I told him I was not sharing if he was too cool to be a part of it all.

Our 20th Valentines together

Audrey sang "I can't help falling in love with you" for us

Mario gave me a board game that I've been really wanting.  It's called 'Escape' and it's paid for itself a few  times over already.  For some reason I always think of entertainment cost in comparison to movies.  We pay $55 for our whole family to see a brand new movie.  If we buy a $55 game that is purely for the purpose of entertainment, then it better provide 14 hours of entertainment to pay for itself (2hrs/person) .  The kids have played this game SO much the past week.  With cousins, with friends, and with family.  I'm getting pretty sick of it myself but there is something about it that really appeals to pre-teens/teens.  After our Valentine dinner, Mario and I figured out how to play it, (I knew most of the basics already) and then we called the kids up from their movie and tried it out.  There was a lot of yelling, screaming, fear of death, and laughing.  It was awesome.

Every weekend Alicia and Isaac have a sleepover in the front room.  Alicia always ends up on the tile floor.  It hurts me to see her like this.

Audrey and Hannah didn't plan to dress alike but they look like they did

On Saturday, I took Hannah and Audrey to see "Winter's Tale' with me.  It was the sappy Valentines day movie for this year and I didn't want to make Mario sit through it with me.  It ended up being so weird.  The story had potential but there were a few times that the 3 of us burst out laughing at things that weren't supposed to be funny because it was so ridiculous.  When we came back home, we walked in and the missionaries were here along with xtra cousins and friends.  Mario was making a huge pan of tomato soup and grilled cheese and whatever else he could find to feed everyone.  He did a last minute invite to the missionaries at their baptism that afternoon.  I'm so grateful that he's the type that will just take over the kitchen when needed and pull off a dinner for 14 people like it's nothing.

Playing 'Escape'

Some of the cousins at the Jump Zone

Monday was a holiday so I was glad when Cristy called and planned a cousin get together.  We all went to the Jump Zone--always a hit with the kids.

Alicia and Poco in their new PJs