Valentine's Day 2013

I was just about to make a quick, lunch-break trip to Hobby Lobby a couple weeks before Valentine's Day to see if I could find one of those paper mache mailboxes for Will to decorate for his class party... when Craig insisted that he was going to make one at home instead.  Will is still completely enamored with Transformers and Craig wanted to make him an Optimus Prime letter box. 

Seriously, the amount of effort and detail I watched Craig put into this thing was ridiculous...ly adorable.  :)  Craig said he always had a cool homemade box when he was a kid and he wanted the same for Will.

Will's job was to color in the cab and hood, which were covered in paper with flame outlines sketched in.

Will LOVED this!

You can see the open flap at the back of the truck bed.  That's where the Valentine's went in and, when lifted up, it had Will's name displayed on the underside.  Then the flap was able to tuck inside at the end of the party.

Will also spent some time the weekend before V-Day filling out some requested, store-bought, Transformer Valentine's to pass out to his friends.  Of course.

 

Thankfully, Sophie's preschool class made all their own Valenine's "pouches" in class so she didn't need a box.  But we did make her Valentine's at home from an idea on Pinterest.  I printed a fish bowl template just large enough to fit into a resealable sandwich bag and then traced one for each child in her class onto cardstock.  I cut them out and wrote in the wording on one of my lunch breaks at work and then Craig spent an evening that I was taking Will to karate to work with Sophie on tracing her name on each of them.  She's still not completely legible with writing her name yet, but it's getting better.

On another evening, she and Will worked together to put the fish bowls into the bags and spoon a few spoonfuls of fish crackers in each.

They read:

"Valenine, I'm glad we're in the same school!  Love, Sophie"

Valentine's Day 2013 - and party day for both kids at school today!

No great shots of both of them together this morning, but oh well.

This evening, Nana came by to bring them each a Valentine surprise (an OSU t-shirt for Will and a Comets t-shirt for Soph + some treats for each) and then she let them climb in her lap and sort through all their cards from their school friends.  They were in heaven.  And I was grateful for some free moments to finish up dinner preparations.  Thank you, Nana!

Happy Valentine's Day!

InstaFriday

Out our window on Saturday morning...

Love the snow!

Trying to catch some flakes on our tongues outside the library. 

Woot! Woot! I got a front row seat to this sweet puppet show this morning!

Super psyched about our collection of books this week!  LOTS of good ones! 

Recently, we've borrowed some yoga kids DVDs from the library and our children are turning into little yogis!  I'm impressed with their interest and it's kind of making me more interested!  I always appreciate new ideas on some indoor physical activity for them and they're loving this!  Pretty impressive triangle poses for both of them here, too.

Saturday night.  Birthday dinner and game night at mom and dad's. 

Being sung to.  My candles are tucked into a giant plate of molasses cookies.  :)  One of my favorite treats that my mom makes for me.  Soooo good!

Entertaining Miss Mya with my phone camera during one of the adult game times. 

Love her! 

Cousins and sibs! 

Essie Sew Psyched. 

Ham 'n Swiss bread pudding with peas and applesauce for dinner.

Trying out a "jelly sandwich"!  :)  One coat of OPI I Found a Pot of Gold sandwiched between two coats of Zoya's Paloma, which has a jelly (read: translucent color) finish.  I'm learnin' the lingo, people!  And I'm digging this combo.  A lot!

Mommy and me at the Sanctus Real concert. 

Daddy O's here too.  And Case & Wes.  A fun night out! 

SANCTUS! 

What's For Dinner? February Week 1

Last Saturday was Wesley's and my birthday dinner at mom and dad's.  Always a treat to have dinner made for you!  It was also so nice to have my cousins there to play games later too.

This week for dinner, I let Will pick the menu with only one exception that I planned.  I always make up my grocery list the week before and sometimes I draw a blank on what I want to make.  What have we had recently?  What sounds good to us?  Don't forget to take our upcoming schedule into account.  Make sure there's a variety.    Yada.  Yada.  Yada.  It helps to look back at our recent weeks grocery lists in the notebook 'cause I always write down what I'm planning to make.  But one occasional planning tool I use is to bring our grocery notebook to the dinner table and we all brain storm what we want for dinner.  If I get multiple, similar ideas, I can write some on the following weeks' lists.  But I usually take everyone's advice into account.

So Will's votes for this week were:
1) hot dogs (shocker) - we get the natural casing ones from House of Meats and always serve with some raw fruits and veggies and occasionally some chips or pretzels
2) breakfast for dinner
3) chicken noodle soup with grilled cheese

I also added:
4) ham and swiss bread pudding

The bread pudding is made with Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls, cubed and toasted.  And obviously diced ham, shredded Swiss cheese and green onion.  Delish.

Side note:  so The Anderson's by us closed and we are devastated!  Our new go to for meat shopping is the House of Meats on Starr now.  An easy stop on my way home from work coming from 280 on a night when Craig can pick up the kids.  And then just a couple of turns/blocks away from the library to pick up and return whatever we need that week.  I'm slowly adjusting and it's really not so bad.  I just don't have the fresh produce option that I would sometimes lean on if Meijer's produce didn't look so great some weeks.  Most of the time that's not an issue.

InstaFriday

Home sweet home!  And out for some sledding!  :)

Poor Sophie.  As soon as her little face feels any sort of outdoor temperature less than 50 degrees, her eyes start to water and her nose starts to run.  I think she was meant for warmer climates.  ;)

I made snickernoodle blondies for a dinner party on Saturday night (in the 13x9 pan) and then pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies on Sunday afternoon.  So we have a plethora of treats of the doodle variety.

Afternoon snack with my non-napping boy on Sunday.

Loving Zoya Kristen!  It's a lot more pale gray blue than this picture appears.  But I need someone to teach me how to clean up my cuticles!

6:20 a.m. - wrapping up my favorite toning workout before my shower for work.

Crock pot pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast.  Love the ease and warmth of this deliciousness.

Our Kindergarten Star of the Week!

Five minute flashlight party (a.k.a. "sleepover") before tucking into separate beds.  This is becoming a routine.  ;)

Snowflakes, hearts and birthday cards decorate our buffet in the dining room this time of year.  Gives me the warm fuzzies.

Zoya Natty.  Dark blue, almost navy.

Reading aloud to mama.

Lunch at my desk:  butternut squash soup, garlic bread (leftover from lasagna night), apples and pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies.

Waiting for a table for dinner at El Camino.  Yum!

What's For Dinner? January Week 5

The week following our ski trip required a weekend grocery shopping trip as opposed to our normal Thursday night.  So I pulled a lasagna from our deep freeze stash for an easy weekend meal.  Then when Craig returned from shopping, I got to work making butternut squash soup for my packed lunches for work that week.  One of my all time FAVES.

Also on the menu this week:
1) burgers on the grill  (ya, I know... it's January)
2) vegetable enchiladas  (from Pinterest) - loved!!

A little leftovers followed and then we did our (nearly-weekly-now) regular order from Vito's pizza one night too.  Just keepin' it real.

The end.
{shortest post EVER!}