week 7 in pictures

sunday: shane, waiting (im)patiently in the early morning for his friends to show up and take him snowboarding.

micah, checking out 2007 project life. he wanted to see pictures from when he was a baby.

tuesday: diligently working on his valentines.

wednesday: empty peanut butter jar = happy dog!

thursday: no ‘official’ valentine’s day photo, but a couple random shots of micah. excitedly running in to preschool with his victoria’s secret bag full of valentines. hiding behind the valentine balloon grandma and grandpa gave him.

friday: no school + gorgeous weather + MOMS club activity = fun day at the park. seriously, it was SO nice out! what a teaser.

saturday (not really): all she really wants is some love…

a couple of skinnies: 1. micah got “hooked”. 2. showing off their selections of cheesy, cheapo valentines! layla really did choose justin bieber valentines… sigh. 

and I decided to collage my instagrams again.

book shots:

 

instafriday

it’s friday again!!! and that means:

layla, still sick, but enjoying some brady bunch episodes in the recliner, with a cat, and a… tent? no idea.

this warms my heart! checking out our family history via project life… circa 2007. LOVE!

what I spent my sunday evening tackling:

done! thank goodness.

micah’s “hooked”! hahaha!

a quick visit to the library.

dinner: meatloaf, green beans, and very pretty roasted potatoes. I got this awesome little bundle at the store that had yukon golds, red, and purple potatoes. purple potatoes are SO fun! I tossed them with some olive oil, salt and pepper, thyme, oregano, a little rosemary, and a bunch of garlic! so yummy. the meatloaf was good, too!

operation: pick out cheesy, cheapo valentines.

yes, I live in yuppy-ville. if you call 1-888-dog-waste, you can PAY someone to scoop your dog poop for you.I wonder if shane knows about this…

empty peanut butter jar = very happy dog.

yes, that’s my 5 year old, excitedly tromping in to preschool with his victoria’s secret bag full of valentines!

grandma and grandpa got micah a mickey mouse balloon for valentine’s day. he rode his tricycle to their house, so for the ride home, layla tied it around the back. he thought it was hilarious to have it trailing behind him. I kept having to remind him to watch where he was going because he wanted to look at it while he rode.

a dark chocolate assortment from see’s for me! LOVE!

“do you like my beard?”

valentine’s day

{I wrote this as an article for our MOMS Club newsletter, but decided to post it here, as well. don’t fall over because of the capitalization - like I said, it was originally written for another venue. see? I really DO know now to write correctly… I just choose not to most of the time!}

Every year, I’m surprised by all the anti-Valentine’s Day sentiment expressed by my single friends, on TV shows, movies, the radio, etc. Granted, I’m married, and don’t really have to worry about having “a Valentine”, but I don’t remember feeling that way, even when I was single. People seem to be under the impression that Valentine’s Day is a holiday that exists for the sole purpose of pointing out a single person’s aloneness. I find this really odd, and the last few years, I’ve started to wonder why.

We start kids out giving Valentines to each other in Preschool, helping the 3 year old, painstakingly print his name 12 times in a row across his Spiderman Valentines, and high-fiving after each one. In elementary school, it’s more important what kind of treats get taped onto your Valentines. Stickers, tattoos, Nerds, etc. So, why is it, that after elementary school, we stop considering Valentine’s Day a holiday to celebrate our friends and family (you know, the people that we LOVE), and decide that it’s become strictly a romantically involved couple’s holiday?

I think, the biggest reason I never felt that way, is because, as far back as I can remember, my mom gave me special Valentine’s treats and my dad brought flower or balloons for BOTH my mom and me. My mom had this special little tin bucket with hearts on the side, and a teddy bear on the lid. It was only about 3 or 4 inches tall, but every year, I knew what was inside it, and every year, I looked forward to Valentine’s Day because of it. Back when I was growing up, Totem Lake Mall in Kirkland, was almost an actual mall, with thriving stores, a movie theatre, and prowling teenagers. You know, a mall. Right in the middle, outside of the Pay & Save was a little, independent, hole-in-the-wall candy shop. They sold all sorts of fun delicacies including my absolute favorite, white chocolate stars. Just little star shaped drop candies, but they were wonderful. It was the only day out of the whole year that I got them, and in my mind, there was something magical about it. So it’s all tied up together for me: my dad and his rose, my mom, the tin bucket with the teddy bear on top filled to the top with magical white chocolate stars, and Valentine’s Day.

I tell you this excessively sweet story from my childhood, not to imply that you need to give your kids candy on Valentine’s Day. Obviously, there’s plenty of that to be found. But consider the precedent that MY parents set for me, by making a bold statement that this was a holiday for everyone to celebrate, and one with which to do something special for the people you love. How can you make Valentine’s Day special, not only for your spouse, but for your kids as well?

week 6 in pictures

sunday: superbowl time! dave ‘decorated’ the family room. sadly, the 49ers came up just short.

monday: shane, training his successor/apprentice in the details of taking out the trash.

wednesday: micah, at preschool. I’m pretty sure he’s not supposed to be up there. and why he is outside in february in short sleeves, I have no idea. I was freezing.

micah, eating “dog food”. he even dished it up for himself the way we give ginger her food. scooping with a plastic cup and then dumping it into the bowl. weird kid.

thursday: layla was SO excited to get a package! a little gift from her godparents.

thursday: dave’s new bike arrived! he rushed home from work and he and shane set to work assembling it ASAP. he was a little excited. yes, those are giants colors. it’s not an accident…

friday: a little collage of layla’s sick day. she had an odd medley of ailments. she’d had a sore throat the day before, and was starting to cough by bedtime. then, in the middle of the night, she decided it would be a good idea to have a little barf fest. needless to say, I had to look up the number for the attendance line at her new school.

and a couple of skinnies to stick in center slots: layla ready for the puppy bowl on animal planet (she had been looking forward to continuing this superbowl sunday tradition). and getting right to work on the cute journal that was in the package she got in the mail from uncle joe and aunt mary.

 

and then I made some 5x7 collages of the instagrams I took during the week.

book shots:

 

instafriday

linking up again

micah, in tiger mask, playing pacman on the wii… this is a totally normal occurrence.

shane told layla she shouldn’t go outside after dark because there were wolves and bears and coyotes out there… this was her response to him:

that was a delicious salad.

snowman craft that micah brought home from preschool. totally awesome. dave says it looks snobby! haha.

big bin of conversation hearts at top.

drowsy dog… I wanted to take a picture of her sleeping, but she noticed me and looked up.

the littles, trying out the big jacuzzi tub. yes, swimsuits and goggles were required… it was their swimming pool.

sickie, home from school today.

week 5 in pictures

so, this is not so much a snapshot of our week, as it is a snapshot of tuesday… with a glimpse of monday and saturday thrown in for good measure… no idea how this happened, but it did. I apparently was photo happy on tuesday, but not so much the rest of the week.

monday: layla’s first day at her new school. we arrived a little early to meet her teacher and find the classroom and look around a little. we found the library, and met the librarian, mr. c. he hooked us up right away and layla immediately got to check out 2 books. she was stoked.

tuesday: pajama day at preschool! micah was very excited that the day finally arrived. he’s been begging to stay in his jammies for weeks now!

more tuesday: after school, micah decided to play a game of battleship with carper.

also tuesday: layla was SO excited to get to ride the bus home from school for the first time. riding the bus is one of the things she’s missed most since we moved.

and another tuesday: ballet class. they are learning their routine for the recital already, and miss heather invited all the parents to come in and record them doing what they’ve done so far. major mom fail on my part, I forgot to switch to the video setting, so all we got was a picture of the starting position. oops. layla was not impressed.

and the final tuesday: during dinner, micah randomly pulled his shirt up over his head and looked just like cornholio from beavis and butthead, so ‘forced’ him to pose like that. don’t worry, we didn’t teach him to say ‘I need tp for my bunghole’ or anything like that… we just had a good laugh and he had no idea why.

and saturday: after making 2 batches of muffins, I sliced up 6 apples and a pack of strawberries to go into the dehydrator.

and a few instagrams I’ll stick in somewhere. 1. the pick up line at the junior high that was really long for a non-student day. 2. playing pictionary with carper. 3. just a tiger playing some pacman.