A little LOVE

I don't believe in all the commercial hype of Valentine's Day.  Even though I don't, "buy," into it all, I still like to get the minions special trinkets for the day, whether they pick them out, or I get to surprise them with them.

On Saturday we went for a walk together and each of the kiddos picked out enough ice cream to feed, well, my kids, or a small army ....... as their Valentine's Day treats. Then I was more than happy to spend the afternoon in Brinkley and Justice's classes for their parties.  Unfortunately, I had the time of Brinkley's party completely wrong and I showed up over 40 minutes late.  Thank you Mom of the year.  Luckily Brinkley thought it was kind of funny and was glad that she would still have snacks after afternoon special was over.  I think that she was also excited that Daddy surprised her and made a guest appearance for the party too!!!!  Brinkley is, however, dreading moving up to 5th grade, when it comes to Valentine's Day.  There are no more parties when you hit the big time......... so she enjoyed her last elementary party of hearts!!!!!!

Watching the little dude open his Valentine's and count colors and treats was a blast!  He made sure he was all sugared up to head home and do his homework while attempting to sit in a chair without bouncing off the walls....  it was a blast!!!!  Pudgie was also excited Daddy surprised him and showed up for his party too!  All in all, I would say their day was a "love-ly" success.  We ended the night with a dinner of scrambled eggs, pink German dumplings and strawberries and whipped cream!  It was fun, even if Mom and Dad really don't believe in this day!!!  I still like to surprise my kiddos with little things!!!!!!!!!!

Goings on.....

Boy am I forever playing catch up these days. It seems like the minutes fly by and I am doing absolutely everything I can to enjoy every single second of it all.

All our spare time seems to be consumed with Jaxi's football practice and games. I never realized how much work it was going to be just by volunteering to be the team manager. I love everything I do for the boys, but I know that my other two littles are seriously getting short changed when it comes to Mommy time! We have been working on that in a big way!

We finally said good-bye to Tommy's squad A crew with a going away party. Our favorite cake baker made custom cakes for Tommy and Roberto and to be honest, I was so done with his transfer and adjustment and saying good-bye and waiting I just wanted it all to be over and done with. His process was the longest testing process anyone has ever seen and I was sick of it all. We had to put off Brinkley's birthday party because of the squad party so I was beyond over it all!!!! Good bye to the boys and girls of squad A and hello to the boys of night traffic.

So with all that said, we celebrated the big 9 for Miss Brinkley over the course of a few weeks! As usual, she bowed out of a big party with friends. We let her play hookie from school the day before her birthday and took her to see Vampire's Suck. She thought it was funny. Then we took her shopping for a new stereo system. That was her big ticket item that she chose. It was a great day with Daddy and Binky and Mommy. She stuck right in the middle of us all day. Even though it is almost our fall break from school, we still owe her a night out to P.F Changs, for her big birthday dinner. I am sure we will be able to squeeze that in pretty soon!!! I did manage to bring in donuts and juice to her class on her birthday. We had a great time dancing and boping around!!!! Happy Birthday as always Binky Noodle!!!

With Brinkley and Justice having birthday's so close, I did the unthinkable, in my eyes, and made them celebrate their days together. I took full responsibility for making sure each of them felt special for weeks before and after their big day!!!