We made millions of chocolates for Valentine's Day. The girls had vague ideas, last summer when we learned to make these, of selling them. They really are good enough to sell! But then it seemed like such a lot of trouble to figure out how to actually do that. So we decided to just give them away to all our neighbors and friends instead. It was fun.
Daisy and Goldie (and me) melted and tempered and dipped all afternoon. It was hard work! (Daisy felt it would be improper to just smile gaily after such hard work. It was serious.)
All right, I admit they are not perfectly shaped. We're still working on that.😄 But they are perfectly well-tempered and perfectly delicious! We made orange cream again. And caramels, of course. And we tried lime cream fillings this time too. They were good! Next time we'll put lime zest in them and they will be even better.
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Our ward had a "dance party" for families. They handed out glow sticks and glowing glasses and so forth, so the little kids thought it was very fun!
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There was a stake youth activity that was a formal-dress dinner, so the girls had fun dressing up and doing their hair! Did I mention that Goldie is finally in the Young Women's group at church? For years now it has seemed like she should be there. Everyone has assumed she was old enough. But only this year is she finally, officially, a young woman! It is so fun for all the three girls to be together.
Darling curly-haired Junie.
Here's Daisy's hair in back. Sooo pretty!
Goldie was at ballet until right before the activity, so it was dark outside by the time she got ready. She looked so pretty in one of my old dresses! Daisy did her cute rope braid.
And let's not forget Malachi. Absolutely thrilled to be attending this activity and having me take a picture of him.
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Goldie with curly hair on another day
Daisy on her first day of work at Nielsen's Frozen Custard! It's a family tradition now, apparently.
Gus in his Caw jacket
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Here is Clementine on my birthday, the first of the three February birthdays. She is wearing my old dress and carrying a bunny and sometimes…
wearing bunny ears too. I like her extra much!
I like to have a picnic on my birthday when I can, and I usually can not. (Feb 4th is not a day known for its lovely weather.) But occasionally we get a warm day, and this was one of the years. It was 58º outside, well within comfortable picnicking range! The wind was a little chilly, but we didn't mind. So we mixed up egg salad to go on crackers, and went to the park. Daisy and I were matching!
For our second course we had frozen custard from Nielsen's, and then that day was our choir/field trip day, so I got to go to the farm at Thanksgiving Point with the little kids. I was hoping to see bunnies there, but I didn't. It was still good though!
The next birthday was Teddy, turning 10 if you can believe it! (The year he was born was another warm February. I believe we had a picnic on my birthday that year, too.) And I guess I don't even have a picture of Sam's birthday, but we did celebrate it!
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Some pictures of Clementine lately. She is in Primary now and just seems very grown up in general. People keep commenting on how she's a little girl now (not just a toddler), and they are right. She is.
A helicopter Clementine made
Butterfly girl!
Clementine dresses ALL the animals up in dresses, so we're seeing Star the Orangutan emerge again, fashionable as ever.
Clementine also likes to line things up if they match. I'm always running into little collections of similar objects, grouped by size or color or whatever, and I know exactly whose work they are. (Clementine is very like Daisy in that way!)
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We took the girls to the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" for Valentine's Day (the day before, actually). It was so fun and gave them yet another change to dress up and do their hair extra fancy. This crown was actually my work, and I am very proud of it. It's only pinned up French braids, though, so don't be too impressed.
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A sad and terrible thing happened—my dear friend Emily's husband was killed in a car accident. I served with Emily in a Young Women's presidency and we have all stayed close, though we've all moved away from that ward now. We get together every time Annie (our most far-flung friend) is in town, and we were all so heartbroken for Emily when we heard the news. Annie flew up for the funeral and we were able to have a bittersweet reunion and spend some precious time together. I love these women. I am so grateful for our friendship. While it never occurred to me that one of us would be struck with this kind of tragedy so soon, I am so glad that we have each other for just such times. Emily is the most sunshine-y, selfless person you can imagine and she has many, many friends. Before I knew her, I admired her, but I didn't imagine she'd be the type of person I would be able to make friends with! But serving together has a way of bringing you close. Thank heavens for that. Those friends have surrounded her in this hard time and I'm glad to be among them!
The funeral was on Valentine's Day and even though none of us would have chosen those circumstances, it was a sweet blessing to be together for it.
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Valentine's Day has evolved into more of a "family love day" than a "romantic" day for us, and I like it that way. Everyone spent hours making valentines for each other and the kitchen table was a huge mess of papers, stickers, and glue! Cleanup is especially hard when some of our number cut very abstract heart shapes and any tiny scrap may end up actually being a precious valentine made for someone with great love! I'm still not sure I managed to get them all out of the scrap pile…
We had a fancy family dinner of fondue in the evening. Goldie and Teddy made the table look beautiful, with folded heart napkins and pretty centerpieces.
Ready for chocolate fondue
Ready for cheese fondue
It was all so fun and so delicious! Abe couldn't make it home to be with us, but everyone else was there and I always love a dinner when we're all together.
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I took the girls and their friend Cora, and Teddy too, ice skating at the ice ribbon in Herriman. They had all been dying to go again since we got home from Quebec—we got quite spoiled with our easy access to ice skating there! They did manage to bring their thrift-store ice skates home, so they were really happy to break them out again and use them! Junie said she hadn't forgotten any skills even though it had been a couple months since she last skated, so that's good, I guess!
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And last of all, some pretty skies and clouds from this month.
And even a (very little) bit of snow! It's seemed like quite a mild winter for us, but there have been quite a few mountain storms, so I hope we'll have enough water for the summer!
The End!
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