Valentine's Day with The Tribe!

A Musing

by Darryl and Wanda (Baby Blues (r))

When I think of things we do without

Like parties, trips and dining out,

Furniture that goes together,

Vacation homes in sunny weather,

Like moonlit walks--Just you and me

(Not to mention spontaneity!)

It gets me down until I hear

That little cry from one so dear,

Reminding us we're needed now

To kiss and soothe a furrowed brow.

Because our lifestyle's rearranged,

We dream of life before it changed

But wouldn't trade all this commotion

For any of that wistful notion.

(by Kirkman and Scott)

I love going out with Gana to some romantic restaurant, seeing a show, going dancing....all that cliche Valentine's Day fare. However, this year it wasn't to be! (You try finding a babysitter for six kids who doesn't have Valentine's Day plans of their own!)

So, we spent Valentine's Day in and made it a family affair. We decorated for the special day of love!

The kids made sugar cookies with pink icing and lots of sprinkles. (I forgot to take a picture.) We set out presents from Nana and Papa, Titi and Tio and from Gana and me.

We had a lovely dinner together of sausage and olive stuffed bread and asparagus salad with feta (a recipe that needs some work before I post it to the Gomboblog).

For dessert we had chocolate fondue with a fruit platter and shortbread cookies to dip. Half the fun is in the dipping!



We played some games together, too. The first was called "Throw a Smile." This was so funny that it didn't last long. Here's how you play: Everyone has to be stone-faced-serious. The one who is "It" can smile all she wants! Then she "wipes" the smile off her face and throws it someone. That person now can smile and everyone else has to remain serious. The person who is "It" can keep the smile as long as she wants and try to get others to smile by grinning ridiculously at them. As you can imagine we didn't throw too many smiles before all the kids were laughing hysterically.

The second game was "Steal My Heart." I dumped a bag of Valentine's conversation hearts in the middle of the table and gave each person a pair of chopsticks. Using only the chopsticks and not fingers we see who can get the most hearts. When they are all gone from the middle, the person with the most hearts wins! I kicked booty on this game. I'm a professional chopstick handler. To be fair, I probably should have reviewed with the kids how to use chopsticks. Luc used his like a bulldozer to just pull a large number of candies to himself!

The best part was that they got to eat their prizes!




Then it was onto Dad and Mom's bed to watch Be My Valentine Charlie Brown!


(Belgee is not in any of these pictures because he fell asleep at dinner with his head in his plate.)