Sweeties

My 3 lovely ladies all wanted to attend the Sweetheart dance with Daddy this year. They were eager to get home from school and get changed into their finery. Kara really felt like she missed out last year, so this year she was very excited about going. She even asked for a specific hairdo, which is uncommon for her. Evie thought she was in trouble right before I took this picture.

Once she saw Daddy and realized he wasn't annoyed with her, she cheered right back up.

I made a gumball machine out of a glass bowl and clay pot. It turned out pretty cute. I was going to fill it with gumballs, but then realized I didn't want them to have a whole bunch of gumballs. So I got some fruit sours instead. It's not functional, you have to remove the lid to get the candy, but still cute, and they loved it.

I set out their gifts after they went to bed so they could wake up to a Valentine's Day surprise.

Our dollar store had cute little boxes, so I got those and crammed them with conversation hearts, pink sixlets, a small box of chocolates, and heart socks. I also had some treats that I got from the chocolate factory when I toured it with Kiersten's girl scout troop.

I made Ben a silly card. He was actually nicer about it than I expected. I made it cheesy as possible. The flash makes it hard to see, but I crossed off the s at the end of Sweetarts, so I could make it say, "To my sweetart". 

He loves Toblerone, so I tried to think of a cute saying to include one in the card. This was the best I could think of, though I'm still certain that there must be a more clever saying I missed.

The girls were very excited when they woke up. I heard them outside my door saying things like, "well, I'm going to wait til mom and dad get up before I go downstairs for breakfast". Since I've never had a V-day surprise first thing in the morning before, I knew they had been down there already, and just weren't sure if they were allowed to open their gifts without us.

They all seemed pretty pleased with their goodies.

Kiersten is so sweet, and spent some of her allowance to buy gifts for her sisters. She got Kara a purse and Evie a pink rose bracelet. Kara said, "I didn't know were supposed to get each other gifts". We told her that no one was supposed to give someone a gift, and that Kiersten had done it because she wanted to. Just as we had given them gifts just because we wanted to.

Evie did later try to give me the bracelet from Kiersten as a gift to me, but I made her keep it. But it is nice to know that she was trying to replicate the generosity.

Ben got some Amiibos I thought he'd like. Only the best for my special guy!

I got yummy chocolates that didn't last nearly as long as they probably should have. And something I've been asking for years from Ben, and finally received for the first time, a card with a hand written note. Dreams really do come true. I also got those tall tall tulips you can see behind Kiersten. They just grew taller and taller. I am going to replant the bulbs in my flower bed and see if they come up again next spring.

The girls also each got a movie. Evie got Barbie as Rapunzel. No one else enjoyed it, but that's why it was a gift for her, and not anyone else.

Kara got Hook, and loved it. Ben and I couldn't resist sitting down to watch it with her.

I knew I was taking a chance giving Kiersten the Little Rascals. I was worried she would think of it as a "boy" movie, but she has watched it about 7 times already, so I think it was a hit as well. I'm actually starting to get sick of hearing about it. I sometimes want to say, "yes, I know. I've seen that movie lots of times". But I just smile and try to be excited that Alfalfa put a frog down his pants.

Ben decided we should have a candle-lit dinner. We have nicer candlesticks than these, but couldn't find them anywhere. Luckily I spotted these forgotten tulip candle holders on Kiersten's shelf. So they worked for our purposes. There were also 3 Valentine's activity placemats left over from a few years ago at the bottom of my decoration box.

We went with the classic napkin roses. Easy and adorable.

These 3 were just thrilled we finally broke out the bottle of sparkling cider that was originally for New Year's Eve, and then Kara's birthday, and then Superbowl. It has now been consumed, and no longer sits forgotten and abandoned at the back of the pantry to taunt them.

And what did we eat on our fancy table? If you guessed heart shaped pizzas, you are correct. That is what we eat every year on this loveliest of holidays. Pizzarelli's this year.

To end our January

Kara had her second concert for special chorus a few weeks ago. We left Kiersten and Evie's dance class a little early so we could make sure not to miss it. I was glad we didn't try to go late, because it only lasted about 15 minutes. Nice and short. The kids sounded great!

She has really enjoyed being in the chorus, and has become a much better singer.

And of course she loves her devoted little fans.

I took a few close up pictures of Kiersten's CCL project for her before getting rid of it. I just couldn't throw them away, though. So they are sitting on a shelf in the garage while I think of a way/place to keep them. But at least they are off my kitchen counter.

Kara's birthday party was the Sunday after her birthday. We waited a week so she could go see Kung Fu Panda 3 for her party. My friend helped me decorate all of these panda cupcakes the night before. Some of the candy eyes had different sizes of pupils that were pointing in all different directions. So some of the pandas ended up looking rather interesting. Kiersten was nervous to let Kara borrow "Bamboo Bear", one of her most loved stuffed animals. She was right to be nervous. The boys kept messing with it during the movie. It finally ended up back on the cupcake stand wearing a pair of sunglasses. She was not amused.

Because they don't have a party room at this theater, we got a discounted rate to rent out the entire theater, so it was nice to be they only ones there. Some of the kids were a little crazy, so I was glad we didn't need to worry about bothering anyone.

She switched seats several times, trying to sit near all of her buddies.

The boys predictably separated themselves in the back.

The little sisters were happy to sit right up front away from those sugar filled boys.

It was a really cute movie. I'd say it's better than the first two.

Here is a cute gift I put together from PTO for our school counselor during School Counseling Week. It turned out super cute, and the girls were excited to bring it to her.

I only took a couple pictures at Trivia Night. It was a very fun event. My girls had a great time, and are hoping this event will be back again next year.

Kiersten missed girl scouts this month, because it conflicted with a circus class she is taking after school. So I had her make her craft beforehand for the other girls to reference. They earned their "write away" try-it. It went pretty well. For the craft portion, they decorated a notebook and pen with duct tape, stickers, and flowers.

I made rice krispie treats dipped in red chocolate for the snack. They went over great! Kiersten and another girl in the circus class stopped by at the end of the meeting to make sure they got some treats as well.

And after all that and a bit more, it was February.

Snow babies

After a snow free October, November, and December, we finally had some snow twice in January.
The first time we didn't get much, but that didn't stop Kiersten's determination to make a snowman. Evie's contribution was to get a carrot for his nose. (And several more for a snack.)

They attempted to do some sledding in the back yard. Lots of grass was poking up still, so they didn't get a lot of speed.

Ben put up Kara's basketball hoop off the deck. She likes having it there.

The second snowfall was much more substantial. Enough so, that school was canceled. The girls are always excited about a snow day, but I get apprehensive, because Ben does not usually get an accompanying day off, and I am most likely going to have to go outside so they can play in the snow.

Kiersten asked for a panda hat. I made her this one from a really fluffy yarn. Pretty cute, but a little bulky.  

Kara played with friends most of the day, and the other two played inside. Just when I thought I was gonna get away with an indoor snow day, Kara came home with the idea of making a snow fort. I decided I'd better suck it up and play outside with them. How hard can it be to make a snow fort anyway?

We got the walls up pretty quickly. The snow was ideal for packing. Kara was great at deciding who should be working on which area, and the other girls were surprisingly compliant with her plans.

Evie's main job was to bring in more snow for the rest of us to pack on. She got very creative with her methods. She started out bringing little handfuls, and ended up using a large branch for dragging, and eventually piling up her sled and dragging over piles of snow.

Apparantly, it's not all that easy for 3 children and one snow hating adult to figure out how to finish a snow fort. As well as we did on the sides, we couldn't figure out how we were supposed to make a roof. In retrospect, I realize it may have been better to go for a big mound from the start, and just dig it out. But that is not how it happened that day. After several collapses and frustration, Kara brought out a beach towel, which we stretched across the top. We then buried the towel so it couldn't be seen on the sides, and started to carefully cover the top. Alas, as thinly as we tried to spread the snow on the roof, the weight was enough to cause the towel to sag down.
This is what we ended up with. The girls were still excited about it, though barely able to fit inside due to the sagging. I guess what we really made was a snow throne.  

And that is one of the myriad reasons why Ben is they snow parent, and I take on hot chocolate and cookie duty. But it was actually kind of fun because they were having a good time, and that's never a bad thing.