Valentine Traditions

I was going to title this "The Non St. Valentine's Massacre", because each Valentines Day our family has a mini Valentines Day disaster. But not this year, finally!! In previous years we have had a kitchen fire, stomach viruses (not fun after an all red meal) and other mini disasters. So my kids both look forward to and dread what the day will hold. Our tradition is that I cook a fancy dinner using as many red or pink ingredients as I can, and we then sit down to a candlelight dinner using our best of everything. So here are a few pictures of the kids sitting at the dining room table. Oh, in case you are wondering, the closest we came to a disaster was that the chocolate covered strawberries for the neighbors did not get dipped because the kids, while washing the strawberries, decided to cut off the tops too. So we had nothing to hold while dipping. Sorry neighbors!

Cat and Mouse (Crab)

Chloe came down with strep this week, and those of you who know, after they get their first round of antibiotic, they feel great, but still can't go back to school. So, I guess I was so anxious to get out of the house after being housebound with her for a couple of days, that I agreed to go to Petco. My intention was to just get valentine treats for the dog and cats, but I left the store with 2 hermit crabs. For the record, hermit crabs creep me out, but it is the ONLY non-traditional animal that I will consider letting in the house. And since Chloe was just too cute after being sick for 2 days, I said yes. So welcome "Cleo" (Chloe's), and "Shelby" (Isabel's). Isabel got a crab to replace "Champlikk" who passed away late last year. But you've gotta love Jackson's new favorite pastime...babysitting the hermit crabs!

The Ski Report...Winter Park, CO

We did it! We returned to St. Louis without any broken bones, pulled muscles, or concussions. We took our first family ski trip, and first trip to Colorado. The mountains were amazing, with light snow falling as we arrived...just beautiful! The kids spent all Friday in ski school, and returned much better skiers than us....not that that would be hard to do! Our first time down the mountain as a family I told Chloe I would stick close to her. She says, "why?", and zooms like lightening past me. So the next few days we skied all the green trails with the kids getting better by the moment. Our only trouble with skiing seemed to be the ski lifts. Chloe forgot to get off one of the lifts, and had to be brought down, and all 3 children at different times fell trying to get on the Looking Glass lift...their nemesis. Of course we had a few moments of Chloe laying face down in the snow saying she was too cold to go on, but surprisingly fewer than I anticipated. Our last day, Isabel and Samuel tried their first blue run and didn't fall, so they moved on while Chloe and I finished with the green ones. But, it was unanimous...we will go skiing again!