valentine's shenanigans

This post is just a smorgasbord of our Valentine's happenings.  And are in no particular order…as I am doing good just to get these pictures posted at all.  ;)

We decorated cookies the weekend before.  I sometimes like to save these things for the day of, and then life happens and it never happens.  We had a little time on this particular Saturday afternoon, so we went for it.  I had everything already on hand (even the sprinkles because they were leftover from last year).  I made the dough, cut out the cookies, and baked them the night before.  Sometimes it's fun to do it all with them….but sometimes they get burnt out and don't want to decorate.  So this time, I just decided for them…that they'd only help with decorating.

Usually I just 'supervise'...but this time I wanted to decorate a few, too.  And looks like I'm a little out of practice.  When Geoff got home, all of the cookies were combined to 2 pans...and he said, "I can tell which ones are your."  I said, "Which ones?"  He pointed to only 2 of them.  Ha ha!

Grace's cookies.

And Parker's.

Parker's school valentines.  I got the idea from pinterest.  This was easy and non-candy so I went for it.  I got the glow sticks from amazon, made this tag with picmonkey, then attached with red ribbon.  {I know I'm a little late with the whole picmonkey thing….but I just discovered it and LOVE it!}

I cut out hearts with card stock and gave the girls these glittered card stock strips and asked them to cut them into little squares and glue to the heart.  Grace did such a good job, and sadly I did not get a picture.  Parker decided to do stripes.  I was equally impressed.

Teacher Valentine.  Another idea from interest.  Found here.  I filled this popcorn container from Hobby Lobby (it was a 6 pack so I still have 4 to use later) with a movie gift card, soda, microwave popcorn, sour patch kids, and hershey bar.

"free" dress day at school (yeh- she's over me taking her picture so much)

A couple muffin tin meals throughout the week just for fun.

This picture is pretty blurry….but …

Geoff and I don't normally do Valentine's gifts….but I wanted to do a little something just to say…you know….thanks for all that you do and put up with.  :)  So when I saw this idea floating around Pinterest (I guess it is evident that I've been on Pinterest lately??) I really wanted to do a little something for him.  It only took about 15 minutes to put together…and I think he liked it.  And the rest of the family also enjoyed.  ;)  When buying candy for myself….I pretty much just go for the Snickers, Reese's, maybe a twix every now and then.  So it was kind of neat to try out some of these others.  My favorites are still my favorites….I didn't find any new loves.

Last Sunday I dressed the kids all up in their Vday best.  I wanted to get one sweet picture of all 3.  Yeh…well…it was 30 minutes past Nolan's morning nap time when we were due to leave….and so this is what he had to say about it.  I did, however, get a few pictures of just Nolan later in the week.

I'm trying to do a little more to help strengthen Parker's writing and reading…and possibly teach Grace the alphabet.  :)   I'm not sure if any of this will do the trick…but I wanted to do a few fun educational type things with Valentine's as the theme anyways.

So I found these 'write the room' printables free from Teachers Pay Teachers (I'm sorry I cannot find the original link!).  I'm not really sure about the whole reason for 'writing the room'….I know it's a writing center in schools…and I haven't quite figured out exactly how I want to do it here at home.  So I just did this one….and in doing this…it's given me a few ideas for future 'write the room' activities.  So I basically printed out these cards….and put them up in various places around the house….and she had to find them, then write them on her record sheet.  Each card had a picture, a word and a number.  The number told her where to write it on her record sheet.

I also made these alphabet hearts and hid them throughout the house.  They had to use this record sheet and when they found the letter on the wall- they'd color it in on their sheet.  Parker loved doing this only because she had to find the letters.  Grace was into it for about half of the letters.  But….she really doesn't know any letters so she lost interest quickly.  I know she'll be fine, but just feel a little guilt on how very little I work with her.  Like, not at all.  So I'm working toward changing this.  It's very slowly, but surely.

And poor sweet girl tripped over her baby brother and busted her lip SO bad when trying to run to find another letter.  Bless her heart.  Good thing is…now (2 full days later)…it is almost completely healed.

Lots of ice and rest helped.  :)

 (she was watching the iPad here….not just sitting alone)

And Valentine's Breakfast