Boys make me laugh.  Particularly, this boy.

Today was our homeschool co-op’s annual Valentine party.  The kids are divided by age group and then make Valentine’s for those friends.  They put said Valentine’s in decorated boxes (or bags) and one presumes said boxes to be decorated with a traditional Valentine theme of love.  Not so.

This is Brother’s box:

(see this link if you don’t already know that Heroica is battle game … with monsters and barbarians and such.)

In years past, he had a box with Spiderman swinging to the rescue (of some poor soul about to fall in love, no doubt.)

It’s not that he refuses to have a box with hearts and the like. No, what makes it humorous is that he is utterly oblivious to the fact that hearts are even an option.

I used to worry about such incongruities but having four children changes your perspective.  Namely, you have learned to nurture their creativity; helping it blossom into something beautiful are too tired to care.  And as it turned out his box sitting next to the volcano and monkey and micro-fridge seemed right at home.

Sister is not oblivious. Her box will have hearts. It will be pink. It will exude love and be utterly appropriate.

Her Valentine’s however will have animals …always, with the animals.  She’s done flamingoes, cut out animals with cute saying and little animal trivia and this year.  She’s “wild about you, Valentine.”

Inspired by an article in Family Fun magazine.

Brother stuck with being a funny boy.

The Littles seem oblivious to the reason behind all this heart hoopla but they’re cute enough that no one cares.

Though when I look in my rear-view mirror and see this

I know they’ve got this love thing down without having to be told a thing.

Brother’s 7th birthday party was tonight.  It was great!  Mostly, it was great because for the first time in 9 years of planning birthday parties for my children  ~ grand, elaborate parties full of detail and full of fun but that suck the energy out of me for a week afterward ~ I did not do the planning.  Because Brother’s birthday falls in the midst of “New School Year” planning and because my sweet hubby could see that I was already stretched to the max, he offered to handle the party for me.  Reluctant at first to place that burden on him hand over control, I finally admitted the need for help and accepted his offer.  First, he created these super cool invitations.

Then he ordered this awesome cake.

Today he took off the afternoon from work to decorate and help get the house ready.

When the guests actually arrived, he had pizza waiting

and after pizza: games.

Ninja Darts

Indoor archery (fortunate because we finally have rain!!!)

And then a few rounds of Ninja Hide n Seek.

Brother opened his gifts

and then it was time to blow out the candles.

With seven candles on the cake it only took nine tries to get the job done.

The party could have ended there and been fabulous but the weather turned so nice that we all migrated outdoors to talk and watch the kids try out the new pogo stick (courtesy of our neighbors).  Then there was biking, scootering and stilt walking.

I couldn’t possibly have planned it better myself….. and I’m thinking that in the future maybe I won’t.  All hail, Will the new birthday party planner!

In the past I’ve planned some fairly elaborate birthday parties for Sister.  She would pick a theme and we would spend a month or so gathering supplies and thinking of every detail but this year I was/am tired.  Fortunately, all Sister really wanted was a sleepover with her friends.  So we ordered in pizza and let the girlies do their thing … no decorating, minimal cleanup.  Love it.

(Brother is a pirate here in case your wondering about his strange expression … Aargh!)

We did manage to throw in a little something special the following morning when we took the group of giggling girls to a local salon to have their nails done

and afterwards to a nearby specialty bakery for some sweet birthday treats.

Happy Birthday, Sister!

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For Dora’s first birthday, we met family at a local splash pad.  The day was hot and we needed an activity that would be enjoyed by young and old alike.  Chips and simple ham sandwiches were on our menu along with popsicles and cupcakes.  I loved having Dora in her swimsuit and being outside with lots of water close by because I didn’t even think about stressing out about the mess or “she needs to keep her dress clean” or anything like that.  We just let her do her thing and it was perfect.

Two thoughts to share from Cousin E’s 4 year celebration this past weekend. 

First, isn’t this the cutest wrapping paper ever?

My little sis made it using sheets from one of those monster size coloring books.  Love this idea. 

Second, if you’re ever stumped for a birthday party activity try letting the kiddos decorate the cake.  I have yet to find an age that doesn’t enjoy expressing themselves with frosting.

The only caveat, of course, is that you must let go of your ideas about beauty.  Kids look at cake decorating from an entirely different perspective. (Namely, how much frosting can we get on here before the grownups make us stop.)

I tried to convince them.  I suggested and cajoled.  I almost begged.  Almost.  Maybe I should have but they were so sure.

No, we do not want store bought Valentine’s.  We want to make them.  Yes, all 41 of them.  Each.  (That’s 82, but who’s counting?)

And you know what?  They did. (Well, she did and he helped assemble the pieces that I had printed and cut out the night before while watching the season premiere of Lost.)

In other Valentine news there was no romantic date because Brother had an unfortunate ‘bout of “I don’t feel so good’s” just as we were getting ready to walk out the door. BUT Will did have this delivered:

It’s a replacement for the one he designed himself and purchased for my birthday after hearing a random comment I made about how much I love Amazon.com.  It’s a replacement for the one I adored but that got stained and would never come completely clean.  And this time around he included a bonus for Dora.

And one last bit of romance news.

Last night was not as restful as I’d have liked so this afternoon I lay down on the couch for a nap. Before I did I told Will I was debating whether to make cookies or take a nap but the nap was winning.  He laughed and woke me up an hour later with a glass of milk and a plate of warm cookies he’d made while I was sleeping.  So sweet.

[Insert picture of cookies here ]

You’ll have to use your imagination for this one. They disappeared too fast to be photographed.

Sister, at eight, knows the truth.  Brother, at five, still believes.  Dora, at 5 months, remains undecided.  To mollify Brother and allow Dora a chance at decision we made the annual obligatory trek to see the big guy.  But this year, we were smart.  This year no waiting hours in line at the mall for us.  Oh, no.  This year we’d go the Bass Pro’s Winter Wonderland where they hand out passes and you get to walk around the store instead of standing in line. Then when it’s your time you walk straight into ye ol’ Wonderland, see Santa, and walk away happy …. at least in theory.

We arrived at 3pm and stood in line to receive our pass surrounded by the madness that is Christmas shopping on a Saturday.  I almost hyperventilated from the activity.  We homeschoolers tend to go places when there are no crowds.  You know - when everyone else is in school.  All that hustle and bustle made me want to run and hide but Will gave me a paper bag (not really) and had me do some yoga breathing (not really) and within a few minutes I was back to normal (not really).

Here’s Brother with our pass by the way.  Did I mention we arrived at 3:00?  Um, yeah.

Fortunately there were activities to occupy the time.

Reindeer candy canes, anyone?  (This staffer was actually bursting with enthusiasm but I asked if she could please stop with the effusive smiling already as it was distracting attention from my cutie of a child.)

Baby candy cane, anyone? (Couldn’t get this guy to stop smiling no matter what I said.)

And then the children got eaten by a bear.

(not really)

Eventually we made it back to the North Pole and stood in line 30 minutes (um, yeah) where Dora who had been awake and happy since we arrived fell asleep on my shoulder.  Let me just say that handing a sleeping baby over to Santa is a precarious endeavor.

In the end all was well.  Though Dora is still undecided. … Guess that means we’ll be going back next year.

*this post backdated for chronological reasons

Sister switched from her elaborate cheetah costume to an equally elaborate Chinese girl look while Brother switched from karate guy to crocodile finally settling on pirate firefighter.  We added an angel at the last minute.  The potential for stress was high and yet the prospect of more candy than they could eat in a year kept everybody on the positive side.  Especially Dora…. see how positive she looks.

We went to a local church for Trunk or Treat (apparently everyone’s doing it) and the kids’ had a blast.  Will appreciated the free hot dogs.

I, on the other hand, got poked in the chin some 14 billion times by that silly hat and did not collect candy.

In other news, we created 80+ Halloween cards to exchange at our homeschool costume party where Sister did dress up as a cheetah and Brother was a karate guy.

I was a wet blanket by the way.  No really, that was my costume … a wet blanket.

Halloween and I ~ we have issues.

Following close on the heels of Dora’s birth, Brother’s birthday didn’t get the attention it usually does.  Historically I’ve gone a bit overboard on the birthdays. It’s in my nature but this year simple was all we had time for.  Made some trays with cubes of fruit, cheese, meat, and bagels and let the kids build their own meal with skewers.  Any utensils out of the ordinary are always a hit but kids especially like putting their food on long pointy sticks.  Probably has something to do with the level of danger involved.  Kids like danger. 

After the eating I divided the kids into teams and sent them on a photo scavenger hunt.  These hunts are ridiculously simple to do and are always a favorite.  A surprise favorite game of the day was “Lego, Lego Who Has the Lego?” (shamelessly stolen from the “Button, Button” classic.)  The kids wore great poker faces and even the littlest could play.

Since it was mostly family we opened the presents then had lots of free play time before breaking out the cake.

Typically I order a cake to fit the theme and this year I just knew I’d get one shaped like a Lego brick.  Good idea with a failure to execute.  We found ourselves at the supermarket the night before saying to the bakery lady, “Do you have anything?…”  Adding our own bricks to the top worked surprisingly well and Brother loved that he got to help “make” his cake.

Happy Birthday, Brother!  You’re a big boy now.

*should have been posted August 15th.

I may have gone a little bit overboard.

We made and sent approximately 35 Valentine’s all over the US and even some to France in a pen pal type exchange.  Then, one week later, we made another 30 or so cards for our local homeschool group.

With a boat load of candy to choose from each child made “Love-bugs”.  Too cute.