Valentine Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday the girls cooked up an little Valentine for me. Really it started the day before when Marti dropped off some materials for them. Chloe rushed them upstairs announcing, "No peeking!" to me. They rushed me out of the house the next morning after the babysitter arrived. After dinner last night I was given this...

I followed it correctly and found this...

I was handed a flashlight and crawled into the playhouse to find these...

back side...

They were quite pleased with themselves!

Valentines

The girls seemed to have had a very nice Valentines Day at school. There were the parties. Alexa came home with this really cute heart.

Her classmates were all given heart shaped post it notes to stick to one another's hearts with messages.

She was dressed very festive too.

You can see the brownie sugar is still rushing through her veins. In the end I sent her with her cards to hand out. I emailed the teacher and apologized for being overly organized this year... it all worked out.

Chloe's class made these cute card holders.

She sorted through all her stuff when she got home.

I loved the list of messages each kid received.

A nice positive sugar coated day. Tomorrow I will tell you about the Valentine treasure hunt they planned for me.

Valentine Prep

• Two pans of brownies made for class parties... check
• 48 Valentine Cards filled out and ready for handing out... check
• Two lunch box surprises packed into lunches....check

• Two place settings ready... check

Any wonder this holiday wears me out? But it will be fun for them.

The Un-Valentines

I dislike Valentines Day. We have been through this before so there really isn't a need to get into the whys of this fact. I do try, however, to approach this holiday with at least fake enthusiasm. So last week while I was picking up picture frames at Micheal's I spotted Valentines Day stuff and thought, "You know I should get this now before it is all sold out." My kids like to make their class Valentines. I purchased some blank heart shaped cards and bought a bucket of foam heart stickers for them to decorate. I figured the head start would allow for them to make them as they wanted to over the next few weeks. Making the whole process more enjoyable since I don't have to hover over them pushing them on... "Come on just 8 more there are still more names on your list."

I am also still remembering having to rush the dog to the vet last year after he climbed onto the table opened the plastic containers (that were also taped together for added safety) and ate the chocolates intended for Alexa's preschool class. Nothing says an enjoyable holiday like a $300 vet bill to get the dog's stomach pumped. At any rate this year I opted for Valentine pencils for the kids to give out.  I feel fairly certain the dog will not eat them... well moderately certain that he doesn't need his stomach pumped if he does.

Alexa was overjoyed with the sight of Valentines last weekend and happily decorated all of hers.

Cute huh? I tucked them away for the coming weeks so that we could address them when the teacher sent home the list of names. Now imagine my surprise when she arrived home yesterday with a newsletter indicated that they would be celebrating "Friendship Day" instead. Could I please send in a treat for the whole class instead of individual items as not all the kids can participate. You see why I hate this holiday so much? Anyone got any ideas of how to make 24 cards and pencils into a group friendship gift?

Valentines Day

Ugh. This is my feeling about this holiday. I know it makes me sound cynical. It isn't the concept of love that makes me feel this way. I am a hopeless romantic really I am. I watch (and sob my way through) more love stories than I can count. I love love, really, honest. It is the forced you-have-to-do-something-for-me-because-the-whole-nation-says-you-have-to-today kind of thing that gets to me. Would you rather someone just did something for you because they wanted to? Not because the whole country is reminding them to? Obviously I am in the minority here as plenty of other people snatch up gobs of flowers, chocolates, and jewelry.

All that being said I still have my obligations of motherhood to fulfill this holiday. The kids made all their Valentines. I baked some brownies and sent them in to the respective locations for the parties. I have a cute stuffed dog set at the place for each of the girls at breakfast and snuck my little note and small gift into their lunch boxes for them to find when they ate. All the usually Valentine's Day treats.

For me though the best part of today came after I woke the girls up and headed downstairs to put the dog out. As I headed back up the stairs I found Alexa laying down at the top of the stairs in her pajamas. "What's the matter Boo, don't you feel good."

She curled around and looked at me with a smile, "Mommy, I am your Valentine."

That was probably just about the nicest Valentine that I could have every gotten. She was really proud to give me a card she made for me last week in school too. She hid it in her room so it would be a surprise.
"I wrote it all by myself. The teacher had the words up on the board and I copied them."


Pretty awesome huh? She made me another one at Linda's house today too.

What a sweet kid. She ended the day in her princess finery.

Hope you all had a lovely day.

Valentines Day

I am usually not a fan of Valentine's Day. It is nothing personal. It isn't like I dislike romance or love or anything. On the contrary really, I tend to be a victim of my own optimism where that stuff is concerned. Always believing the best in someone only to find out that I completely misread the entire situation. It can make a girl cynical to say the least, but that isn't why I have such an aversion to the day. I will spare anyone the entire story as it digs a little too deep into things no one really needs to know. In any event I put aside my desire to shout, "Bah Humbug" at the entire day and headed out and about. I present to you my dates for this Valentine's Day.

The girls and I attended the Boogie Wonderland Family Dance Party at Higher Ground today. We had a great time. Alexa found two of her preschool friends to dance with (one of her teachers was the DJ) and Chloe was rather amazed with the spotlight and making shadow puppets.

I have been to a fair number of concerts at Higher Ground and I have to say it is pretty funny to see them serving juice boxes from the bar. The combination of the Sesame Street theme song being played with "I Love Rock and Roll" and "Mickey" were pretty entertaining. In the end we are all for dancing and being able to munch on macaroni and cheese when you get hungry.

I am thinking we boogied our way to an early bed time tonight!

Cavity Free and the New Me!

Starting off Monday morning by taking the kids to the dentist is not my favorite activity. For starters Chloe has been know to be a screamer which, I tell you, gets down right humiliating. Alexa on the other hand loves the dentist. She was so excited yesterday when I told her we were going. "Oh I just love it there! It is so much fun." The exact opposite of her sister you slumped in the chair and frowned.

Turns out it all just needed a little perspective for Chloe. I told her it could not possibly be as be as bad as the entire hospital visit and the IV. And for one of the few times in her life... she actually agreed with me. She got through the whole thing x-rays, cleaning, fluoride treatment with hardly a complaint. I tell you I have never been more proud. She was her happy bubbly chatty self. I think the hygienist was shocked too. We left with this (the title just kills me!)...

and a whole new stock of stickers, rubber snakes, and plastic rings from the prize box. I am also thrilled that they are both free of any cavities.

On a different note. I picked Alexa up from daycare and she presented me with this.

Is that not the cutest thing? They made them today. The best part? She says it is me! See the eyelashes? Apparently she decided to make the love bug look like mommy so it needed eyelashes. I am so honored. I think I look rather spiffy as a bug.

Valentines Prep

Here we are at the end of January and tomorrow marks a new month. My kids count months by what holidays they can celebrate in them. So February marks the count down to Valentines Day. Which, to them, means giving your friends cards and having a school party. Alexa wanted to buy cards to give her friends which is fine by me. She picked Barbie cards by the way and she was so excited to start filling them out she jumped right into signing her name. It is good that she did because experience has taught me that it is best to do a few at a time as they tend to run out of momentum pretty quickly.

Chloe always wants to make Valentines for her classmates. This is a more extensive endeavor. This weekend I was out and saw a kit for making bear magnet valentines. The box contains enough to make 30 and enough supplies to mix and match them as you like. She was thrilled and made four today.

Aren't they cute little buggers?