Valentine’s Day Party 2016

This year’s Valentine’s Day party was our biggest ever.  We had just over one hundred people come!  It was a beautiful day and we were so thrilled to watch family and friends from all over our little valley walk through the door.

Thankfully, I’ve figured myself out well enough to know that a) I’m really slow and b) if I procrastinate I will be a stress case and yell at my kids, so I tend to prepare for events as early as possible.  I ordered the donuts the Saturday before and spent hours Monday hanging decorations.

Taylor’s brother, Dan and his wife Marisa offered to pick up the donuts, which was so nice!  While I was trying to get dressed and make my children presentable, they arrived with trays and trays of donuts from Puck’s and arranged them, as well as filling up dozens of milk bottles.  We were so grateful for the help.  (You know those last thirty minutes before a party are always nuts, no matter how well prepared you are!)

I love this snapshot from my phone of the party at full swing.  At any given time there were 20-30 children playing upstairs, a dozen more running around or doing cartwheels outside (fake grass is soooooo awesome in the winter!), and a kitchen and living room full of friends and family.  It was so fun to watch people hug and laugh and catch up.  And we ate every last crumb!

Quintessential Clara.  All red and scooting around the house like she does all day errrrry day.  (By the way.  It’s not that I love Clara more.  It’s just that some of my boys eat a donut and then disappear into lego heaven for hours, making photos next to impossible…)

My favorite childhood book is called Anne Likes Red (OK it’s called Ann Likes Red, but I can’t abide my name without an ‘e,’ obviously), and it’s all about a little girl who goes shopping and chooses a red dress, red hat, red shoes, etc.  Valentine’s Day is my favorite day to channel her.  My red shoes were a gift from Cookie.  One day on my mission she took me shopping at Nordstrom and I was drooling over them, but missionaries wear winter boots and mary jane’s with thick, comfy soles, not red heels, so, naturally, I didn’t buy them.  Cookie snuck back and bought them for me to take home after my mission and I’ve been loving them ever since.  Of course I was so busy curling Clara’s hair that I didn’t put on my red lipstick, which is, of course, a travesty.  Here I’m posing with  my dear friend, Aviann, who is the purple counterpart to my red-obsessed Anne.  Wish you could see better that she even donned gorgeous lavender eye shadow.

After all the sugared up families left, Taylor’s sister, Sara, and her three little girls (look at new baby Betty!  Could you just die?!) hung around for a while.  We kicked our feet up and reveled in a quiet, sunny Saturday afternoon.  Thanks so much to all who came to celebrate with us and to those of you who have followed this tradition online for years.  It means so much to me that Cookie’s tradition can live on and be beloved by so many.

xo

anne

#vivacookie

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