Be Mine 2026

Valentine's Day 2026 - I'm sure Tom and I will get back around to doing something for ourselves for Valentine's Day when our children are all grown and gone but for now our Valentine's revolves around them. (Although we did make them go to Michigan that weekend.)

Pink Mocktail

Hailey had a birthday party on Friday night but after she got home we took a late ride to Michigan. Of course, our house had not been cleaned in about four months so once we arrived, we needed to all pitch in and dust, vacuum and kill some spiders as well as clean some bathrooms before heading to bed. We did about an hours worth of work (well, Tom and I did) before the girls went to bed. Austen wasn't there so his  tasks got divided up amongst the girls or rather we shuffled some tasks down the pipeline. Peyton did more and Hailey did something (we'd always let her out of cleaning before but not anymore). 

On Valentine's morning, since we had no food in the house, we went out for brunch to a new place that Tom had recommended. We got in right away (probably because it was the off season) and the food was pretty good. I'd go back. After that, we shopped and walked around a little before heading back home to finish our cleaning. (I am always grateful when do clean that we didn't put more bathrooms in that place.) I cleaned out the kids' closets (always clothes they grow out of up there while Tom and Hailey went down to the beach.) After that, we headed out, grabbed some hot chocolates and did a story book trail that was a bit lame but we got our steps in. Then we went to Meijer to buy what we were going to make for dinner - cheese and chocolate fondue. 

We all pitched in for dinner. It was definitely an experience! The cheese fondue is certainly better at a restaurant but still we dipped our steak, apples, broccoli and sourdough bread into the melted fontina, gouda and havarti cheese. We all gave it a 6 or 7 (ha ha) out of 10. The chocolate fondue turned out a bit better and we gave that more of a 7 or 8 out of 10. We dipped pretzels, marshmallows, angel food cake, bananas and strawberries into the rich chocolate. The high light might have been the pink mocktail we made. Now that one was good!

It was a unique Valentine's experience coupled with a nice Michigan sunset. The girls opened Starbucks gift cards and candy from us and we all went to bed fairly early as we needed to head back home early Sunday morning for Hailey's game. 

Happy Valentine's Day 2026!

Valentine's Brunch