Valentine's Day in BearCountry

It was a busy one that's for sure!

The day started out with finding homemade valentines in our little pink mailbox we use for sending each other notes. That was quickly followed by waffles made by Daddy. Then Sam was off to school with valentine's for all his classmates. The removable mustaches were a hit I've been told. I can't wait to see the photo that was taken of all his classmates wearing their mustaches! Thanks to Heidi at the Craft Monkey for the inspiration! I tweaked my version a little so I could see more of Sam's face and put the removable mustache with the text so when it was removed the card still made sense.

 

Julia had her very last first day of ECFE today so that kept us busy for a good chunk of the morning. I can't believe she was younger than Elsa when she went to her first class! Her preschool party was yesterday but she made similar valentines to give to her classmates at dance this afternoon. In just one sitting she pounded out 18 friendship bracelets and then one other session of writing names and taping the bracelets to the card stock was all it took for her to complete her Valentine's for this year. 

 

(Inspiration found here.)

I learned a good lesson this year and that was to set a deadline of Martin Luther King Jr. day as the deadline for deciding on what each child is going to do for their valentine theme. Getting valentine's ready was stress free for the first time this year because we didn't have to rush. We could work on them a little bit at a time (though Julia has an incredible work ethic and can stay on task for a long.long.time).  

I love this shot of the back of Julia's valentines because it shows what her handwriting looks like at five years old. I have many cards with her sweet signature on them . I treasure them!

Elsa didn't have a class to share valentine's with but that didn't stop me from making some for her. Gotta remember baby's first Valentine's Day after all right?

After ECFE we went to the library program and then home to get ready for an impromptu Valentine's Day party Julia wanted to throw for Sam, Grandma, Grandpa, Sharon, Jamey, and Josie. We spent the next several hours cutting, pasting, cleaning, & creating so that the house was all decorated & ready for when we got home from dance and a work meeting I had scheduled before I knew we were going to have company for dinner. Like I said, it was a busy day!

Grandma and Grandpa brought pizza and chicken and we all enjoyed a lovely dinner together. Julia was very anxious to start the games but managed to eat some dinner first. When I asked her later she said her favorite part of the party was being the judge of the coloring contest. (We printed out a bunch of copies of a valentine themed coloring sheet that everyone (even grandpa!) colored while Julia waited in the kitchen. Once everyone was done she came in and chose which picture she liked the best. Grandma won!!!!) The next game was pin the flower (in the shape of a heart) on the flower stem. Getting to spin people around was Julia's second favorite part of the night. Jamey won this one! The last game was seeing how many times you could bounce a little ball into a container that sat in the middle of the dining room table. After two rounds (3 balls each round) Grandma was declared the winner! It was harder than it looked!

It was a relaxing evening filled with laughter, making memories, and spending time with those we love. I hope we have many more impromptu parties like this in our future - especially when it means Julia and I get to have so much fun getting ready for it. Her face just lit right up when she'd come up with an idea and I'd help walk her through the steps to make it happen.

Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day as well!