Valentine's Day

The kids were excited to come downstairs and see what they got for Valentine's Day.  Both made a special effort in getting dressed.  Chloe made sure to wear her shirt which says LOVE in big letter blocks on the front.

The boy made sure to wear red.  He originally thought this was a dragon shirt with big wings, but turns out it is a cool guitar.

Over this last year, Chloe has taken such an incredible interest in reading.  She is constantly reading aloud signs we see when driving.  And reading her library books.  Love watching her read!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Craft - Part 2

Chloe had finished painting her box pink and started decorating it.  With more paint and long animal-twisty balloons.

She had me paint a few hearts on the box for her because she wasn't happy with her hearts.

Then she started painting in my hearts and making them larger, which was equally frustrating for her.

Hard when your hands won't do what you want them to do!  Although she was quite pleased with herself for taping on the long balloons.

Good thing this girl is determined.  It didn't take long before she was back up and painting more hearts again.  

We had a little chat that art is sometimes better when everything isn't perfect.  Because then there is room for designs to be more unique.  And it's just too hard to be perfect.  It's better to just be ourselves.  :)

Valentine Craft

This year we decided to make our own Valentines to give to classmates.  The first step was peeling the paper wrappers off the crayons and then cutting them up.  The kids placed all the bits and pieces in one of our mini-muffin molds.

A select few had specially chosen colors to make for THE best friends or teachers.

They had a lot of fun and worked well together in talking about the strategy of creating these crayons.

Once the molds were filled, we stuck the pan in the oven for ten minutes at 250 degrees to melt the crayon bits into small circles.  We didn't spray the pans and the crayons popped out easily after they cooled.

Valentine's Candy

This was such a nice day we ate lunch out on the deck.  Once we finished eating, the kids pulled out their Valentine's loot from school.

Owen used his Valentine's box that he made last year.

They had just as much fun re-reading the Valentine's cards as they did finding candy to eat. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

We have two wonderful kids.

Who we love through and through.

Valentine's Day - Candy and Tennis

The kids got a bit of candy for Valentine's Day.  Then we drove them out to Stone Mountain to meet my Dad.  He took them to a circus and then spoiled them at the Dollar Store before bringing them home to spend the night.

The circus and going to Papa's were last minute plans, but it freed up my afternoon to watch Todd play tennis.  I always enjoy seeing him play because he has such a love for the sport and is a great player, although I rarely am relieved of parental duties to go watch.  Bringing the kids to the courts is hard because they have so much energy and want to run around and play, or just yell out "HI DADDY" right when Todd is preparing to serve or hit a set point.

He is a jumper!

This was a mixed doubles match.  It was a difficult match because Todd's partner wasn't as strong of a player as the opposing woman, although Todd and the other guy were evenly matched.

Todd has a rockin back hand!  His skills on the court really amaze me.

But it is his sportsmanship that makes me the proudest.  The woman on the other team made multiple bad calls, which ultimately ended up winning them the match.  It is always a disappointment when other players resort to intentionally bad calls and unfair play.  My honeys politely asked her if she was sure of her calls and handled himself well.  If the kids were there, he would have been the best role model for them to see how adults should behave towards cheaters and not stooping to name calling or anger.  That's not to say Todd wasn't angry, but he kept it to himself.  

And so on Valentine's Day, while sitting on the outskirts of the court, I was reminded of how much I love Todd.  Not just for how he treats me and our kids, but for how he treats others in difficult situations.

Valentine's Day craft project

Owen totally embraced his classroom project to make a Valentine's box for receiving cards.  I gave him one of my shipping boxes which he painted red.  Then he started cutting out hearts from construction paper and gluing them on the box.

Owen cut so many hearts in different colors and wanted many of them to be standing up.

Owen had me poke holes in the top of the box so he could squeeze pipe cleaners through and then shape them into hearts.  He was so focused on making his box the best ever.

Owen was very pleased with himself.  As well he should have been.  He had awesome ideas and made them happen.

He even wrote this note all on his own.  I love my sweet, thoughtful boy.

Here is the finished box.  Isn't it cool how the pipe cleaners stick up as hearts? Then he glued other paper hearts over them because he felt there really couldn't be enough hearts on his box to adequately celebrate Valentine's Day.

I think it turned out absolutely awesome!

I didn't get my camera settings fully adjusted and got the first way over exposed, but we got to the front of the drop-off line faster than I expected. Whoops.

Driving away, but he's only looking at his box.  So careful not to drop it and walk it in carefully.