happy love day to us

'twas quite a lovely valentine's day here at the house of wan.

i had a friend who contacted me with a super duper, fairly sizable last-minute request for valentine's day cookies...the day before v-day.  heh.  but i'm always up for a challenge and i like to help my pals whenever i can, so i accepted.  hence, the table-ful of heart-shaped treats:

the teen helped me a lot with these, handling the sprinkles and keeping an eye on how many we were making.  it was she who pointed out a fun coincidence - i'd made 143 of them.  and if you used a pager back in the day and sent silly codes to your boyfriend or girlfriend...well, you'll know the significance of that particular number.  i remember being all surprised to hear other people using "my" code - you know, the one i was totally convinced i'd made up all on my own.  it was a sad, sad day when i realized that i wasn't as clever as i thought.

anyway, the bean and i were up and out early on valentine's day to make that cookie delivery.  and since we were out, i decided to make a stop at places i don't necessarily have easy access to, like asian grocery stores.  the prime focus was to stock up on these:

but i might have picked up a couple of these, too, in a new flavor i hadn't seen before.

oh, and the bean pointed this out - and of course, we had to take it home to see if it's any good (i don't know yet, because we haven't cracked it open):

and then as we got in the car, she piped up:  "mommy, i've gotta go potty."  crap.  well, not literally.  i didn't want to take her to a gross gas station, but as i drove along i realized something:  we were just around the corner from the mall.  and i still needed to pick up some presents for the valentine fairy to leave for the hub and the teen.  so despite the still-early hour, that's where we went.

after using the facilities we strolled around to window-shop, killing time until the stores were open.  she got to take a spin on the carousel, and we discovered something fun...and free.

giant tic-tac-toe!  we had a ball playing game after game, giggling the whole time.  is this the perfect valentine's day activity, or what?

back at home, i scurried around trying to organize the piles of clutter that i keep all sorts of stuff in (which drives my poor hub absolutely crazy) and doing a little decorating.

the bean discovered an unopened happy meal toy on the table, which kept her occupied for a good long while as i made dinner.

the hub arrived bearing gifts.

another fabulous pinterest find - cheesy chicken bacon ranch lasagna!  well, i added the bacon on my own.  duh.

with the cards signed and the gifts in their bags, we sat down for dinner.

even the dog got something - a giant treat to chew on that turned out to be quite appropriate for the occasion.  not that she noticed as she gnawed on the thing all night.

how can you not love valentine's day?  it's a day for love!