Valentines and Tigers

Penny's Valentine party was a great success! Though I completely forgot to take any pictures. Oh, well.

The girls made cards, and then they ate cupcakes and gummi candy and veggies and cookies, and then they went up to Penny's room and played with suspiciously little shrieking until it was time for them to go. I was slightly worried that Jess, who only Penny knew, would get pushed to the side, but the other girls seemed happy to include her, and she seemed to be having a good time. The adults were a bit withdrawn for the first little bit, but once the girls disappeared upstairs, we all sat at the table to eat the leftovers and wound up having quite an enjoyable chat. I got phone numbers for all three of Penny's school friends, so I'll be able to contact them over the summer for playdates and birthday parties.

Valentine's Day was very nice, too. Matt and I had started our exchange on Friday -- he sent me a bouquet of red tulips and purple irises, and I sent him a cookie bouquet. He warned me that my "big" present had been backordered or shipment-delayed due to snow or something and that he wouldn't get it until probably Tuesday, so I wasn't expecting anything Sunday. But there was the latest Order of the Stick book, so that was pretty awesome. (I got him the Pushing Daisies DVDs, since they are weird and quirky and romantic, very much like Matt, and a second Wii controller and nunchuck for our Wii, so we can play Lego Star Wars together.)

Our gifts to the kids were a big hit -- they both got kits for making candy necklaces and little lightstick flashlights (they're meant to be safety lights for outdoors exercise, but I have yet to meet a kid that doesn't love flashlights), and Penny also got a necklace. Matt's mom sent some Sesame Street DVDs and a decorate-it-yourself picture frame. So all in all, they made out pretty well.

Today was supposed to be a holiday for Penny, but they canceled it to make up one of the recent snow days. So Matt -- who still gets the holiday -- is getting most of the day to himself to kick back and relax. I think he's planning to hit a matinee movie before he picks Penny up from school.

I, obviously, am at work. I have some vague hope that it will be a calm week. We'll see, I guess. At least, since Matt got to go to a D&D game this weekend, and has today off from work, I laid claim to Rock Band Night tonight, so that should be fun.