Valentine's Day Lowlights

While I'm certainly not Cupid's enemy, I'm not the biggest Valentine's Day fan either. I don't go all out on presents nor do I expect to be all-outed-on. This year Chuck got my V-day present just right: one white Gerber daisy. Love. But without kids in school (so no mass Valentines to make), it's just sort of an ordinary day.

But where I do like to step up my game for this holiday is in the eating (of course). Being on a lame diet put a damper on it this year, however. I decided on heart-shaped pizza for dinner and some cake pops for dessert. Easy, no? I've been to a couple of parties recently wherein cake pops were served and they were so delicious. And beautiful. I was at first awed by the someones creating these lovelies, but when another party-goer told me how "easy" they were to make, I thought that maybe Rhett would like them for his birthday party instead of cake. When he said yes, I knew I had to have a trial run, and what better time that V-day? None.

Well, it turns out these babies aren't "easy." I enlisted Chuck and we had myriad problems. I think I put in too much icing which made them not want to stick to the pop nor get into lovely spherical shapes. They were either too warm or too cold which wreaked havoc on us, I just don't know where to place the fault for this one. We also didn't have enough coating for the outside. Technically, I guess we did have enough, but not enough to actually dip the last half or so, which meant some seriously ugly scraping.

I had to leave the work area and tend to the dishes while Chuck finished (and really, started) with them. It was just too upsetting. But once I tasted one, I was done being upset because they were so very yummy. And for this girl, whose teeth are sweeter than about anyone I know, I could only handle two. They were that wicked.

This is what we ended up with. It's a pretty sad Valentine's Day bouquet, if you ask me. (Can you see the one that slid all the way down the stick? Ha.) I will tell you that they did get eaten, and eaten quickly. I had some restraint, but we were lucky to have company on V-day eve and then we sent some with family and to the babysitter. I just don't know if I have the guts to try it again for Rhett's birthday.


P.S. We didn't bother with heart-shaping the pizza. It was just too much work and I didn't care enough.

P.P.S. Patch me! I ran with both kids on Wednesday! The trick was convincing Chuck to come along and then having him ditch me at the last second (with the only acceptable excuse, mind you). The weather was so beautiful, the boys were in good spirits, the Garmin watch was ready for the intervals, and I was dressed. There were no other options. But it went great and I didn't die. It will be done again, with or without Chuck.