Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a return to crafting for me this year. We have been preoccupied with some other minor projects (cleaning out the entire house including every closet, shelf, and cabinet) and there just hasn't been much time (or energy) left to be creative.

We started with the edible.

Kim celebrated the return of cookies.

So did Alastair.

Emery celebrated Mommy's new boxed best friend. This stuff is the bomb.

Even Emery's bear can't tell the difference.

A note on the the jammies in the background. Grammy got these for Alastair at Christmas and I wasn't sure whether he would love them because they had feet or hate them because they are like Emery's. Luckily, he's still at the stage that he thinks it is cool to match. We call them his rocket suit because of the rockets all over them. Of course, whenever he wears them I have to serenade him with Elton's "Rocket Man." Just before I took this picture he informed me, "Mom, they're just pajamas. You don't have to sing about it." So we're there already, yet he is still super excited to wear pajamas with feet. Interesting.

"Don't hate. My pink ones are in the wash."

I was happy to have an opportunity to break out my hot glue gun as well. For once, I completed several projects and retained a complete set of fingerprints at the end! That's big, people.

Butterfly DumDums.

With a little help from Silhouette Sally, I cut out some easy flying bugs for Emery and these much more complicated alligators.

credit to Skip to My Lou for the idea

I saved a few destined for the littlest of his playgroup pals and Alastair and I glued them together with Elmer's (and love). He put on all the eyes though and was as happy as I've seen him doing a non-food related craft.

Emery, removing her valentines after I put them in.

At the big kid playgroup party (Emery did have her own too!) Emery was way more interested in the boxes and bags of treats this year. She was awake, which was a big improvement over last year. As it turns out DumDums are soy/egg free and made on dedicated equipment (yeah, Halloween is going to be fun), so I let Emery have one when we got home. I did make her sit in her highchair, but she was pretty impressed with herself getting to have big kid candy.

Happy Alligators

The weekend before Valentine's Day, we had a massive four family garage sale and cleaned out a ton of stuff. It was great to see all of it go after the hard work of sorting and paring down. Kim and I got a chance to have a night out that evening with tapas and dancing. As long as we get a date sometime around the day, I'm happy, but Valentine's Day itself is now firmly a kid holiday in our house. Who wants to fight for the last 7oz. tenderloin fillet in the steakhouse anyway?