My Sweethearts

 Pinterest and Facebook were screaming on Valentine's Day with elaborate festivals of heart-dom that parents were throwing for their kids. 

I cut a heart in their sandwiches.  And Daddy and I bought them a $1 box of chocolates each.  Go, us!

We like to take things kind of laid-back.  Especially since our anniversary is only a week before V-day.

So this year we didn't do too much.  The kids made a big Valentine for Daddy for when he got home from work.  And a few days later (when the prices had gone down) Nathan brought me home these lovely flowers.  (I had threatened him with bodily harm if he paid $40 for flowers on Extortion Day--uh, I mean Valentine's Day.)

I put them in a vase at first, but then I suddenly had this idea.  They just looked so much happier in this basket, as if I'd gone out somewhere and picked them a few moments before.  I put a bowl of water inside the basket.  To keep their stems in the water I weighed them down with a small plate, then put a plastic grocery sack on top of that and a white dish towel over all to hide the plate.  (The bag kept the towel out of the water.)  An added benefit of putting the flowers in a basket instead of a vase is that they lasted almost a month!  See, they were already resting on their side so they never got droopy and sad like so often happens, especially with gerbera daisies.  Definitely gonna do this again!

The other reason we didn't do much for our anniversary or Valentine's day is that we were all battling several rounds of illness at the time.  I got Nathan a few boxes of candy with cute notes taped to them and he got me a free massage at a spa.  Happy 7th Anniversary!  Woo!