Valentine's Day

We found this fun idea for classroom valentines in Family Fun magazine...iPods made from Sweetheart boxes!  AWESOME!  The kids were so excited to make them and take them to school.  Ben even came up to me while we were making them and hugged me so tight, "I love you Mom!" he said.  That made it worth it...We didn't start working on these until 8:30 the night before, and Ben and Hannah helped wrap and glue the papers on, but I was up until 12:30 finishing the little ear bud/string thingies! Dang it!  It was one of those things where I thought, "Well, I just have to finish it since we started it."  The next day I was helping with the party in Hannah's class, and my friend Shandra was there too.  "What's this about iPods?" she asked.  Apparently, the Hannah had been hyping it up at school all week, telling all her friends, "I'm giving you an iPod for Valentine's!"  Ha ha!

On Friday afternoon, Clayton walked through the front door with a big vase of red roses :)

Yesterday morning was cozy with heart waffles, strawberries and cream, bacon and orange juice, and big fluffy snowflakes twirling down outside.  Breakfast was getting cold and Clayton still hadn't come up from working downstairs, so I went down there and said, "Are you in this family?" (a quote from Matilda, a family favorite).  

After breakfast, Clayton took Hannah to get her ears pierced with Mary and Spencer, but she was too scared and got some magnetic earrings instead.  So did Nina.  Then the girls all played at Spence and Em's house while Clay and Spencer took Ben to the shooting range (what a sweet little Valentine's activity, huh?).  

Last night our good friends Chris and Natalie offered to watch the kids so we could go out on a date.  They are so nice to us!  We grabbed some yummy dinner at Pei Wei since everywhere else had a 2 hour wait.  Olivia was fussy, but the food was good!  We window shopped at the Gateway...mainly at Anthropologie, my favorite! And I love how it smells in there.  Then to a movie (Coraline---very weird...don't waste your time or take your kids).  After that,  I thought we were heading home, but we ended up at the Marriott downtown.  "We're staying here tonight!" Clayton said.  I didn't believe him! But he wasn't kidding.  We stayed up until 1:30 watching "Sleepless in Seattle" on TV.  Olivia slept on the other bed in the room.  She looked so tiny with that big bed all to herself!

 Yeah, so Chris and Natalie had the kids overnight and even got them dressed and ready for church this morning!  They are the best, and they are due for a weekend away so they better let us babysit soon!  It was so nice just to be able to spend some time together, Clayton's been so busy lately we barely have time to talk during the week.