El Dia del Amor y Amistad

So this may be one of the few years that Russ and I have actually gone out ON Valentine's Day.  But since his parent's invited to take us out (and for asian food, no less), I thought, "Why not!"  The only downside was that I usually make a fun dinner for the boys and do cute crafts and things, which I thought I might do on another night, but that just didn't happen.  But I did buy them a heart shaped pizza with ALL meat (which I never do) and I bought a dessert pizza (which I never do).  So I'm sure they know I love them.  Anyhow, here's our little bit of Valentine's fun:

We started out with the intent of making these hearts to give as actual valentines, to teachers, cousins, etc., but it was a little bit more time consuming than we thought and after the boys made two each - we were happily done.  Which was fine, we just decided to call them decorations (and I ended up buying store bought valentines, totally against my morals, but I survived and I'm sure their classmates could care less).  So here's the project:

A little yarn, a little corn starch glue, smoosh into cookie cutter . . .

 

 And voila! Cute little hearts.



And then both the big boys had to make "mailboxes" to receive all the valentines from their friends at school.  We looked at bunches of different ideas online and they picked out their favs.  I pulled out a bunch of old scapbooking stuff and I let the boys pretty much do them on their own.  I think they turned out pretty cute . . .

Along with his "love boat", Corbin wanted to show his little "Tuck-In Pet" he got from mom too.  Surprisingly, they all LOVED these little stuffed pets.  It makes me smile.  They will be good daddies some day.

Cody chose the monster one.  Quite fitting, I think. (at least he's a sweet one)

(This picture was Cody's idea :)

This was Cody's first time exchanging valentines and he was very convinced that all the girls must love him because they gave him all these valentines.  I said, "Maybe its just because they're your friends" and he said "or maybe it's because they love me".

I love these boys!

"Gingerbread" houses

Graham crackers, leftover Halloween Candy (+ a little extra) and some creativity makes for a fun evening.

I think they turned out fantastic and three happy kids say they had a great time - and that's what counts!

How do YOU do it?

Although I have several friend's who call it "Single Awareness Day" and are part of the V-Day Haters Club, I have to admit that I LOVE IT!  I'm sure someday my boys will be totally embarrassed by their mother's obsession with showing her love by making all things red, pink or hearts, but right now I love it and so do they - which makes for a very happy, love-filled Valentines indeed.  I kind of liked that it was on a Sunday this year, it was very relaxing and helped us focus on the whole family instead of just Russ and I.

So here's what goes on around here for el dia de amor:

Lots of treats.  These were mostly for neighbors and friends, but the boys got their fill too.  We also made these cute little fudgies to go with them.   And since I made way too much frosting, they were eating frosted graham cracker sandwiches for several days.  Nothing like a good sugar overdose to make a fun weekend. :)

The obligatory school Valentines. Since I highly prefer homemade Valentine's to the store-bought ones, Corbin (with ALOT of Mom's help) did these.  Although we did find some cool search & find / secret code valentine's that he had to give with them.  I guess that's allowable. 

(too bad I forgot to take a picture when the whole tray was full, they looked pretty cool.)

And lots of food.  On Valentine's morning, Russ and I had balloons and edible cards for the boys (they had animals with gummy eyes and lips the said "I only have eyes[or lips] for you").  They loved it.  We also had heart-shaped pumpkin pancakes, their favorite, but since we were running off to church, we had to shove them in a baggie and eat them on the way. :)

 Dinner was everything hearts.  The heart-shaped breadsticks turned out to be almost as big as the plate since they were homemade this year instead of out of the can.  But my meat-loaf turned out much prettier than last year and my kids devoured it!  Who would've guessed that would be their favorite part.  Not pictured are the heart-shaped jello jigglers, which I forgot, so we ate them the next night.  They were still good and a hit as always.

And in case you're wondering, I did celebrate Lover's Day with my husband.  On Saturday, our babysitter came at 3pm and we didn't get home until 10pm.  Yes, for us, that is a super date.  We went bowling, to dinner AND to a movie.  It was GREAT! 

So now I want to know, what do you do for Valentine's Day?  (And what do you do for date night?  We need some new ideas . . .)

The Pilgrims and the Native Americans

Why does it seem like that is such a mouthful? It is just so much easier to say the pilgrims and the indians. Yet, in every other instance when I say "Indians", I would most likely be referring to someone from India. Anyway, on my last turn to host preschool, we learned about these two aforementioned peoples (since it was the day before Thanksgiving). We had a house-full since school was out - which meant that Corbin was home and the little boy I watch twice a week brought his big sister with him. So it was quite the party, but I think it turned out really fun.

Here's what we learned:

The pilgrims came over in their crowded boat.
They met Native Americans who liked to make feathered headbands and papersack vests.

They also liked to run around outside like wild Indians

And after all that they sat down and ate a cornucopia of goodness.

Blankets, clothes pins and a little help from Mom

The second day Lexi was here, the kids were begging me to just stay home and play. Really? ok, done. For lunch we built a fort, had a picnic inside and pretend roasted marshmallows. What more could a kid want?

Eat your heart out

I decided I love Valentine's Day - well, and most holidays. Holidays are just so much more fun with kids. I think its because kids are so easy to please. For Valentine's, anything pink, red, or heart shaped makes the ordinary cool and fun. I'm glad we have these holidays to force me to get over my procrastination of all the supermom things I wish I did all the time. So of course, I had to document our fun with lots of pics, so my kids can't say that I never did anything for them. :) We had a great weekend with lots of pink, red and hearts . . .

Friday night started with homemade heart-shaped pizzas (and can I just say I am really not good at working with pizza dough. It drives me crazy! But the boys didn't care, they thought it was great fun. And it was actually pretty yummy!)

Pink cookies for desert (ie. really easy cake mix cookies with white chocolate chips mixed in)

Valentine's Day morning: heart cutout pancakes and pink donuts that Daddy surprised us with when he got home!

Valentine's dinner: Heart-shaped meatloaf (doesn't look that great, but it was good enough), heart breadsticks, and of course, you can't do Valentine's Day without heart-shaped jello jigglers

The jello was definitely Colton's favorite - and since it kept him happy all through dinner, I gave him all he could eat, which I later regretted when he was spitting up smelly red gunk in the middle of the night.

The best part of the holiday: sharing our love with each other! I love my boys - all four of them!

You make my heart glow!

Corbin's valentines this year for his classmates and neighbor friends: