Valentine's Day Fun

Valentine's this day was a bit of a frenzy for me, starting with a few days before when I found out that  both of the boys had been assigned to make their valentine boxes at home... and we had quite a few valentines to address and put together. They were very excited, and luckily didn't have any crazy ambitions about what the boxes had to look like. They turned out festive and fun.

 (Yes, he has his dad's eye closing issue... big smile, but eyes shut.)

When the actual day came around, I had plenty to accomplish, starting with running club early in the morning, and followed by a lot of grocery shopping that I had put off all week. I also thought I should try and squeeze in a run, so I loaded Wyatt and Finn in the double jogging stroller to run over to Target for the second store stop. It is about 1.5 miles each way and not too hilly, but wow! those two have gotten heavy. And then I added some groceries to the stroller and it was a serious workout. After all those stops I made it home around noon to get them lunch and Finn put down for a nap. I managed to shower and start baking cookies just as the older boys came home from school (early out day). They had a super great time, and a couple of friends came home with them, and they all went through their valentines.

Just as I started to get the pizza dough together to let it rise, I discovered that I had no yeast left in the house. So I loaded up all of the boys and headed to the store for the 3rd time to get yeast. Caleb finally made it home in time to start making pizzas and we soon discovered that we had no pizza sauce. It is safe to say that I was a bit stressed and worn out by this time in the day, as I headed to the store for the 4th time in a day. We finally got some heart shaped pizza and valentines on the table and enjoyed a great dinner.

 Our boys loved their lego key chains and treats for valentine's day.

Finn got a new puppy, and he was so excited. It was very cute to watch him keep hugging it and saying "hug, hug."

By the end of the night, I was a bit more relaxed after an exhausting day. I have realized that Valentine's Day seemed to take almost as much work as Halloween. It is definitely a fun and crazy time for school aged kids. I did at least get to pose for a photo with Caleb, and tho we aren't into giving Valentine's gift, we had to buy ourselves a new dryer that day because ours broke at the beginning of the week. Hoorah!

Harlem Globetrotters Night

This is the second year in a row that the older boys and I have gone to see the Harlem Globetrotters with Anne and Joe. Last year proved to be such a great time for them, that we decided to go again. This year, my co-worker, Lissa and her son, Elias, came to the game too. Gavin and Elias have gotten to be friends because we get together every few months we get together with our co-workers and kids. It was a lot of fun to have them along for this, since the Globetrotters in perfect entertainment for kids 12 and under, and it is a little fun for adults too.

Henry lives his life for the next place that he can go and have popcorn, so I had to get the big giant bag of kettle corn for all of us to share.

 Anne and Joe enjoying the game. They really love when they get to see the kids having fun too.

 Lissa and Elias.

 I took this blurry picture during "YMCA" just to show the difference between how my two boys act at events like this. Gavin totally gets into the crowd cheering and dancing frenzy. Henry will do some clapping and occasionally a little something else, but definitely holds back. I like to say that at moments like these, you can tell which one of them is mine and which is Caleb's. 

Chinese New Year Celebration

This year both Gavin and Henry are participating in the Chinese Immersion program at our school, and I think it just gets better every year. As the teachers and school getting into a better routine every year, I have been so impressed and what the kids are learning and the great things they get to be a part of. This year the classes put on a great presentation for the Chinese New Year. Each class sang two songs in Chinese and Gavin's class even put on a Kung Fu presentation as part of the introduction to the program. It was very cool. We were pretty impressed to see Henry coming out of his shell for this, and Gavin got a special part during one song, tho he kept hiding behind the microphone from where I was sitting. (the videos don't seem to want to upload right now, I will have to try again later.)

Just the little brothers having fun

Wyatt and Finn seem to be growing like crazy lately, and most of the time, they have so much fun together. It has seemed like a few long winter months of being trapped mostly in the house for these two. Last week Wyatt said, "I just don't like snow when it isn't Christmas."

He started sunbeams in January and loves his new big class where he gets to see Henry in Primary.

 Finn is perfecting his skills of climbing, talking and making huge messes... oh yeah, and trying to escape the house. Luckily, he hasn't figured out how to turn the deadbolt.

 Finn gets so lonely when Wyatt is at preschool, he loves to copy his crazy brothers antics and try and imitate everything he says.

It is pretty safe to say that I often look forward to nap time/Quiet time for these two.

Finn ended up being the first boy in the house to have a run in with the fireplace. Luckily, the damage was minimal.

Wyatt had a great time with Dad and the big boys when they agreed to take him to the jazz game with them.

Ahhh January

We had a lot of winter fun in January, thanks to plenty of fresh snow and wintery conditions.

We even got an extra visit from Papa and Grandma thanks to Tyce officially being sealed to his beautiful family (Hooray!).

Some of backyard adventure.

It gets crazy out there, so snowboarding goggles are often a must.

 Papa was on hand for some proper snowman building.

 And the boys even got to break in the new snowman kit from Grandma, to transform their little fella.

 Looking good!

 Gavin attempted a few snow angels and almost got stuck in the deep snow.

 Wyatt was yelling out to be buried "like with sand." He got a little claustrophobic and didn't stay buried long.

And Finn took advantage of the chance to be outside and tried to run away down the street. Pretty typical these days.

 After all of the snow fun and a trip over to the sledding hill, it is always great to play some games with Grandma... and Papa too, of course.