Sunday, February 13, 2011

Love is in the Air


It's the weekend before Valentines Day, and for two people who have never been big on Valentines Day we were surprised to find ourselves with two relatively topical activities lined up. We spent Saturday morning at the NH Orchid Show in Nashua (flowers...love...you know), and then traveled a bit further south into MA to the Camerons for our annual gingerbread house decorating party. How is the construction and decoration of gingerbread houses even slightly related to Valentines Day? Well, we've actually never pulled of a gingerbread party before or at xmas... it started out on New Years Eve several years ago and has been migrating later and later in the season each year. So we just buy whatever candy is on sale in the seasonal aisle and adapt the event to fit. This year: love shacks. Next year? If we hit President's Day, we'll build "Lincoln" log cabins and if we wander into March they'll be Leprechaun Hideaways. I expect we'll swing back around to xmas sometime around 2020.














Haley rocking back and forth; Ciara with the famous squirting toilet



We almost didn't make the Love Shack party this year because Aiden wasn't feeling very well at the Orchid Show, but he rallied (we think it might have been carsickness) and we moved on from flowers to candies. It was great to see Jeni, Glen, Micah & Becky and get all of the kids together. Phoebe is almost crawling and spent much of her time rubbing Haley's bald (and admittedly very soft) head. Both girls got tagged multiple times by Jake's big tongue, and Ciara and Aiden played all sorts of games in addition to decorating some spectacular love shacks. One thing about gingerbread house construction though- it's not tidy. When we're done it always looks like Willy Wonka ate one too many tootsie rolls and exploded all over the table. Jeni and Glen must find smarties and nerds on the floor for months to follow, but every year they invite us back again. Gluttons for punishment, i guess :)



The explosion!

Check out the big kiss in the background!

Wait for it, Haley....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those gingerbread houses look too good to eat. Nice job Aiden and Ciara. Every time I see a picture of Phoebe she seems to get cuter and cuter.
Grandma Chris