Baking Extravaganza/Valentine's Day

I had an urge to bake a lot over the past couple weeks and decided to bake several different items and create plates of treats for most of our neighbors. I made peanut butter jelly thumbprints, jam sandwich cookies (with cut-out heart middles), oatmeal pecan chocolate chip cookies, honey ginger bites, red velvet cupcakes, and sugar cookie hearts with pink frosting. It was so fun, but I ended up completely exhausted at the end of the weekend. It turned out to be a great way to connect with our some of our neighbors that we haven't seen in awhile. People loved the Valentine treats!

We were able to make 18 plates for neighbors. There were 11 apartments that didn't get any; we'll just have to catch them next time!

We had 2 other couples over for dinner on Valentine's Day and had a great time. We've been getting together about once a month with 2 of my former Fuller financial aid coworkers and their husbands. We always have lots of fun and lots of good food! We hosted this time and I tried to do a Valentine's themed meal. I made tomato soup and piped a heart in the top with some creme fraiche. Pretty cute, huh? We had paninis with red, white and purple toppings and red velvet cupcakes for dessert. It was a really fun meal to plan and execute.

Shannon and Kevin have a 1 and 1/2 year old, Miles. He is a riot and we love hanging out with him. Michelle is taunting him with Elmo in the background.

We're thankful to be surrounded with good friends who we have so much fun with!

On another note, I start school again tomorrow and am anticipating a very busy schedule if I get into both of my classes. I'm currently on the wait list for both, but REALLY hope to get in since that would complete my prereqs and enable me to start my master's in June. Please pray for some openings in the schedule or for some students to not show up on the first day!