Love Is In The Air (Snow Too)

Valentine's Day. People either love it, or hate it. It's always seems to be a controversial holiday. 

But let's take a little stroll down memory lane. Remember how much fun Valentine's Day was as a kid? You got to decorate a shoe box with glitter and puff paint and the night before your classroom party you would sit and analyze what Valentine you were going to give each classmate. I got to re-live some of those fond memories this year with Harper. Although she's still too young to care what message is on each card, we did get to prepare Valentine's for her fellow preschoolers. 

I quickly realized having a 4-year old sit and write their name over and over isn't exactly their idea of fun. The first night we started filling out Valentine's we quit after five cards. Of those five, only two were actually legible. After hearing, "can I be done now?" for the 100th time I realized it was a lost cause and let her go. I took the advice of the Karing Kingdom teachers and spread it out over the course of 5 days. As the days went on, Harper's patience grew longer and her writing became more legible. I did sympathize with my little left hander as I watched her concentrate on each letter only to have a smeared end product (that must be so frustrating for you lefties!). Speared or not, with one day to spare she completed all 20 Shopkins Valentine's for her classmates.   

Today was her Valentine's Day party at school and she came home with a bag full of goodies. She couldn't wait to rip open the cards (or the candy). We rifled through Valentine's reading the message and trying to decipher who they were from (secretly I was happy to see other kids disliked writing their name as much as Harper did). All night she went on and on about how much fun she had at her classroom party. Watching the eyes of a 4-year old light up while sharing the joys of their day could be the greatest thing ever. 

Preschool wasn't the only place we celebrated Valentine's Day. At dance this week they had their own little celebration which resulted in more goody bags and more candy - just what we need. We watched as each of our little dancers pranced around the studio with heart wands in hand. They were the cutest little ballerinas.  

The sick bug has hit our house again. I swear this year has been the worst. As soon as I think we're all healthy, someone wakes up with a boogie nose and sore throat. It's a vicious cycle that just keeps repeating. 

Emmett seemed to have a little more than a cold a couple weeks ago. There was a day he couldn't keep anything down, so I worked from home and spent a lot of the day snuggling that sweet boy. Watching your kiddos feel lousy is just awful. Luckily it seemed to be a 24 hour deal, but since then the coughs and snotty noses have lingered. Through all the sickness, he still manages to make us laugh and keep that lovely smile on his face. 

His vocabulary is constantly expanding. I'm convinced one day he's just going to yell out a full sentence. He adores Harper, but is also learning how to push her buttons. For example, Harper is very particular about her Shopkins. She likes to organize them and sort them into piles. Emmett will walk up to a pile, look at Harper, then run his hands through the pile as fast as he can to mess them up. As soon as he gets a reaction from her, he takes off running knowing he did something to upset her. It's moments like this that I fear for the teenage years.  

The love themed continued last weekend, when a group of us girls headed to Grandview Lodge to celebrate Paige's bachelorette party. I've know Paige since our days at Osseo Senior and we were even roomies freshman year at St. Cloud State (Holes Hall, whoop whoop!). It's certainly a treasured friendship so it was fun being able to celebrate her last few weeks as a single lady. 

It was a weekend full of fun. We did a lot of lounging, played some bingo, went bowling, recounted our old glory days, went out on the town and drank entirely too much. It was the perfect weekend getaway celebrating the beautiful bride-to-be but I did miss the kiddos and Mitch while I was away! 

Now in just 5 short days we'll be on our way to Costa Rica to watch Paige and Noah get married and continue the celebration! Eek! :)

Last week we had our first significant snow fall of the year. Mitch and I both left work early, hoping our commutes home would be less than 2 hours. Our little snow lover, Harper couldn't wait to get home and get outside. We bundled up in our snowpants, jackets, hats and gloves and wandered outside. 

The snow wasn't right for making a snowman, so we settled on snow angels. Every time I looked at Harper she had a fresh handful of snow in her mouth. She couldn't help herself. Although our "hill" is small in the backyard, I was determined to create a good path for our saucers. Mitch told me it would never work, which made me want to do it even more! :) I sat on the saucer and established a path all the way down to our snow covered patio. I had Harper sit cross legged in the saucer and I pushed her down the "hill." Voila, success! We stayed outside until it got dark, sledding in the backyard and playing on the snowy swing set. It was a wonderful way to spend a snow day! 

Hope everyone have a lovely Valentine's Day! Spread the love!

Until next time…
The Helleen's