love day

once again, we celebrated our valentine's with a little-laid-back-family-fun-party.  grace and carter were excited for our special night.

we had our traditional romantic dinner of pepperoni pizza and pink lemonade.

it's romantic because it was a heart pizza...awww!

after dinner, things got a little wild and crazy with some valentine minute to win it style games.

then, we had a heart scavenger hunt with love missions on them...

...dancing...

...kisses...

...and wheel barrows?!?

oh goodness, another game.

"heart lava"

finally, we exchanged cards and gifts.  grace was so very excited to receive these sticker books!

and, carter added his new hot wheels to his quickly expanding collection!

i'll show you what john gave me as soon as i find the perfect place for it.  i'll give you a hint...i really love it!!! (that was a pretty bad hint, sorry!)  grace took this pic of me and my one and only valentine!   

Valentine's Stuff (after the fact)

Grace really wanted to make a Valentine craft and we decided on making a Valentine thumbprint family (similar to our reindeer family).  I framed mine and we turned Grace's into Valentine cards for all the grandparents and one for me of course.

The 14 days before Valentine's, I left Grace and Carter love notes in their mailboxes.  Grace LOVED getting her mail every morning...it was pretty special to her.  Carter LOVED ripping the notes in half and saying "I broke"...it was pretty un-special to him.

Grace saved each and every one of hers on the chalkboard.  (I had every intention of adding some valentine-sy paper medallions to my chalkboard, but as you can see that never happened.  boo.)

Grace made these Valentine's for her friends.  She said that the treat banner looks cuter when it is a little bit slanted.  Love her!

(printable found here)

She brought this "Cupid's Crunch" to school...m&m's, marshmallows, Quaker Heart cereal, and the only "x" and "o" in the entire box of alphabet crackers.

And, Carter was actually able to give his Valentine's that we made for him last year.

I couldn't stay away from those Target mugs!  So, they became teacher and Mimi Valentine gifts.

InstaFriday

Whew!  This week was busy and I don't even have much to show for it!  Here are the few pics from my phone that I took...

We celebrated the Chinese New Year...kinda.  American style.  We ate dinner at Panda Express and attempted using chopsticks.

My fortune wasn't bad, but becoming a professional athlete doesn't seem like something that I'm too interested in.  Maybe John will include me in his...I could use a vacay!

We got to celebrate with Andrew at his birthday party!  I can't believe that he is eight years old.  Time flies!!!

Grace was begging to make a Valentine craft.  So, we made this.  I kinda love it!  She also made a bunch that became cards for all the grandparents.

I found Grace passed out asleep on top of her yearbook.  It was opened to the teacher page. Sweet!  She LOVES her teacher!  I wonder if any kids have ever fallen asleep on top of my yearbook photo?!?

I got a few Valentine cards from my sweet kindergartners including this awesome handmade one with something other than chocolate attached to it. 

John, Grace, and Carter gave me these beautiful roses!  Awwww!

I also got my February charm in the mail.  Exciting!

Grace and Carter were reading "Wacky Wednesday" together and this is how it sounded...

"Carter, is that wacky?"

"Yes, that's WHACK!"

Funny.  They are really loving this book...I feel a wacky Wednesday coming on very soon.  It may even be WHACK.

My plans for this weekend are to rest, "get my hair did" by my sister, get Carter's wild mess of hair tamed (good luck, Beth), go to the library, the grocery store, and church, and rest some more.  Then next week, I'm going to get caught up on some blog posts...Carter's birthday party and Valentine's stuff (even though you won't care about it this far after the events).  Oh well!

InstaFriday

Once again, here are my phone pics from this week.

These mugs really make me want to like coffee!  Sometimes, I think about faking it.  Ya know, like drinking my Mountain Dew from a coffee cup.

Max the Monkey came home from school with Grace and got to spend the weekend with us...he liked cheese quesadillas from Moe's just as much as my two monkeys!

Grace and Max were excited to go to church together.

After church, we had to stop by the grocery store and get some bananas for our guest.  Grace was determined to get Max some to eat!

We watched the Super Bowl at Mimi and Poppa's...fun, fun, fun!

She was cheering for the Baltimore "Raisins!"

Why do the contents of Grace's purse look just like mine?  She has more money than me though!

Ever since Grace dressed like a 100 year old, she keeps these "glasses" by her bed at night and puts them on first thing in the morning.

Carter is a minivan zombie!

(Only on Wednesday nights while we wait on Grace.)

Carter has been doing ok sleeping and staying in his big boy bed.  He has done even better once he began snuggling with his night light. Ha!  "It's a car truck!"

I had parent teacher conferences and they all went very well.  Thank goodness!

The whole reading thing is really beginning to click with Grace.  Even though, I've watched/taught 100+ kids how to read and it's always exciting, it is WAY more exciting watching your own kid learn to read!  She falls asleep every night reading.

Have a fun weekend!!!

100 year old cutie

I know that you thought all the dress up days were over.  So did I!  But...Friday afternoon, I got the note in Grace's folder that today was the 100th day of school and the kids could dress up like 100 year olds.  Grace is all about dressing up, so here we go again!

LOVE!!!

This cracks me up!  She is a cutie!  She had lots of fun with all these dress up days and I feel quite accomplished as well...a happy girl and 7 costumes in 6 school days!

Now, onto Valentine cards and crafts and parties!

whew!!!