Why is it so fun to make things heart-shaped?

Valentines is always fun. A day to see how much we can change the normal day-to-day, to things more pink, red, flowery, sweet, and heart-shaped. The kids still aren’t quite old enough to realize the significance of any special changes that the holiday inspired, but there were a few little surprises here and there anyway.

I made the kids some pink play dough on Monday, which was a coincidence, since I wasn’t even thinking about Valentines when I made it. They played with it for a LONG time. I love when that happens. I had to make Snowmen over and over for each of them. The joys if toddlers! I was surprised, though, when Ruby started adding her own details, like ears, with little tiny pieces of dough. You could just see how hard she was concentrating.

Elise also did some fine work.

KC and I had plans to go out on Monday, rather than Tuesday. We were trading babysitting with the Ribeiras, and I’ll always choose the less crowded option. KC took me to a most delicious new Latin restaurant, Paladar in Annapolis. My husband knows me and my palate so well. And the food didn’t disappoint. We ate all we could, and were happy to wraps every last tasty bite up for later. I’m wishing I had more of those chorizo sausage corn fritters, and KC’s coconut chicken tacos right now. And the great ambiance as lovely.  We’ll definitely have to go there again sometime. A great night with my love.

I didn’t feel like doing anything too festive for breakfast, but I did cut up their day-old smoothie pancakes into little hearts. I think they liked that.

Lili and I had plans to take the kids out to lunch, but their recent nap boycott (well, they do eventually fall asleep, but sometimes not for a couple hour or more during which time they make it sound like there is an earthquake of jumping, laughing and crying across the hall) has me more exhausted in the afternoon than rejuvenated, so we opted to stay home and decorate Valentine cards for daddy with Penny downstairs. We also tried to get the kids to play Just Dance with us. Alex was really getting a groove on, but soon enough they were all asking for Winnie the Pooh, or Wonder Pets.

They enjoyed a little bit of their heart-shaped hole-in-the-bread(something I thought of making years ago, and I think it just might have become a tradition), but they mostly enjoyed their ice cream in brightly colored cones.

After the kids were finally down, I made us the same thing for dinner, since we really had celebrated the night before and didn’t care about having anything too fancy, but I did add a hollandaise sauce, roasted potatoes, and sausage to spruce it up a little.

The cake I made was more of an fun project for me, than anything else. I knew it was too much for us to eat, but I always enjoy and excuse to play in the kitchen, even if the cake will be staring at us from the freezer for weeks. I have wanted to try making this cake for a while now (I love that people think up this stuff so I don’t have to). And as adorable as the white cake/red heart combo is, I thought we should involve chocolate somehow for V-day (even though I am a lover of white cake—next time). And Ice cream. So I changed it up a little and made a dark chocolate cake, with a ganache filling, and a black cherry ice cream heart . (Her tutorial is excellent if you want to try it out yourself.) I let KC choose the ice cream flavor, but kept the rest a surprise.

I have also admired her simple, elegant rose décor, and since I had all the supplies handy, I went ahead and covered the cake in roses. It wasn’t perfect in the least, but it was a start. And I made exactly enough buttercream. Don’t you love when that happens?

The ice cream didn’t freeze as hard as I would've hoped (a homemade ice cream would be perfect for this), but it had the desired effect, and made for a festive dessert. After it was topped with warm dark chocolate ganache and fresh whipped cream, of course.  I let myself eat a few more bites than usual, and it felt good.

So another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. It was lovely, and delicious. I’m sure the kids will be more than excited to get into the festivities next year. I’m looking forward to it!