Happy Valentine's Day!

So today is Valentine's Day.  Not that this is a hugely romantic holiday in these parts anymore, but I'm really okay with that.  Who needs romance when you have this?

It was a balmy 50 degrees in the Valley today and Babycakes asked to go outside.  She hasn't asked to go outside since late summer/early fall.  So we bundled her up in her coat and headed outside for some fresh air.  We started off by walking around our 2 acre yard.  Eventually she got bored with that so we headed over to her swing set. I held her as she went down the slide and she LOVED it.  Giggling and signing, "More! More!"  Eventually Mama's back started aching so we headed over to her Little Tykes slide where she could climb up on her own.

  She was having a blast but couldn't quite figure out how to get back to the top so she could slide down again.

Eventually she mastered climbing up, but she still needed help getting in position to slide down.  But Babycakes is well on her way to being a slide expert!  She also enjoyed discovering her shadow for the first time.  She kept watching the shadows.  It was pretty cute to watch.

After a while Daddy came out to join the fun.  We headed back over to the swing set and played some more.

She isn't quite big enough to do this on her own without close supervision but she had a blast for the brief time we allowed her to play on this.  Not that you can tell from her face...

I also wanted to share a quick (as in less than 5 minutes) craft project I completed a couple of weeks ago.

I really like the hurricane vases that are so popular right now.  But they are so expensive!  I mean $20 for the "cheap" one at my local Wal-Mart.  So I headed over to the Dollar Tree and picked up 3 vases and 3 candlesticks for the whopping total of $6.30.

I cleaned them using dish soap and water and removed the price tags.  Then I fired up the glue gun and glued them together.  The result...

I put conversation hearts in them but that's not very smart for a person like me who has a terrible sweet tooth.  I ended up going out and buying more candy.  Next time I'll go for something that isn't edible. Maybe. I'm thinking about green glass globs for St. Patty's day and maybe jelly beans or plastic eggs for Easter. I'm sure the local dollar store will have some ideas for me. :-)

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!