Valentine's Day Festivities

The week of Valentine's Day:

With conditions like this...

we have had to put  a lot of effort into coming up with activities to keep us busy.  

I've been stretching meals as much as possible… making an effort to actually make things ourselves (i.e. not rely on the microwave so much!) and getting the kids involved with "helping" me.  When we have lots of time to pass, why not?  (On a side note… it is such an odd position we are in right now… so much time to do nothing, but no time to do anything!  I'm always so busy getting nothing accomplished!)

Anyway…

 We have been baking muffins or other similar stuff in the mornings (still the "just add milk" kind -- I'm not that ambitious :))  The kids are such big helpers.  They love to dump the mix, stir it up, help scoop it into the pan...

…and of course lick the bowl afterwards!

Everyone knows I love a holiday, so we had lots of activities related to Valentine's Day this year! 

Like this one:  We painted plaques and stamped them with empty toilet paper rolls rolled (folded?) up into the shape of hearts.  We also added glitter and sequins...

…which also required a strip-down because it started to get really messy really fast!

The finished products:  One-of-a-kind masterpieces :) 

A couple of firsts - 

Rudy learned how to use scissors.  He sat like that cutting and snipping away for probably 30 minutes.  He was so concentrated and focused.  He then later glued all his clippings to a piece of paper.

Avery drew her first picture!  I've tried giving her markers or crayons in the past and she might make one mark but then tries to eat them and I end up having to take them away.  But this particular day she actually kept on scribbling! 

And she was quite pleased with herself!

We had a Valentine's Day party at the Davlin's and Jenna really went above and beyond planning it all out! 

The kids made their own pizzas,...

decorated their own placemats and boxes for exchanging their valentines,...

and the big finale was making and eating banana split sundaes!

Jenna put together a tray full of toppings and the kids were able to pick and choose what they wanted… 

YUMMMM!

Rudy approved!

The gals :)

On Valentine's Day we took some treats to the fire house and visited Dad.

 When we got home these beautiful flowers arrived :)

 And Rudy had his own flowers to give Gran when she got to our house :)

 The next morning we finished up our celebrating with Dad with our valentine's for the kids and Dad's special heart pancakes… 

I think Avery likes it :)

 Rudy sure loves presents!  He takes after his mom in her younger days, or so I hear.  

 Displaying all his new big boy underpants… boxer briefs for a toddler, how funny is that?

 Loving their pancakes!

What a week!

SHG Lock-In

Several weeks ago the Leonard's invited us to go swimming at a hotel pool.  They had bought a hotel room at an auction and were going to use it on a random night so the kids could go swimming.. how fun is that?!  Unfortunately, when they went to check-in they were notified that the pool was being worked on and would be out of service for 3-4 weeks.  Fortunately for us, the Leonard's also have access to SHG's gym… and my kids were probably more pleased with Plan B than Plan A (and the moms were all pretty pleased with not having to get into swimsuits in the middle of winter)!  The Allotey's and Davlin's also joined and we all packed up all our summer toys -- cars, bikes, roller coaster, balls of all kinds -- and dumped them all in the gym.  We ordered pizzas for dinner and shared lots of snacks.  The kids had a BLAST!  At one point Brad turned on music on the loud speakers and it was hysterical watching all the kids break out dancing… they have some serious moves!  (When I was explaining to John our change in venue he said, "So it's like we are having a lock-in?")

Here our some pictures of our "lock-in":

This was the before shot … as in before Avery fell face-first off the back of the tractor...

…and the after.  

Poor girl was a trooper and was up playing again in no time… but quite the bruise to show for her tumble!

Quite a crew!

The highlight for Rudy was definitely basketball.  He was cracking us up… shouting, running around, really getting into his "game" - this is also where he first used JP's regulation size youth basketball.  He had much better control of it and was able to actually dribble it.  JP is pretty darn cool in Rudy's book (showed him the new ball AND he gets to pass out the bulletins at church!).  This was the ball he had to have after his first #2 on the potty and he has been working on his dribbling since.  Practice makes perfect!  I have nothing to compare him to, of course, but I am seriously impressed by how well he has been dribbling lately.  The kids is 2 and he can legitimately dribble a basketball! 

He was so wound up and in his element all night.  It was great seeing him so happy :)

What a lucky group of kids!  And lucky us for having such great friends :)