love or Valentine's Day isn't just for sweethearts

This year, we made the grandparents some Valentines and sent them along with a little wooden box that the children made (they all made one and we chose 5 to send), plus some chocolates.  After all, Valentine's Day just isn't complete without some chocolate!

My mom sent me a pic of hers that she got today.  The postal service had great timing in this instance. :)

Then I told my hubby that his girls needed a box of chocolate from their daddy first, before they got one from some guy.  So he made a quick last minute run to the store and got them their very own box of chocolates.  :)  BTW...I wasn't left out; he got me one yesterday AND today. :)

Oh and our oldest (third pic) really did like them...I just snapped the button at the wrong time and didn't notice until now.  But I assure you - she loved it. :)




Until next time...


JenT

it's all about love

 How was your Valentine's Day?  We celebrated from breakfast to nighttime.
We started with a yummy breakfast that we usually don't indulge in: stuffed French toast with strawberry syrup and cool whip.  The stuffing was cream cheese and the strawberry syrup was homemade.  Yum!!

And after breakfast the plates looked like this:

Treats

 

 Dessert

Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

 Oh yeah, the main dinner meal: garlic bread and lasagna

 

Instead of using traditional lasagna noodles, I used egg noodles.  I usually make crock-pot lasagna and use those, but today I didn't.  We love them anyway. :)

We had several of these balloons hanging almost everywhere, but I didn't want to fill the post up with decorations. :)

Let's get this party started!  lol  Some of my little sweethearts. :)

Our youngest sweetheart (so far). :)

Until next time...

JenT

Valentine's skirt special on my etsy shop

 Some of you may not know that I have an etsy shop.  I only have a few things on there, but I am trying to sell what I do have.  I have some really cute little skirts for little girls.  I hope to branch out to older girls in time.

Right now I'm having a Valentine's special - a coupon code to use on my etsy shop for 20% off (see the front page of my shop to get the code)!!  The code is good for the whole week, ending the 15th.  But to get a Valentine's skirt in time for the 14th you really need to order it today, tomorrow before 3 pm at the absolute latest.  (So I can package it and get it to the post office before 4). 

I do have more than just Valentine's skirts and will be adding more soon.  But for a sweet, one of a kind, heart print skirt - order now!!

Go to my etsy shop and check it out.  You'll be glad you did!!


Until next time...

JenT

it's all about love

 

Valentine's Day is for sweethearts!  Or is it?

Well, sure it is.  But it doesn't have to be EXCLUSIVELY for them, right?  Right!

After all, if that were the case then the kiddos couldn't enjoy it. 

I'm hoping this year to get my kids more involved with showing love to everyone around them.  I found this handy-dandy list of 20 different random acts of kindness to help give us some ideas.

You can find it HERE.

Until next time...


JenT

Valentine's Day 2011

How did you spend your Valentine's Day? I spent it with the ones I love the most.

Some friends live only about 1/2 hour from Cumberland Gap. We were house sitting for them and decided to take a short road trip.

Since the children earned their Junior Ranger badges out in NM at White Sands, they decided to get the ones from Cumberland Gap too. The five oldest worked on them, the younger ones ran around outside and rocked away a few minutes waiting for them to finish.

It was a good day. Hope your Valentine's Day was just as fun.


Until next time...


JenT

20 cool things about chocolate

1. Each year American's buy 48 million pounds of chocolate for Valentine's Day. That's the same weight as 128 blue whales!



2. White chocolate is technically not chocolate. The paler treat is made with only cocoa butter - not cocoa powder, as real chocolate bars are.



3. Hershey, PA smells like chocolate. Why? The Hershey's chocolate factory there produces (among other things) 20 million Hershey's Kisses a day.



4. Chocolate-covered bacon is a popular treat at many state fairs. (yuck)

5. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao plant, which grows only in areas near the equator.



6. U.S. soldiers serving in World War II (1941-1945) were the first to eat M&Ms. The candy coating allowed troops to carry the high-energy treat without it melting.



7. Ever feel like you'd rather eat chocolate than dinner? You're not alone: an early advertisement for the candy claimed it was more filling than meat.



8. A miniature Statue of Liberty was built out of 229 pounds of chocolate.




9. The scientific name for Chocolate, theobroma cacao, means "food of the gods."




10. There are 30 to 50 seeds in each football-shaped cacao pod - that's enough to make seven bars of milk chocolate.


11. The average American eats about 12 pounds of chocolate a year.



12. A Swiss company invented a chocolate that won't melt until temperatures reach 131 degrees Fahrenheit.



13. The ancient Aztec of what is now Mexico and Central America believed chocolate had magical properties; royalty drank a spicy, bitter mixture from golden goblets.




14. The next time you have a cold, ask for a piece of chocolate. A natural chemical in the treat helps suppress coughs.



15. People in the United Kingdom eat 1,000 chocolate bars for every one bar eaten in China.



16. Rumor has it that Aztec emperor Moctezuma II drank more than a gallon of chocolate a day.



17. Chocolate covered ants are a treat in Mexico. (yuck again)




18. Just one whiff of chocolate can make a person feel happy. A chemical in cacao releases feel-good vibes in the brain.



19. Maria Theresa, Queen of France from 1660 to 1683, appointed a royal hot chocolate maker to her court.



20. It would take 15,133,852,800 Hershey Bar squares laid end to end to reach the moon. (What a waste of good chocolate).

These were taken from the February 2011 issue of Kids National Geographic. Pictures and comments in parenthesis were added by me.

You can read more about the history of chocolate on previous posts on my blog; Valuable "Almonds", Origins, Chocolate, the Cure-All, Solid Chocolate, Chocolate for the Masses, and Kid Stuff.

There is also a great blog where you can get a lot of chocolate recipes. Lisa, at Stop and Smell the Chocolates, stopped blogging but left her blog up so that we could still access all her yummy treats. If you are hankering for some chocolate and want to try a new recipe, I encourage you to stop over at her place and take a whiff. :)






Until next time...

JenT