Crazy Love Gamble-Style

Valentines Day can be a little over the top sometimes, you know?   Just ask our local Dollar Tree, I've never seen so many balloons in one place in my life.  The entire ceiling was covered!  I couldn't get them all in this picture, crazy! We tend to keep things simple around here, nice low expectations from the kids... They are just as excited to come out and see this as they would be a huge basket full of stuff.   I made my mom these healthy ginger bread hearts .  I love them too, so I may of eaten a few... The girls enjoyed reading their cards and eating a few chocolates before breakfast.   They are  so sweet!  We attended a little surprise party for my friend Heather, then we headed to the mountain to spend the weekend celebrating grandpa John's retirement & birthday. We laughed when we arrived and found this.  Apparently they had asked Jeff to open the cupboards so the pipes woul...

Both of the girls love getting new shoes, so they were of course both thrilled when they each got a shiny new pair yesterday from grandma.  They nearly match and both light up, which has been on Ava's want list FOREVER.    What's even more fun than new shoes?   Stealing your sisters new shoes of course!!  So cute!  And I'm so glad they don't have laces!!  Now she just needs pants.  Here's Norah sneaking some love from Ava while she's hard at work busting out 28 Valentines.  This has got to be the biggest project she's ever done for school.  It was fun watching her go through the list, working on getting them all done.   Maybe I will just randomly buy Valentines for her to have to fill out, it's such great writing practice! Thanks again mom for the shoes, you're the best!!  xoxo

 I keep it pretty simple around here. It's good to keep their expectations  nice & LOW... : )  We did have a nice heart-shaped pancake  breakfast together, so that was good.  I always make her try to read the candy conversation hearts, she remembered that  from last year, it went much better this time around.  We all wore outfits with hearts on them : )  And met up with Grandma, D'Auna & Alayah for lunch and lots of playing. Love her so much!!  For dinner I did nothing special for the kids but I did cut some hearts out of cheese to keep  with the theme.  : ) I made John & I jalapeno infused grapefruit margaritas and paprika dijon almond crusted salmon with cauliflower fried "rice".  It was delicious!   Such a fun, relaxing day, love my three sweet Valentines!  Hope you all had a great day too!!  So fu...

Our big plans for this "holiday" are to make it fun for these girls. They love fun, & we love LOVE so why  not try to make it special? We are going to start the day off playing with Alayah & Grandma at our little local kid-play coffee shop. In the evening we will just lay low & have a  nice family night.   Hopefully some heart shaped this or that.  Maybe pizzas, maybe cookies.  Whatever, just as long as it's fun. I heart these girls, so much.  Then Saturday it will be John & I's turn to  have a nice date night, that should be super  fun too, can't wait!! Happy Valentine's Day!!

John & I decided to do what we usually do for holidays: A) Not spend any extra money B) Make it about the kids  We had swimming in the morning but I took a minute to  grab a few shots of the kids before we left.  I'm super in love with Norah's outfit and also  quite impressed that she put up with the hair bow!  Love this.  Could she be more photogenic?   Ava did great, these shots are of playtime, her favorite part, they are catching ducks & hearts and throwing them in the bucket.  After swimming we went out to lunch with Vashi & Jessica, it was a nice little Valentines Day celebration : )  Loving the heart shaped carrot!  Oh and the heart shaped chocolate covered strawberries! These are the ways to Ava's heart. Just in case that wasn't enough she gobbled down  a box of chocolates from Auntie too : )  We love Vashi!!  It was so ...