Valentine’s Weekend Recap XO

So, if you’ve been following for a while you may remember that Juliana and I have a Valentine’s Day Tea Party tradition.  You can check out some of the older posts here, here and here.  I started this tradition a few years back when Juliana was 2 years old.  I love the idea of having a special tradition for us to look forward to.  In the past we invited our friends and their moms to a brunch and ate yummy powdered donuts and mini sandwiches.  We have so much fun planning the party and picking decorations.  I love to see the little girls dressed up acting fancy with their pretty pink drinks.

This year however Juliana wanted nothing to do with a party.  Every time I brought it up she shot the idea down.  Didn’t want to talk about the invite list, didn’t want to pick decorations.  Didn’t want to plan a menu.  Nothing.  I couldn’t figure out why the change in heart, but I have since given up on figuring out why she makes the decisions she does and I decided I needed to get over it.  I knew eventually we wouldn’t be throwing tea parties in the family room.  And that when she is 13 there’s a better chance of us having tea at the Ritz than inviting all the girls in her homeroom over for mini muffins, but I thought I had more time.

I’m not going to lie, I was a bit crushed.  This tradition isn’t supposed to be stressful, it’s supposed to be a tradition of something we do together to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Whatever it is we decide to do.  So I started to plan a weekend full of other activities that I knew she would love.  Then my girlfriend, who knew I was bummed, suggested that we take our girls out to a fancy Sunday Brunch to celebrate.  Perfect!  I added it to the agenda.  We would have a whole weekend full of fun and end it with a big girl brunch.  I was starting to get pretty excited.

On Friday night after dinner I whispered to Juliana that I had a surprise for her after Joey went to bed.  She quick ran upstairs to “pretend” to go to sleep and after Joey was sleeping she crawled past his door and met me in the spa, I mean my master bathroom.  I surprised her with a special girls only spa night and she was thrilled!  I gave her my bathrobe to put on and handed her a special pink drink.  Let me tell you, nothing says fancy like lemonade with a splash of cherry juice in a stemless wine glass.  We sat on the floor and I painted her little nails and toes.  She picked blue for her toes and I tried not to make a face since this was her day afterall, but blue!?  I’m lucky it peels off quick.  After that I sat her on the counter to apply her face mask.  Mom tip:  Squirt a little face mask onto a plate (smashed avocado or banana work great too) and let your kids “paint” it onto their faces.  It takes a good 20 minutes of pure concentration.  You’re welcome.  While she was busy with that I got to work on setting up the rest of the “spa”.  A warm bath full of bubbles, lit candles and Pandora set to Spa Suite.  She hopped in the bath and put the cucumbers over her eyes.  She had so much fun relaxing and acting like a big girl.  I secretly think that the staying up late was her favorite part and that’s ok.  After she dried off I surprised her with a new nightgown and took her upstairs to bed.  She must have been rather relaxed because she was sound asleep in about 5 minutes.

The next morning we had plans to meet our good friends Savannah and Charlee for a movie and Chick Fil A playdate.  We were super excited because we don’t get to see them very much any more.  Their mom and I bought houses at the exact opposite ends of town and it’s just not as easy to make plans as it was when we lived 5 minutes away.  The girls were SO excited to see each other and I love how they get back to talking like they just saw each other yesterday.  I packed the kids a special movie snack to eat while we watched Trolls.  Again.  If you follow me on IG you know how I feel about the overpriced movie theater concession stand.  And the movie snacks have got nothing on my homemade snack tray anyways.  Right?  We had so much fun with them and can’t wait to see them again.

On Sunday morning when Juliana woke up I told her that our babysitter was coming to spend some time with Joey while I took her out for a special brunch.  She raced upstairs to pick out a dress and I heard her telling Joey that she was off to see the doctor, ha!  I blow dried her hair and she applied a tiny bit of make up.  It was a special day after all.  Christina and I took the girls to the Cheesecake Factory for brunch and the girls had the BEST time.  They got to pick anything they wanted off of the menu and we spoiled them with shirley temples and ice cream sundaes.  It was so sweet sitting on the other side of the booth watching them tell secrets and giggle.  I think they had a blast acting like big girls.

By the time we got home from brunch I was officially pooped and over Valentine’s Day before it even started.  Our weekend of jam packed activities was a total success.  We missed having Daddy around and were sad that he was away for work (did you wonder why I didn’t mention him this whole time, haha!) but such is life.  He sent us beautiful flowers so we wouldn’t feel too bummed and next year we will all get to celebrate Valentine’s Day together 🙂

I hope you had a great weekend and Valentines Day with your loved ones, I know we did.

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XO, Danielle

                  I’m telling you, face mask + paintbrush = mommy break //  Trust me on this one.