Travel Valentine's Party

We had an another fun weekend filled with parties and family!  It's been lots of fun getting so many visitors...they all wanna see the babe.  For our Valentine's Day breakfast, I cut out hearts from an old atlas of all of our favorite places including states we've lived in and our best vacations.  I strung them together to make a quick garland for our travel party.  I also found the cutest 3D airplane bunting from a sweet lady in the Netherlands.  My dad served a mission for the LDS church for two years there and so I knew he would appreciate them! I plan on hanging them in the baby's room after. Oh they make me smile. :)

We had a simple breakfast of muffins and berries because everyone had places to go very early that morning.  I wrote my yearly love notes to everyone too.

For our cards this year, Q decided he wanted a suitcase valentine (not exactly sure why, but I aim to please)...so I made a little suitcase printable that we wrapped around Hershey's miniatures and then added a cardstock handle.  I made a postcard-type card to attach it to.  Dennis is really getting into reading, so we decided on a book-themed card. We patterned his after an old library checkout card...do you remember those?!  It was so fun to see who had checked out the book before you.  Good times!  Anyway...we put Dennis' name under Author and the recipient's name under Issued To and stamped the Date with Feb 14.  It was such a riot for me to make!  I am sure the kids won't get it, but I do and it cracks me up.  :)  He and I made a bunch of chocolate books patterned after these with two Hershey's nuggets, some brown cardstock and a piece of paper made to look like a chapter in a book.  The boys and I sat down one afternoon and had a huge assembly line of cutting, gluing, taping, filling out names, etc.  It was a grand (and only slightly tedious) process.

Q and I made a suitcase Valentine box for his card exchange at school to go along with his travel cards. We just covered a photo box and lid in brown paper and added brown duct tape straps and a handle.  He wrote his name on the "luggage tag" and was so proud of his box.  

I ordered some lovely, delightfully beautiful and tasty cupcakes from my friend and we took them up on the mountain for a hike and BBQ for our Valentine's dinner.  We had fantastic weather and a fine time, even though we forgot mayo, a lighter (we borrowed one) and a grill brush...it seems like I always forget something!  But we improvised and the sunset was breathtaking!

And Q made me the sweetest valentine!  It was completely his own idea, work and pun.  He totally takes after me. :)  He only needed a little help with spelling from dad.  What a sweetheart he is these days.  He loves to leave me notes and letters and it totally melts my heart and makes up for all those years of ransacking the house and giving me a heart attack on a daily basis.

My nephew and dad both have birthdays this month, so we kept up the decorations (I planned it that way- two birds with one stone) for a combined birthday party the next day.  We set out a cheese plate with smoked Gouda and Brie topped with tiny Netherlands map flags.  We set out some tulips as well as some cupcakes with pale blue frosting and sweet origami airplane toppers that my brother made.  They were seriously amazing!  My dad was in the Air Force, so the planes were very fitting as well.

I also ordered box airplane stickers and let the boys go crazy making personal airplanes.  'Twas a hoot and a half and we so enjoyed the visits and company!