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Sun, February 14:

Happy Valentines Day! Everyday is a day to celebrate the ones you love and we don't usually go too far out of our way to make this day special. We always buy the kids a little gift and the girls a flower. We always make a special dinner for all of us to enjoy by candlelight.

This year was no different. Except, we got a surprise visit from my Dad's cousin, Kurt from Florida. He happened to be coming into town for work and was able to come enjoy some snackage and get overwhelmed by kids. He loved it though. He was a blast to have around. We would have invited him to stay for dinner if we didn't have our yearly tradition of us and candlelight. My brother and his family came over too for the vist. So, 5 adults and 7 kids (well 8 kids since a friend came over to play with Mr C) hung out for a few hours and had a wonderful Valentines.

Marc and I take turns each year for who is in charge of Valentines (since our anniversary is in 6 weeks). This year was Marc's turn. He bought a pink rose for Miss R and a red rose for Miss M. I got 2 bouquets of tulips (my favorite). He started the day out by making pancakes. He made all the snack food for our visitors and then made a delicious steak and baked potato dinner for us. We turned out the light and ate with candles (which the kids asked to blow out the whole meal) and the last of my Evil Chardonney. 

We finished the night exhausted...after doing all the laundry and Marc packing his bags for his flight in the morning. I hope you had a great day with your friends or family.

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Wed, Feb 10:

My friend, Maribeth, is the best. She volunteers to help me with every project I volunteer for at school. It's great to know I have such great friends..because I volunteer for a lot. Well, I volunteered to lead the Junior PTSA at our school and they do a lot of events. If I wasn't such a control freak, I think the kids would do more and I would do less. Maybe next year. 

Anyway, we are in the middle of an easy fundraiser called "Friendship Grams". Maribeth used the die-cutter to make 1000 paper hearts. She then punched 2 holes in each and stamped them with a "To: From:" and a square box for the room number. We then spend Mon, Tues and Wed on the stage at school selling these grams to the kids to send to one another. After they are sold and filled out by said kids, we thread a tootsie pop through each one, put a piece of tape on the back to hold them and attach a pretty butterfly clip to each one for a girl. The kids love to get these and it was an easy way to buy my kids their class set of valentines this year. In total, we made about $150 which will go towards the Junior PTSA end of year party. 

I must admit, I did allow 3-4 kids to help us by threading the tootsie pop, applying the tape and clip and sorting all 700 grams into the bags for the classrooms. Maybe I am relinquishing control after all.