Love Day Dinner through the years

We love our Valentine's Day Dinner - and the menu never varies much. Very kid friendly, heart-shaped, red, or pink food. 

  This year we ate by candlelight..

 The dimmed lights not only set a loving mood, but also disguised the fact that our traditional "Cupid's Love Potion" was a strange shade of orange/green instead of pretty pink. When I reached up to get the raspberry sherbet, someone had pulled a switcheroo and put orange/lime sherbet there instead. And I didn't notice until we were home and mixing it up! It still tasted good - it just looked a little strange.

Joseph set the table and wrote love notes on everyone's napkins.

Dan and I sneaked some "love" gifts and Valentine's Day cards onto each person's plate before the meal began.

Not sure what this look was about.  Sisters . . .

Now, that's better.

The day before Valentine's Day Dan had bought me roses at our local Fred Meyer. It appears he was taken. The roses were dead by the next morning! But, the sentiment and intention was the same and we ignored their droopiness.

Why do I look so tired in this picture and most pictures these days?  Oh yes, that would be the fact that I get up at 5:20! But Dan and Bailey get up even earlier - more like 4:45.

And now, just for fun, I scrounged around and found pictures from past Valentine's Day Dinners. The first year we scrapbooked the event was 2004. I think the tradition may have started earlier, but I can't find scrapbook evidence of this.

(all our kid's birthdays are within a few weeks or months of Valentine's Day, so for the purposes of this walk through time, I am going to round their ages up.)

2004 - Brandon was almost 12, Bailey was 7, Aubrey was 4  Grandma and Grandpa Springer joined us this year.

2005 - Brandon 13, Bailey 8, Aubrey 5 (Joseph was born two weeks later)

2006 - Brandon 14, Bailey 9, Aubrey 6, Joseph 1 (Grandma and Grandpa joined us again. This was our last year in our Utah home - we moved a few months later)

2007 - First year in Washington! Brandon 15, Bailey 10, Aubrey 7, Joseph 2

2008 - Brandon 16, Bailey 11, Aubrey 8, Joseph 3

2009 - Brandon 17, Bailey 12, Aubrey 9, Joseph 4

2010 - Brandon 18, Bailey 13, Aubrey 10, Joseph 5 (Breanne and Christine Yates were visiting us)

2011- Brandon 19 (at BYU), Bailey 14, Aubrey 11, Joseph 6

2012 - Brandon 20 (on a mission), Bailey 15, Aubrey 12, Joseph 7
We broke tradition and didn't hold the dinner! Instead we attended the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast in Portland.

Packages to Ukraine

Yesterday I stood in line at the post office to send two small packages to Ukraine . . . for the last time! This missionary

is coming home soon!

A month before he gets home is his birthday, so we packed modified flat rate envelope packages (the most economical way to mail internationally) full of treats, American food, birthday cards, and recent pictures of the family.

(By the way, I have learned a lot over the two years about sending packages to Ukraine. First of all, packages are expensive.  But, it's a very worthwhile expense. Second, so far all our packages have arrived safely, despite a corrupt Ukrainian postal system notorious for opening packages and removing items. I'm going to credit the incredible amounts of tape I wrap around every package and the Russian Orthodox religious icon stickers I plaster all over each them. Third, filling out the customs forms is always a pain. The rules have changed constantly. About six months ago our local post office began to require that the forms be filled out online and printed. The website and online forms were completely non-intuitive, but I got pretty good at it after sending Christmas packages. Pictured above, for the birthday packages I mailed this week I had all the forms printed out on self-adhesive sticker paper, cut, and signed.  I also had a separate label on each package with Brandon's address in Russian. But when I went to the post office I was informed that I was supposed to write "UKRAINE" large somewhere on the package as well.  What???  This was like the 8th package I've mailed, and I've never heard that.  Oh, Postal Service, always trying to keep us guessing . . .)

Prior to this, the last packages we sent were for Christmas '12.

We tried to be creative to add some fun, and each item was wrapped and had a scripture reference on the tag.
 
He was supposed to look up the scripture and try to figure out what was inside. There was something to open each day in December. This would have worked well if the packages had arrived in time. As it was, he received the packages just before Christmas, and reportedly opened everything in one day, which is just fine too.

Fitting all the mini packages into our big box was a challenge. I had to call in the big guns - Aubrey's logical mind helped me fit the "puzzle pieces" together.  Almost everything fit.
 
Except for the stocking. That was sent in another package.
 
We sent packages about every three months during Elder Porter's mission. Some of the things he requested over the two years: a C.S. Lewis book, a jump drive, new socks, peanut butter (this was a most desired item and was included in every package), pictures, warm gloves, good razors, contact solution, and vitamins. We also sent lots of American food and candy (especially Milky Ways and Reeses) and assorted gear to handle the icy winters.

By far the gift we were most excited about was sent in December '11. We printed out the Russian letters spelling "Merry Christmas" and sent them to friends and family around the country. They took pictures of themselves holding a letter and emailed them back to us. We made the pictures into a Christmas garland. It was a lot of work but so awesome.

 

 

So now the package we are working on is the "Welcome Home" package which will be waiting for him. So far we have bought some big Milky Way candy bars, new scriptures (his request), Sudoku and Kakuro books, and an ipod touch (well, Aubrey's old ipod touch, but it will be new technology for Brandon!).  We can't wait!

Go Blazers!

One day the banker Dan's company works with offered him tickets to the Blazers game for him and his family. He knew from past experience that these awesome tickets include a wristband which entitles the wearer to unlimited food at the delicious buffet before the game and unlimited treats throughout the game.  Wahoo!

So we planned a family outing at the Blazers game. When Dan received the tickets in the mail he counted them - 5 tickets for 5 family members.

Then the day of the game. All family members were driving happily down the road with visions of free popcorn and ice cream dancing in our heads.  We were almost to the freeway when I had the thought to pull out the tickets to look closer at them.. . . .  Uh oh.  Oh no.

One of the 5 tickets was actually a parking pass.  So we had 4 tickets and 5 family members.  What to do? Someone in the car would not be attending the Blazers game/feeding frenzy. Someone was going to have to sit home alone.

We quickly assessed the options and started negotiating. Dan offered to stay in the car during the game while we went in. Everyone else (other than Joseph) offered to stay home. None of the options were great.

But then, through some quick texting and creative maneuvering we found Bailey an alternate option. A friend had asked her earlier to go to a movie, but she had declined because she was going to the game. She talked to her friend and "un-declined."

So, feeling a little guilty as we left Bailey behind with two free movie tickets and money for dinner,  the rest of us headed to Portland to the sports arena. 

First we enjoyed a fabulous buffet at the restaurant in the arena. The theme was "Asian food" that night, and all of it was delicious. I had to take a picture of my dessert plate because it was so yummy. I didn't want to eat all of these desserts . . .okay, that's not true. I really did want to eat all of them but I was stuffed after eating a fabulous dinner.  So, I compromised by getting one of each dessert and trying one bite!

 Next we loaded up on candy, popcorn, ice cream, and soda, and headed for our seats.

Where we thoroughly enjoyed the game. The Blazers barely won. I don't remember who they were playing.  Some other professional team. They were tall and fast - that's all I remember.

 Joseph came prepared with his Blazers jersey on, and he had a fantastic time.

 

He tried to follow and understand the game and he cheered enthusiastically.

 

The rest of us had fun too.
 

 Now, the rest of the story.

A few weeks ago the banker offered Dan two more tickets to a Blazers game. I would have loved to have gone with Dan as a fun date night, but the correct choice was obvious . . . Bailey, who missed out on the fun last time, was Dan's date for the evening. Reportedly, they had a really fun time. This time the Blazers played the Utah Jazz, and they won!