Little Valentine Thoughts

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  

The kids have Presidents Day off of school, so we decided to head out of town to (you guessed it) Bear Lake.  I am sitting under a cozy blanket, listening to the kids downstairs, NOT going to sleep.  I am trying my best to ignore it though.  I had visions of sledding and skiing this weekend, but it was in the 50s today, even up here.  There is hardly a trace of snow to be found.  It is completely weird, but I have GOT to say, I am really, REALLY enjoying it.  I know we need the water, and I do hope it snows like crazy (in the mountains) before the winter is officially over, but my heart still gave a little flutter when I saw these little foolhardy beauties sticking up out of the ground the other day:

LOVE it.  It may have been a rash decision on their part to show themselves so early, but I was happy to see them anyway.   With the weather in the 60s in February, and the lack of inversions, I am calling this the best winter EVER.

Yesterday was the "Valentimes" parties at the elementary school.  I LOVE how excited the kids all were.  They all had their Valentines all addressed and ready days and days in advance.  I foolishly signed up to help at both the kindergarten party and the 3rd grade party (I help at Dax's class every other week, so the girls get the parties).

First was the kindergarten party.  Cora was very excited for Valentines Day.  I don't know if you know this, but Cora has usually got some little boy in her class or other pegged as her "boyfriend." Sometimes more than one.  I am not sure if they are always on board with being her boyfriend, but sometimes they are.  Lately it has been this guy, who is totally, completely on board:

Cora had been talking about "her boyfriend" for a while.  Cora came home from school a few weeks back with a sticky note from his mom with his number on it.  Turns out he had been talking about Cora so much, she figured we better do a playdate.  It turns out he lives just up the street and around the corner from us.  The little love birds have been having pretty frequent playdates since then.  I did overhear him once in the playroom trying to convince Cora to do "eskimo kisses" (rub noses together), but she said "Nooo waaaay!" Atta girl.  Let's all just hope she remembers how to say 'no way' to kisses from her boyfriends when she is a teenager.    

Anyway, back to the party....the kindergartners had great fun playing games, making cookies, and doing crafts.  The kinders also exchanged Valentines (of course), and Cora has been sugared up pretty much ever since.

After a short break, I headed over the 3rd grade party.  Arden, unlike her little sister, will not admit to liking any boys, but I know she does because I hear her and her friends whispering sometimes :)  Scary.  Anyway, the 3rd graders were pretty much doing the same stuff as the kinders...cookies, games, crafts.  I was in charge of the craft, but we only had 10 minutes per group instead of the 15 I was originally told, so we consistently ran out of time before most kids were finished with the project. I was running around like crazy trying to help everyone as best I could, and I must admit that by the end of the party, I was exhausted.  So sorry to the moms who had a half-finished puppy puppet to work on last night!

No rest for the weary though, I had to run home and try and get everything packed for our weekend trip.  We headed out on time, but we had to make a detour along the way.  Dax had left his beloved stuffed buffalo, "Buffy," at Preston's brother's house a while back, and he was missing his buddy pretty bad.  Our little Buffy rescue mission took longer than we thought, so we changed our plans and stopped in Logan at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate my Dad's 64th birthday, instead of eating at Bear Lake.

The kids were superexcited that we ended up at Texas Roadhouse...partly because they love to eat 17 rolls each and then not eat any dinner, and partly because they know that if you celebrate your birthday at Texas Roadhouse, you get to sit on the "Birthday Saddle" while everyone says "YEE-HAW!" for you.    

Grandpa, however, didn't seem to want to climb up on top of the birthday saddle, and refused to leave his cozy spot in the corner of the booth:

The server tried to help convince Grandpa by saying that if he sat on the saddle, he would get some free ice cream.  When the kids heard that free ice cream was involved, they quickly volunteered to sit on the saddle on Grandpa's behalf.  For a fee, of course.  They all wanted ice cream, so they all three squeezed themselves up there in the saddle.  They sure looked cute doing it:

We finished the drive up the canyon in the dark, and got unpacked a little after bedtime. While unpacking, I discovered that Dax had snuck his entire stash of Valentines into the back seat with him, and pretty much destroyed all the candy on the way up here.  Wrappers EVERYWHERE.  Nice.

This morning, Dax (of course) woke us all up early, but at least that meant I got to see this beautiful sunrise:

We all had a fun, lazy Valentines Day.  I got to go for a beautiful run this morning (BEST WINTER EVER!) and then we spent a lazy day watching movies, doing crafts, and playing outside.  Grandpa was trying to spread some gravel around that yard, and Arden kept stealing his shovel when he wasn't watching.  Olive came along with us, of course, and has had a great time going on walks and playing with her friend, Annie, from next door.  It was a pretty low-key day, but fun anyways.

I hope you all had a fun Valentines Day with your favorite people too.  Happy Valentines Day!