Valentine's Day

I am not a very romantic person so Valentine's day doesn't really hold that much significance to me.  With Matt being gone, we didn't have any plans to go out and do anything.  And the kids were just fine with staying home and having fun.  Gabe had a party at school and decided to bring glow sticks (mini light sabers) instead of candy.  He also wanted to bring cupcakes and his teacher asked them to decorate a heart for the party.  We went to a play group on base and Zander played with foam stickers and watched a Winnie the Pooh movie.  He was very happy Gabe had some cupcakes left over, so was Charlotte (especially when Zander shared with her).  For our "special" day, I made pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for dinner.  The boys were very excited, we rarely have breakfast for dinner.  It was definitely a treat.  I "treated" myself to a raspberry mocha for my dessert (recipe at the bottom).  

When dinner was over, I had a bath drawn for the boys.  Bath time is usually a struggle.  Zander loves the water and the soap, but with his eczema we can't have him in the water for very long.  Gabe dislikes getting in the water, but once he's in he hates getting out.  They were so excited when they saw me pop the glow sticks and put them in the water.  Then we turned off the lights and they made their own underwater light show.  It was definitely cool and we'll do it again!  

All in all it was a special day for everyone.  Gabe had lots of fun at school with his party.  Zander and Calla enjoyed their time out with the other kids.  We all enjoyed the strawberry pancakes.  The night was complete with bath time fun.  Even though we didn't spend money on dinner or flowers or candy, we had a good time.  I think that's more important.

Recipe for Raspberry Mocha - inspired by Starbucks

I started with a base recipe from this website, and altered it to my taste.  After tasting it, I added another cup of strong coffee because it was much too sweet for me (but I usually drink my coffee black).  At the end, instead of using the peppermint syrup, I used raspberry syrup.  If you wanted it to taste exactly like the mocha from Starbucks, you need to use dark chocolate powder.  Unfortunately, no grocery stores in the greater El Paso area carry Hershey's Dark Chocolate cocoa powder, and unless I want four packages of it, I can't order it from Amazon.  So I make due and add a little less sugar.  I usually just drink coffee, but occasionally I like to "treat" myself to a sugary coffee concoction.  Enjoy!