Today was our own little party….with giggles and tea and treats and glitter on every flat surface of my house…quite a few vertical surfaces too, come to think of it!
Yes, this was our annual day to make Valentines, but first like all good tea parties, we had to make treats! Normal fare is a heart shaped strawberry cake, but alas the heart shaped pan broke back in July. Then mommy’s addled brain forgot that this was that week and many ingredients were not to be found within the boundaries of our cupboard. Thankfully, I happened across a gluten-free ginger snaps recipe on-line, just as the kids were stumbling out of bed this morning. Salvation! A double batch of those, a pot of my coconut tapioca pudding and lots of good organic red tea (rooibos), was festive enough for me, and I didn’t hear anyone else complaining either.
More then half the cookies were set aside for guests tomorrow (two birds and all of that, after-all I was baking anyway). A second plate of carefully chosen cookies was set aside for daddy. With the rest in hand we set to work covering our little table with all things pink and red.
Daddy picked out some dandy supplies for us this year. We had card stock and pink and red construction paper. There was glitter and glitter-glue, heart stickers and flower stickers, ribbons and stamps. First up were Valentines for pen pals. Over an hour and a half in and the boys were still working on these! Paper hearts glued on each other, followed by stamps, with stickers in the middle and then glitter all around and ribbons laced through the edges, and layer upon layer, with no end in sight. Finally, I had to gently remind them of the countless other valentines they hoped to make today. There was still several choruses of “just one more thing on this one….”, but eventually we were able to move on. As the day progressed they felt less of a need to use every single supply on every Valentine, which was rather a relief, especially considering the great pools of glitter glue that kept randomly appearing.
We made a heart shaped paper sack, decorated and laced up with ribbon, for Steve. I filled it with his share of the cookies and left it hanging on the knob of his dresser, where he would see it as soon as he got home. The boys were so pleased to be able to have a surprise for Daddy. They didn’t like that he was missing out on all the fun.
Galen entertained himself in the most comical manner while I was setting up. He managed to finagle the water bottle that I use to mist plants down off of the table (a certain older brother acted as an accomplice…). He then proceeded to spend about 20 minutes going back and forth between my plants holding the spray bottle at them and making “sh, sh” sounds! It was hysterical! Granted he had the nozzle pointed towards himself most of the time. I still think that’s pretty darn cleaver for an 11 month old.
He was very hurt about being excluded from our little project, although he did get to eat a crumb of cookie off of Iain’s shirt. So after he was done caring for the plants I let him scribble on some of the scraps and play with some bits of ribbon.
Over-all I think it was a pretty good day. Apart from the nasty burn I sustain while baking cookies (where the heck did all of my pot holders go anyway?????) all went well. My hand is feeling fine now, goddess bless the aloe plant! Everyone is sound asleep. We have a big pile of sticky valentines to ship off tomorrow. After today I think I will have no need of my special Friday night dessert, thank you, I’m good. Now to try to clean up some of this glitter….