Let me call you Sweetheart

Valentine's Day has come and gone, but I wanted to share what our kiddos did for their class gifts.

Amelia got a Rainbow Loom for Christmas. They're all the rage.

So popular, in fact, that Lily has hogged Amelia's loom so much that we bought her one for her birthday.

Towards the end of January I suggested to Amelia that she make bracelets for her classmates for Valentine's Day. We ordered up a bunch of red, pink, and white bands for the girls, plus some green, blue, and black for the boys, and settled on a Fishtail design. It's a little more time consuming than the basic chain design, but it's more substantial and looks better, in my opinion. About a week before Valentine's Day, we got a note from Amelia's teacher saying that she decided to have no candy Valentine's because of class allergies, so it was a good thing that we had already planned a non-food gift!

Amelia worked on bracelets here and there, mostly while we were sitting at Lily's basketball games. But as Valentine's Day approached she didn't have enough made, so I ended up making several of them. But that's OK, I find it very therapeutic and addicting. No wonder kids are so crazy about them!

I was tired of store-bought Valentine's and Amelia liked the idea of making her own. I thought it would be fun to find a poem about friendship that would go with the bracelets, but in the end our time was spent finishing bracelets and we opted for simple cards. We got out the rubber stamps, Amelia and Lily wrote the names, and put the bracelets around the card. Done and done.

So cute, huh?

I bought the kids some Valentine buckets, thinking that they could just wrap some card stock around the outside and decorate it, but Amelia wanted to make one from a box because the bucket was too small to hold her goodies. Mack and Lily were totally fine with the store-bought bucket, thankfully, so I only had to help with one Valentine box.

Amelia is a little neurotic and has a hard time doing anything if she can't make it perfect. She worried and fretted about what to put on her box and got mad when I made suggestions. I finally left the room and she made some decisions and had me help her with the execution. It turned out pretty cute in the end.

Even if I did burn myself with the hot glue gun.

Mack wanted to take candy to his preschool buddies, so I got off easy with Fun-Dips. Mack wrote his name on them, which was a little tricky because they put the name spot right over the licking stick.

Yep, he's a lefty.

He was so cute running off to class with his candy-filled bucket swinging beside him. :)

Lily decided she wanted to make bracelets for her classmates, too. She'd planned to make Starburst bracelets for all the girls and Fishtails for the boys, but she also procrastinated and ran out of time. She made Fishtails for everyone except her teachers, who got Starbursts. She spent the night before the class party staying up past 11:00 to get her bracelets finished.

We stamped a more masculine design for the boys.

Most of her classmates knew she was making the bracelets because she worked on them during the bus ride to her volleyball game. The girls told her what colors they wanted and Lily made the boys' colors go with their favorite sports team or activity. Here's a nod to BYU:

These are the fancy Starbursts for the teachers:

Lily was really good to write a personal note on the back of each of her cards.

Heading into school, Amelia with her giving bucket and her receiving box. And Lily trying to rush in before her annoying mother takes a picture. I'm too fast for her!

The following morning the kids got their Valentine's goodies.

At some point, when Lily was young, I made the mistake of giving her a stuffed animal every year. Now it is a tradition and even though I hate to add more stuffed animals to the hoard we already have, it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without them. Later in the day we all went sledding.

Dan and I are lame and didn't get each other gifts, but we did go to a movie. Not a complete bust, but we have mostly made Valentine's Day about showing the kids we love them. And that's OK.



P.S. The Sunday following Valentine's Day, Amelia came out of Primary saying that several of her friends were wearing the bracelets she made. She said, "My heart was just singing!"

P.P.S. This morning when I took Mack to preschool, his teacher told me that she had complimented him on writing his name well. He replied, "A guy's gotta have skills." Love that kid!

Life According to iPhone

Unauthorized climbing at Arctic Circle:

{January 17, 2014}

Silver's favorite place:

{January 15, 2014}

{January 22, 2014}

{January 27, 2014}

Too many Doritos:

 {January 17, 2014}

A forgotten gem:

A couple weeks ago I took Lily and her friend sledding and we remembered that our sleds were at the old house. I went into the shed to find them and came across this sign, a remnant from Lily's club, Fort Feline. My favorite rules are "Don't touch the cats in any way" (wait, this is called Fort Feline, right?), "No sassing" and "No dinking around".

{July 10, 2012}

Annie curled up in my minky blanket. She (or Jackie) sleep with me when Dan's at work.

{January 20, 2014}

The day I changed the dog's name from Silver to Damn Dog:

{January 23, 2014}

We came home from watching a wrestling match at the high school to find puke all over the living room floor. Of course, she couldn't puke on the opposite side of the room that has laminate flooring. I spent an hour and a half cleaning the carpet and sprinkled baking soda on all the spots. It absorbed all the water and I vacuumed it up a couple days later.

The only problem is that now a have several really clean spots that stand out. If this were our house, we would replace that carpet with laminate flooring in a heartbeat!

The day after the puke catastrophe, Silver pooped in two tiny spots while we were gone for an hour. Later that night after I simmered down, Amelia asked me, "Mama, did you cry when you found Silver's mess?" 

"I wanted to, but instead I said a swear word."

"C-R-A-P?"

"Something like that."

Lily pipes in, "Ooh, you said the worse one, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

Amelia, eyes big and incredulous, "There's a badder word than the baddest word I know?"

Yep.

I immediately brought Silver's kennel back in from the shed. She now goes in there anytime we leave. Note the laminate flooring. Where she didn't puke.

Keeping an eye on the neighbors:

{January 24, 2014 photo by Lily}

Weekend bowling in Afton:

We had to stop one frame early to make it into the movie theater to see Frozen. I bowled Amelia and Mack's last frames for them and Lily was like, "No fair!" Especially since they had bumpers and she didn't.

{January 25, 2014}

What an 11-year-old does when she begs off church because "I don't feel good":

{January 26, 2014 photos by Lily}

A little something poking out from under Amelia's bed:

{January 27, 2014}

Dance partners:

{January 28, 2014}

Snow Mouse by Mack:

{January 29, 2014}

Ficus climbing Lego Friend:

{January 30, 2014}

Sugar cookies at Activity Days:

{February 4, 2014}

What happens when a certain child neglects to close the car door the night before a big storm:

{February 7, 2014}

We're supposed to get another 8 inches this weekend.

Hawk supervising the snowstorm:

Without the iPhone, I likely would not have taken pictures of many of these everyday things. They may not be the greatest quality, but they document our lives, and for that I am grateful.