In case you haven't noticed - I LOVE Valentine's Day....I love making Valentine's and sending them and receiving them. Every year I have a Valentine's party....I usually invite the little girls in the neighborhood to come and we make Valentine's and eat decadent desserts and have a great time. One year I invited my friends...older girls....and they came but when it got right down to it they were not remotely interested in sitting around making Valentines....so I went back to inviting real girls! This year however, since I'm still on duty at my sister's house I didn't need to look far to find girls who would be interested...my two nieces jumped up and down when I asked them if they'd like a party....and yesterday they invited their friends over and we had a great time!
First we had to decorate the walkway leading up to the front door....the girls sprayed colored water over a tin-foil heart template to create beautiful pink hearts on the snow....they loved this!
Here is my darling mom and my two nieces, Callie and Gracie. They were so excited - they helped make the treats.....we had red velvet cupcakes with chocolate centers and cream cheese icing, mint-truffle brownies with milk chocolate frosting, heart-shaped sugar cookies, and all of the red candy I could find....cinnamon hearts, cinnamon bears, Valentine Peeps, cherry sours, red licorice, and tons of candy "conversation" hearts. We served strawberry soda in my sister's crystal glasses...when I got the glasses out my niece said, "We can't use those, they are only for special occasions! My mom will have a cow!" I simply pointed out that this was a special occasion and she reluctantly agreed..apparently my sister has put the fear of God into them about these glasses!
We played Valentine Bingo and the winner received a lovely set of Valentine Tattoos! Being 9-years old she was thrilled! We also played a word game and the same girl won - this time she received a chocolate bar - it didn't get the reaction the tattoos got! They made cute cards and only one glass of strawberry soda was spilled - luckily the glass didn't break!
