Thursday, February 14, 2013

Our Valentine's Day

So, we did something a little different this year.  Some of us kids decided we were going to dress up and wear some of the formal attire we had acquired for/because of/through the weddings in which we've been involved.  Well, we also kinda decided to surprise Mom & Dad with it, but be sure something was prepared for them in case they were interested in joining us.

Well, the day came and Kimberly got busy preparing an extra special dinner and a dessert to go with it.  We held off on the whole dress-up idea until Mom left just after 4:00 to go pick up Dad.  They'd be home sometime between 6 and 7.  We suddenly kicked into high gear with finalizing our outfit selections, ironing them, fixing our hair, adding special accents to the table decorations, finishing dinner, etc.

In the end, they returned home just a little after 6 and found most of us all ready for a formal evening.  Upon hearing that Dad's shirt was already pressed and Mom had options available, they didn't take long to join us.  It wasn't long, then, before dinner was ready.

We actually managed to represent each of our siblings' weddings in our outfit choices!  We texted them each a picture of their representative(s) with a Valentine's Day greeting.  (This would explain the low, phone camera quality of the images.)

Disclaimer: Not only were many of the photos to follow taken on a phone camera, but pretty much nobody was very photogenic tonight.  We really were enjoying ourselves even though our smiles, when present, seem cheesy.

Lisa was the representative of Jared & Becca's wedding.  Having been a full 6 years, there was no way she was going to fit into her adorable flower girl dress...but HollyBeth's bridesmaid outfit worked out quite nicely!

Zachary wore his vest and tie from Brian & Julie's wedding.  He might have worn more of the outfit...except he has already outgrown it!

David wore his best man outfit from Joe & Mary's wedding.  I wasn't sure what the boys would think of the whole dress-up idea and wearing a suit for "no good reason", but David actually got into this enough that he even buffed up his shoes for the occasion!

Kimberly wore her bridesmaid dress from Adam & Valerie's wedding.

Heidi wore her bridesmaid dress from Brian & Julie's wedding.

I didn't get pictures of just the two of them (ironic, since it is Valentine's Day), but Mom was wearing her dress from Joe & Mary's wedding, and Dad was wearing his tie from Jared & Becca's wedding.

 This picture wouldn't rotate, but these are some chocolates Kimberly made for us.

 The chef in her element

 The table is prepared!
 

 The spread - green beans, cooked carrots, cheesy (as in having cheese - not silly or weird) twice-baked potatoes, and bacon-wrapped pork chops!

The cute dessert Kimberly prepared for us - red velvet cupcakes!

After finishing dinner, we adjourned to the family room and enjoyed some old family films...that is, old films of our family!  Many great memories were enjoyed and some of the younger ones heard/saw new stories from before they were around.

At the request of one of my married sisters, we took ourselves an all-dressed-up photo via the camera on top of a good stack of items and set on time delay.  It didn't turn out so great...but we did it anyway - just because she asked!
 
 Picture with the best lighting
 

Picture with the best expressions

Cool picture - Looks like it was in a newspaper or something

I hope your day was as special as ours!


4 comments:

Julie said...

Thanks for posting pics!! Looks like you guys had a fun time and a very yummy dinner! :) Love you all!

Bisson Family said...

How fun! I think it's really neat how you represented all the weddings that have taken place in your family. The cupcakes are beautiful!

-Sarah

Unknown said...

Great job! Looks like a fun family evening. Where's HB?

5thMouse said...

HollyBeth was visiting Julie. It felt very strange to skip over her as I was making the post.