Valentine's Day 2012

Valentine's Day was a little different this year.... normally Derek would take all of us to IHOP (it's what we did with my dad on Valentine's Day and has become tradition in this house). Then we would put the kinds to bed early and he would cook me an awesome dinner (he's an AMAZING cook!) But this year, Derek is underway... so we decided to have a party! We invited a few Navy wives over (two of them have husband's gone this year also) and have a little party for the kids and hang out. No one wants to spend Love Day alone, so why not? We spent most of the weekend making decorations.

we hung paper hearts everywhere!

these came in the mail from aunt lori (along with a TON of others from family)
photo by Karyl

photo by Stephanie

We started our morning with some yummy blueberry muffins (heart shaped of course)

eli absolutely LOVES blueberry muffins!!

Then around 11 our friends arrived and the girls were EXSTATIC! It was finally time to dig into those yummy cupcakes they'd been staring at all morning. We had a really great time! Ate lunch, did a craft, and the grown ups drank coffee and hung out... it surely didn't replace having my sweetheart here for Valentine's Day, but I think it was second best :)

I was really busy with stuff during our little party so I only snapped a few pictures... but, one of the great things about all four of my friends who were here is that they too are photographers! So we got some great shots between us, well three of us... Jessica is pregnant so we let her off the hook for not having her camera ;)
Anyway, here are the photos with credit to Stephanie Riley and Karyl Williams. You can also view their Flickr pages here (stephanie) and here (karyl) to see more of their photos :)

Having lunch 

it's been so fun to watch these three growing up together

is this not the most adorable thing you've ever seen??
photo by Karyl

cupcakes!!!!
photo by Karyl

they decorated their own cupcake
photo by Karyl

photo by Karyl

photo by Karyl

photo by Karyl

this is mary ellen (karyl's daughter)
photo by Karyl

yum

eli's very first cupcake... needless to say, he enjoyed it 

i got the idea from pinterest to freeze milk and add food coloring. as the ice melts it turns the milk pink.
photo by karyl

here is the craft they worked on 

me with my 4 little valentine's :)
photo by stephanie

stephanie stayed for dinner and when we opened
the frozen peas, they were in the shape of a heart!
photo by Stephanie

I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day!!!!