On Valentine’s Day, a bunch of my high school girlfriends and I drove up to Philadelphia for a day trip to visit our dear friend Debbie! (Dan was a great sport about watching the girls while I got to spend time with my friends, and we had already had our own Valentine’s celebrations in the days prior.) Jen, Mimi, and I headed out in the morning, and got to Philly in time to enjoy soup dumplings for lunch with Debbie! Juli flew in to join us afterwards for post-lunch dessert at Audabon Bakeshop!
Audabon Bakeshop with the ladies
Mimi and I at lunch right before.
Neat signage at Audabon Bakeshop
Delicious macarons from Audabon Bakeshop
Strawberry brick toast at Audabon Bakeshop
It was so amazing that it necessitates posting another angle of it.
Walking to The Barnes Foundation museum as the flurries fell around us.
Lovely Mimi!
Us at the Barnes Foundation
The snow made everything look so romantic!
Cool crystals hanging from the ceiling of the museum.
Juli, Debbie, and Jen at dinner
We enjoyed dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Kanella. We didn’t realize that we’d be dining off of their Valentine’s menu, so it ended up being quite a meal!
shepherd’s pie
lamb chops
Lobster from Kanella
Chocolate cake with lavender ice cream. My favorite dessert there!
This was also delicious.
Our day trip to Philly was quite eventful! It was a fun and memorable day, and it was so enjoyable getting to spend Valentine’s Day with these amazing ladies!
We got caught in a bit of a blizzard on the way so it took us a while to get home, but thankfully we made it back in one piece around 2 in the morning. Can’t wait until we are all reunited again!
We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this year, because I had plans to visit my best friend in Philadelphia with my girlfriends on February 14th. I took some photos of the girls matching in red to commemorate Valentine’s 2015!
It was impossible to get them to both smile in one shot! Sigh.
Smiling sweetly for the camera! ♥
Mirei’s expressions look so mature lately…
Dan and I got to have an early Valentine’s dinner date on Thursday, thanks to my sister watching the kids for us! We dined at Maple Ave Restaurant, which we had heard so many good things about! We were pretty excited to have a quiet romantic dinner together, and the food did not disappoint. Everything was so incredibly delicious!
Steamed PEI mussels with saffron coconut broth, chinese sausage, and crostinis as an appetizer.
I ordered the duck leg confit with caramelized brussel sprouts, truffle aioli, and apple cider gastrique.
For dessert, we had the chocolate dumplings with fried pastry shell, melted chocolate ganache, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce.
…and the “omg” flourless chocolate cake. Both were amazing!
Love you hubby! Thanks for a lovely and romantic evening.
When we got home, Mio delivered surprise Valentines gifts from Dan!
A sweet Valentine’s card from Dan and the girls!
Mio signed her Valentines to her classmates this year! This was actually her first time writing her name out. We’d been encouraging her to write her name for a while now and she always resisted so we’ve tried not to push her… but she willingly wrote it this time. So proud of her!
Mio’s Valentines haul from her classmates. She loved it, and has been treasuring her bag of Valentine’s cards in the days since!
On the same day (Friday), we received this card in the mail. Mio’s preschool class has been learning about the post office, and apparently they sent their Valentine’s to their parents out in the mail in time to get to us by Valentine’s Day! I will treasure this always.
Mio telling us about how she sent the Valentine in the mail.
Thank you sweetheart for such a beautiful Valentine! We love you and your sister so much!
Happy Valentine’s Day! For this sweetest day of the year, I couldn’t resist capturing some photos of our two girls’ first Valentine’s Day together. I’m giving you fair warning that I went a little shutter-happy at the sight of how adorable they looked! I have a feeling these will only be the first of many more sweet sister pictures to come! Hopefully they’ll sweeten your day as much as they did mine. ♥
Mio: “Just wait, Mirei… we’re going to have so many fun adventures together!” Mirei: ::nervous gulp::
We melted when Mio held Mirei’s little hand… she did it on her own, without being told to.
Sweet sisters!
Mirei is uncertain about what’s going on… and whether she likes it or not.
I got these adorable Valentine’s mailboxes embroidered with Mio and Mirei’s names.
They have a slot on top for love letters and open up for little gifts… too cute! Will be using these for many Valentine’s Days to come!
Mio trying to hold Mirei’s head up…
I think Mirei’s had enough with the sister pictures…
Enjoying a sweet treat on Valentine’s Day.
Love this Valentine’s Day dress! When I saw it, I couldn’t resist getting it for Mio.
Jumping for joy!
She melts my heart! Love you Mio ♥
I was in for a treat this morning, too! I didn’t expect that I’d get any Valentine’s gifts because we’ve been snowed in since Wednesday night, but apparently Dan was well-prepared and got everything ready on Wednesday, before the snow started… I was impressed!
A dozen red roses, macarons, and a wooden heart-shaped card he custom made with a laser cutter (so very Dan!). Thanks hubby! ♥
Valentine’s Day is this week, and Mio’s preschool class celebrated today by having a Valentine’s party and card exchange. All of the students’ mommies were invited to come to have snacks and treats with the kids, and it was a fun chance to see them in the classroom setting and look at what artwork they’ve been creating.
Mio’s artwork at school: “Love Grows” tree
Mio’s “Love Bug.” Love her butterfly’s goofy face!
Enjoying Valentine’s treats in class.
She thoroughly enjoyed everything, especially the cake pop!
Mio likes to do “big eyes” for the camera lately. Love my sweetheart!
My funny girl.
I remember my favorite part about celebrating Valentine’s Day at school was making mailboxes and exchanging Valentine’s cards with my friends and classmates! Seeing all the Valentine’s cards that Mio received from her preschool classmates brought back fond childhood memories. Some moms are really creative these days with their Valentine’s!
Mio’s Valentine’s cards from classmates
She can’t contain her excitement over her loot! Now if I could only figure out how to sneak all the sweets away for myself… 😛
It was really sweet to get to celebrate Valentine’s Day with Mio this year, as she’s really starting to understand and appreciate seasonal celebrations these days. (She still hasn’t completely gotten over the excitement of Halloween and Christmas… lol.) I have a feeling that with Mio’s sweet tooth, Valentine’s is going to be right up there among her favorite holidays!
This Valentine’s Day, Dan was extra creative and put a little extra work into how he presented me with some of my favorite chocolates and messages of love. ♥ I was a little perplexed when I found these balloons in Mio’s room in the evening, with an accompanying note and needle that instructed me to pop the balloons.
Popping balloons is one of those things I kind of dread doing, but it was worth it to find what was on the inside… here’s a video! (Excuse my screams.)
A little hand reaching for the candy…
Sweet messages of love from inside the balloons!
Hubby gets an A+ for creativity!
Thank you Dan for a lovely Valentine’s surprise! 😀 He also treated me to lunch and dinner this weekend, so we could satiate our cravings for Thai and Vietnamese…
Eating at Natta Thai. Unfortunately, we’d eaten all our food before I remembered to take a picture.
