We’re not Hallmark people, but we do enjoy an excuse to celebrate.

For Valentine’s Day, each child picked out a treat. This is Ellie’s first chocolate bar. She went for the big guns.

No way am I sharing this with you, Rebecca!

Elisabeth likes chocolate. It makes her emote, and she hasn’t even bitten into it, yet.

I know how to handle this issue!

Oh yeah!

This picture leads to an interesting detail of our lives which you may not have thought of. Do you see the laundry basket in the hall near the hanging jackets in the background? We don’t keep a laundry basket out there all the time. We keep it in the bathtub. Why? Because that’s where it fits, naturally! When it’s full shower or bath time, the laundry comes out, the bodies go in. After baths, the shower has to be completely dried out before the laundry can go back in, or else our clothes mold. Not much dries in the trailer unless we’re back in the Southwest’s arid climes.

Now back to our party. Let’s see what happens when baby eats chocolate.

She passes out and gets a Valentine stuck to her head.

What? That’s a Valentine?!

Yes, we have Post-it parties at Valentine’s Day. Each participant is armed with a writing utensil and a pack of sticky notes, and s/he writes notes to the other participants.

Usually each person has a designated spot on the wall where his or her notes are stuck, but this year’s cheap sticky notes didn’t have any sticky in them.

This tradition of ours is simple, it’s fun, and sometimes it’s hee-haw-hilarious!

Some of the notes are philosophical…

some are sweet…

some are utterly pointless but amusing…

some are full of practical life advice…

some lack any sentiment whatsoever…

and some are just plain sweet!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Just so you know, that was a dairy-free, low sugar, organic dark chocolate bar the allergic two-year-old was eating, and she only had a few bites, each of which she balled up in her mouth and spit out. She was mostly in it for the hand licking.