Valentine's Day

A day of pink, hearts, glitter, and love!

And Surprise cookies.

(could it be a twix, snickers, butterfinger, thin mint, rolo, or pb cup in the center of that soft cookie?)

Yum, yum.

I prepared a plate of cookies for each member of the family, a few friends and neighbors, and the classes Eric and I taught at church today.

After a wonderful morning at church, we spent the afternoon decorating and cooking for the evening celebration.

When everything was ready, our "dates" picked us up at our doors.

Cindy and Kacin

Grandma Barb and Kyler

Me and E

Chelsea, Petra, and Rilla

And sweet Cindy gave me flowers and curls in my hair.

The hors d'oeuvres were served

(heart shaped cheese on crackers, olives, cashews, candy hearts).

We played Valentine's Bingo.

Then dinner was served.

Immediately following dinner, we headed to the ballroom.
 This was the time that Kyler and Kacin had been practicing for all week.
 Seriously.
 Earlier in the day, I heard Kyler say
"Let's practice for tonight. You be the girl."
And they grabbed hands, Kyler placed his hand on Kacin's waist,
and they did a little dance through the kitchen.
However, I guess dancing with his brother
didn't quite prepare him for the real thing.
After dancing with his grandma, me, dad, even Cindy,
we told him to dance with Petra.
He hesitated, but took her hand.
It lasted about 3 seconds.
He jumped back and shouted "I don't like this at all!"
He sat down and said "That was horrible!
Boys dancing with girls?! And girls dancing with boys?!
I don't like that at all!"

Just keep dancing with your momma, Kyler.

We spun, twirled, stomped, two-stepped, and break-danced.
This was more of Kyler's thing.

Yeah, and everyone was dancing.

 I wasn't the only one up there.

It's just not documented on my camera.

Disappointing.

It was Strawberry Julius for dessert.

And we crashed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

In Preparation of Feb. 14th . . .

Our week has been filled with much preparation and anticipation for February 14th!

We boycotted store-bought valentine's cards this year and worked hard on making our own heartful (which maybe isn't considered a "real" word, but I find it more fitting in this instance) creations to share with our friends, and, of course, daddy (who will be the recipient of about 7 cards just from one little boy. . .

We celebrated at our schools . . .

We made heart sugar cookies with our fun neighbors . . .

Shelley (the fun neighbor) and I got this great idea to make Valentine's Bingo cards while the kids played. If you're ever thinking of making your own set, here's my advice: Plan on it taking longer than you'd think and use stickers instead of drawing, cutting, pasting.

Better yet, just borrow mine. 

My model here was pretty excited to hold up the card . . . 

Only 2 days left until Valentine's Day!

 Still on the To-Do List:

1. Grocery shop for our elegant Valentine's dinner

2. Learn how to be "gentleman" and "ladies" for our elegant Valentine's dinner

3. Practice our dancing skills for after the elegant Valentine's dinner

4. Make candy bar cookies (yum!)

Forest Park

The sun was shining all afternoon.

The glorious sun!

It even got to the point where I desperately searched around in my car

 to find my sunglasses which had disappeared from lack of use.

As we walked out of the grocery store today,

 I told Eric the sun is much brighter here in Washington than it ever was in Arizona.

He just said it's only because we aren't used to seeing the sun anymore.

We took full advantage of the beautiful weather and spent an afternoon running through the forest and playing at the park (the park surrounded by forest).

If I can't have Thanksgiving Point Gardens nearby,

then I will happily take Forest Park

 (though that name is just not fitting, much too plain. hmmm . . .)

Here we are:

Are You Smarter Than a 6-Year Old?

How about a 5 year-old?

Let's play a game.

Because if you know our family we play A LOT of games--which sometimes might shock our friends when they see our game closet or frighten them when we make them play hide-and-seek in the dark and stick their feet in a circle and recite "My dog died last night, what color was his blood?" to decide who has to be IT first. (um, Dear Stock's, I apologize for the scariness. Love, Laura).

My game today: Read the question and decide if the answer the boy gives is correct or not. You can agree or disagree with his answer. If you correctly do so, give yourself a point. If you disagree and say the correct answer of your own accord, give yorself another point.
Clear as mud?

Let's play. 

1. What's our family theme this year?

Kacin: Love should be our walk and our talk

2. What does daddy do at work?
Kacin: Just play on his computer. He works for Flutey head.
Kyler: He doesn't fight like Anakin. He works at the computer and plays a kid's game and matches up numbers.

3. What was Kacin's Monday night FHE lesson on?

Kyler: Love yourself.

4. When is your bedtime?

Kyler: 1:00 in the night

5. How long do you sleep at night?

Kyler: 5 hours

Kacin: 80 hours

6. What did we have for dinner last night?

Kacin: lasagna and carrots and celery and broccoli

7. What do mom and dad do after you go to sleep?

Kyler: watch movies, like Harry Potter

Kacin: play games, take pictures

8. What do we do every day after lunch?

Kyler: do my homework, take a nap, then play whatever we want

9. What's the "happiest place on earth"?
Kacin: This town that we're in.
Kyler: Dairy Queen

10. What was dad so excited to buy from costco?

Kyler: a tv

11. What was mom so excited to buy from costco?

Kyler: a tv

12. What does mom do while you are at school?

Kacin: work, go to the bank and get cheesesticks

13. What is mom's favorite holiday?
Kacin: Christmas

14. Why does it rain so much in Washington?

Kyler: it's so cold

Kacin: The plants here need the water so Jesus sends it.

15. What kind of car do we drive?

Kyler: Toyota highlander

16. What kind of car does Aunt Jacqui drive?

Kacin: a silver car

17. What are mom and dad's new callings at church?

Kyler: Mom is the bumblebee teacher.

Kacin: Dad is teaching in the class next to me. (primary)

18. Who is the US President?

Kyler: Rock-a-Bama. He smokes.

Answers:

1. Agree

2. Agree, sort of. Like Kyler mentioned, I don't think that he whips out his light saber on a daily basis, I do think he solves a lot of problems, counts a bunch of parts, works a lot at the computer and with numbers, and comes home really tired.

3. Agree. 

4. Nice try Kyler. Though he claims he never falls asleep until really late at night, he is slumbering soundly by 8 (or 7:30 or 7, depending on his and mommy's mood).

5. Disagree. Somewhere in between. How about 10-12 hours.

6. Agree.

7. Agree. And clean up and read, too.

8. Partially Disagree. Kyler never naps. Nor Kacin anymore. They read.

9. Though, of course you think Disneyland, I can't write disagree because their answers are fitting. I love that Kacin didn't even heistate. He is so happy here. And of course ice cream man Kyler didn't hesitate either.

10. Agree.

11. Strongly Disagree. I was more excited about the apples and the pistachios we bought.

12. Agree, I guess. It really depends on the day and since I have done that before, ok. but I am also frequently volunteering in the boys classrooms, exercising, and just getting random things done that need to be done.

13. Disagree! I love Valentine's Day the best. In 10 days, Kacin will learn this . . .

14. How can you disagree with Kacin's answer? The real answer has something to do with mountains and the ocean and the wind blowing or something like that. Don't quote me.

15. Agree.

16. Agree. Funny that he points the same car out on the road all the time. Too bad I don't know the name either.

17. I am now a Beehive Advisor (12-13 year old girls) and Eric is a youth sunday school teacher.

18. Agree.

See, aren't games so much fun?

Thanks for playing!