Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's week started off with something I just love, taxes.  We have our accountant prepare our taxes, I just have to collect all of the information, forms, and numbers to give to them and it can take a while.  Andrew watched the kids Sunday and Monday nights so that I could work on it and finish everything up.  To keep the kids busy Sunday afternoon, I followed Lissy's example and made a yarn web for the kids to play with down in the basement.  At first they weren't too impressed, but then they started adding to it and enjoyed it.  But then it went downhill from there because Jackson sat on it and messed it up.  Ellie was upset and started crying, tried to fix it without success, and started crying again.  Andrew finally just had them clean it all up.  And I added to my fun by finishing up vacuuming the upstairs (moving all the furniture), cleaning the blinds upstairs, and breaking out the magic eraser to clean up the walls and baseboards. 

Monday was a good day for Jackson because he didn't get his shoes moved during swim practice.  He made sure to be the first one in the locker room after practice.  I was going in to talk to the coach about when he came out of the locker room.  I just mentioned it, so we'll see if it happens again.  Tuesday I ended up taking the twins grocery shopping with me.  They haven't been in a while with the cold but it went well.  Well, except for Bennett wanting to throw things out of the cart.  We also stopped by the accountants to drop off our tax stuff and I was happy to hand it over to them.  That afternoon I made some treats for our new "old" neighbors.  Tiffany and Mike moved into their new house across the street.  Ellie was so excited and took the treats over for me.  I will be excited to have the weather warm up some day so we can get all the kids outside to play. 

Like most Wednesdays, I cleaned the bathrooms, etc around the house for small group that night.  And since my Thursday was pretty busy, I went ahead and made some treats for the kids for Valentine's Day-some M&M cookies and chocolate dipped wafers. I couldn't find any bags of the Valentine M&Ms, so I used a small bag of leftover pink ones I had and took all the red ones out of another bag.  I had to throw in some chocolate chips too since there weren't quite enough.  And they were cooling when the kids got home from school, so I let them cool in my bathroom because I wanted them to be a surprise for the kids.  After dinner and as we were getting things ready for small group, Jackson and Ellie were excited to show me their new trick.  And, of course, Lincoln wanted to join in on the fun.

After small group, I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some donuts I had ordered for Ellie's party at school the next day.  I also stopped by Andrew's office to leave him some "love notes" for Valentine's Day.  They were a free download from a paper website I have ordered from before.  I hid them around his desk, phone, etc.  I also put some at home for when he was getting ready in the morning.  It was a simple, fun idea and he enjoyed it.  I also gave him a funny t-shirt that said "Trophy Husband" on it and a cargo bag to go on our hitch haul so we can pack more stuff for our beach vacation this summer :-).  Valentine's Day ended up being busy even before the day got here.  Just trying to keep track of what everyone needed, how many, and when.  I am glad we got the cards done early.  Since Jackson and Ellie weren't going to be around home most of the day, I surprised them and let them eat the cookies for breakfast.  They also got to open their little gifts from us.  Jackson and Ellie both got fuzzy socks.  They both have wanted some for a while and I couldn't really find any for boys.  Luckily I noticed some clearance socks from Christmas in the shoe department.  They had some plain black ones for $2 but they had some little poms attached to them.  Very easy to cut off and Jackson loved them.  He also got a yoyo and Ellie got some heart earrings.  Lincoln got a Toy Story watch and Miles and Bennett got toothbrushes and toothpaste.  All very exciting stuff.  The older three also got suckers that had lips on the other side of them.  I got Miles and Bennett dressed before breakfast so I could get a picture of all the kids together and they were not happy about not getting breakfast right when they woke up :-).

I ended up not being able to make it to Lincoln's party just because I had to be at Ellie's early to get things set up.  It was a morning party, hence the donuts.  They opened all of their Valentines and I was assigned to a table to help them read theirs.  Then we passed out their snack and I read a story to them while they ate.  Then we did the relay race, which was kind of successful.  They enjoyed it at first, but it kind of went on for a little while and they became disinterested.  After her party was over, then I met with a speech therapist at school to sign some papers for Jackson to attend some short sessions.  He doesn't have a big problem, just sometimes has problems with his "s" while using s words in sentences.  I don't even really notice it, but Andrew said he does.  So after the meeting, I went home and helped with lunch for the younger ones.  Molly babysat for me while I was at the parties, but she left for a little while in between.  For Jackson's class I was just signed up to bring treat bags, but he wanted me to come by for a bit so I did.  They didn't really have anything going on though besides going through their goodies.  I was glad he I could be there with him though.  Right after school, Jackson and Ellie went to K-Life.  We were signed up to provide snacks for that too.  So just a lot of little things that happened on the same day.  We ended the day by having dinner at my parents house.  My mom had cute s'mores bags for the kids with heart marshmallows which they enjoyed eating.  She also made a yummy pink champagne cake.  Lissy also got into town in time to enjoy the Valentine's dinner with us.  Here are some pics from my attempt at getting a picture of Miles and Bennett together.

Friday Lincoln helped me make some sugar cookies to take to my parents.  My family really likes them and I totally cheat.  I use Great Value sugar cookie dough and Duncan Hines whipped buttercream icing.  But they always go quickly.  I hadn't made them in a while and Molly requested that I make some for Valentine's Day.  Some of my family was in town for Owen's 2nd birthday party, so it was a good time to make them.  They all got in Friday night and they were gone by Saturday morning.

Speaking of cheating, I have to say my bad mom moment.  It is actually from last week.  The Primary School does a fundraiser every year selling different food items.  I knew that they only people that I would even feel okay about bothering to buy something would be family.  I also knew it was stuff none of them probably wanted anyways (I got some of the frozen cookie dough last year and didn't like it) so we didn't sell anything.  I felt guilty about it, but I didn't want to have to force other people to buy it either.

So onto the rest of our week which was mostly spent at my parents.  The older three had a sleepover at my parents Friday night and then Lissy brough Jackson home and went with the twins and I to his game.  Andrew had to put out hay for his cows and wasn't able to get back in time.  Sometimes during the week, Miles and Bennett would be cuddly.  And other times they were climbing onto the table and into everything :-)

Saturday night was Owen's birthday party which had a Mickey Mouse theme.  Lincoln was very excited.  It was all so cute and Owen and his cousins enjoyed his presents.

Andrew gave me a break last night and took the kids home after dinner and told me to just hang out at my parents for a bit.  He had baths done and kids ready for bed when I got home.  I really appreciated it.  The kids didn't have school today and Jackson and Ellie got to enjoy it by going to the dentist.  Thankfully they didn't have any cavities and everything looked good.  And we celebrated by letting them make sundaes at home :-).