Annual Financial Report Day

We don't celebrate Valentine's Day in the traditional way.  Not that I don't like flowers and chocolates... I do!  My sweet husband began, many moons ago, showing me his love and affection in his own way.  He calls it Annual Financial Report Day.  He has this gift with numbers.  He makes me graphs and pie charts of all the money we've spent over the last year.  I do LOVE a good pie chart!  It means so much to me... A.F.R.D [a little close to AFRAID] ... I'm not scared.  Alas, it is a very busy season.  There will be no pie charts today.  Soon, not today.

BUT--we did have a party!  I had a blast planning our morning.  I got to be girlie.  Hearts galore!  The boy and I both got to see our friends.  That's a pretty great combination.

We started our day with some banana bread muffins.  I tried to to make them heart shaped by adding a marble to the muffin tin.  It sorta worked... They tasted good.

Around 10am our friends arrived.  We had a cereal/pretzel necklace making table.  Tied them over until lunch time... each "tiny friend" [as my sister would say] got to decorate a valentine holder.  Everyone brought cards to share.  It was pretty adorable.

I planned a special lunch.  It was hearty--see what I did there?  Heart-y.  It's been a long, FUN day.

I saw these heart shaped carrots on Pinterest.  They were the impetus for this Annual Financial Report Day's party.  

Chicken tortellini soup.  [Just regular old chicken soup with tortellini instead of egg noodles]  

Grilled Cheese

These rolls!

Another not-so-successful heart shaping attempt.  But, as one friend said,"Oh, they're heart shaped?  I didn't notice.  I ate it too quickly."  That's a high compliment and I'll take it!

Salad and tomato soup.  Tomato soup that I forgot to warm up... easily remedied.

And then there was DESSERT:  Raspberry cupcakes, cream filled doughnuts, chocolate cake, fruit salad, cake batter cookies, and smore bars... oh my, my, my.  Heart sprinkles, pink everywhere!  Yum! Thank you to my friends for bringing these WONDERFUL treats.  It felt like having a party in a bakery.  It's not everyday you get to offer your little one such a plethora of dessert choices.  That was fun!

Sweet.

I made these Valentine crayons using a heart shaped silicone ice cube tray.  We have a lot of crayons.  I chopped them up, melted them down and popped'm in the freezer.

Our valentines.

Happy Valentines/Annual Financial Report Day everyone.  I hope you feel cherished however you chose to celebrate this day.  I know I'm looking forward to the slice of the pie chart for the A.F.R.D. rain check.  Get it?  Dessert...pie chart...money?  hehe.  It was a good day.