Valentine's Day!

We were in Žilina on Valentine's Day, so the celebration was definitely extended over three days since we weren't at school the actual day.  It started with Tim's stealth actions from the Wednesday post, when he surprised me with the roses.  :-)   I couldn't put it on the blog Wednesday night and risk ruining another surprise, but we also stayed at school until everyone else in the workroom left for the day, and put out fun-sized American Valentine candy bars and little notes on our colleagues' desks for them to find on Thursday when they got to school.   :-)   (Beth sent us some Valentine's candy to share with our students and friends at school!!)  

Then on Thursday, we celebrated with Pat'ka and our eight kids, on our romantic get-away day at Speaker's Corner. :-)   (We had boxes of conversation hearts to give to the students on the train!)  

Well, Friday when we got to school, I could hardly see my desk because of my piles of work to do and the Valentines on top!!  There were candy and cards that were all so thoughtful and sweet --- such a nice surprise to 'feel the love' from friends, colleagues and students!  We took SweetTart conversation hearts to all our classes for our students, and they had to read them out loud --- conversation practice - LOL!!  We did have to explain about XO XO!  We also had some extra Dove chocolates and candy bars for the rest of the teachers, secretaries, custodian, etc.  Here are a few of our Slovak Valentines ........   

Hand-made card and heart ornament from Lenka, our Speaker's Corner student!  

These are the jars of cranberries from my student, Eva, on Thursday night!!  :-)

And this is the hand-made American Valentine that came in the mail last week from Curran, our favorite Ankeny neighbor!!  :-)

These Valentines are from one of the basic school classes, which I taught on Wednesday!!  :-)   I think they are about 3rd graders.  

The organizer of the school ball gave us these tulips, some chocolates, and a bottle of champagne as a Valentine's thank-you for singing at the ball.  Tim says it's the first time he's ever come home from school with champagne!!  :-)  

After school we played volleyball with the other teachers and some students in our gym for about an hour before coming home for a little "down-time" before heading to regular Friday night volleyball.  There were actually 16 there tonight, which was kind of fun.  We'd rotate in for whole games instead of on side outs, so I enjoyed watching the excellent play when I was on the sidelines.  :-)  Now Tim is still at his basketball/pub evening with the guys.  What a busy and fun week, leading to a "take-it-easy" weekend starting with sleeping in Saturday morning.  We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day too!!   :-)   

P.S. --- O.K. Tim just got home from basketball.  Erik had told me that they had a surprise for Tim tonight, and not to tell him.  Well, one of the guys celebrated his 60th birthday tonight, so they had a big party with lots of food.  Tim doesn't really understand why, but Tim also received gifts.  These guys are just awesome, and they were really pleased they surprised him!!

Back of the T-shirt he received from the basketball guys tonight.

And the front has the Slovak emblem, the Liptovsky Mikuláš emblem,  the "Vrbica Bulls" Senior Basketball emblem, and the picture is of a math teacher spinning a basketball on his finger.  We figure they must have specially designed the graphic, because the guy is wearing a tie and a sweater vest, which Tim wears to school all the time, and his hair is red, bushy eyebrows, etc. --- it's unbelievable!!  I'll never let him wear it, because I'd be afraid that washing it will damage the colors or iron-on transfer!