Valentine's Day 2013

My Valentine's Day was spent in much the same way I spent my last wedding anniversary: being excruciatingly involved with the poop of three of my children.  (I won't tell you which three children it was, but I will tell you it was not Spencer.)

I won't go into details, but seriously.  Poop.

Having spent my day and evening in this way - twice, and each time on a day dedicated to romance - I can only assume one thing: my children hate love. 

Okay, that's probably not true.  My kids love Valentine's Day and all the things that come along with the holiday.  (But mostly the candy.) So what I should more accurately assume is this: my children hate me.

If you love someone you give them chocolates or flowers.  If  you hate someone you make them deal with your poop.  That's just common sense.

But enough of poop.  On to Valentine's Day!

For whatever reason, the Kindergarten classes at our school always have a fairy tale character dress up day on Valentine's Day.  Josh chose to be a gnome.

Yes, he kinda looks like Santa.  I think it's the red shirt.  But he refused to change it, so there you go.

Yesterday morning Josh was getting quite upset because I couldn't tell him a single fairy tale that had a gnome in it.  Do you know any?  I mean, a gnome is a pretty fairy tale-ish character, but I couldn't think or find a single one.  I could tell that we were reaching a crisis point - if I didn't think of something fast, Josh would probably refuse to wear the costume and I would be forced to come up with another costume in the last 20 minutes we had before school.

I must be living right because suddenly "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" came to mind.  I told him the story and he decided he wanted to be a dwarf instead.  Fortunately, the same costume worked!  Morning (and sanity) saved!

We had our traditional heart-shaped pink pancakes for breakfast.  This is the only picture I have of them - Spencer's has a small one in his hand.  I'm so awesome at remembering to take pictures, right?

I was so happy when I discovered that Tess still fit into this onesie!  Three of my four kids have now worn it, which makes me unreasonably satisfied with life.

You know what else makes me unreasonably satisfied?  That Tess would actually let me put piggy tails in her hair.

It wasn't all smiles that morning.

Where's my candy!?!??!??!

Cole has a matching shirt.  Dang, my kids are cute.

Cole didn't really understand the whole idea of Valentine's Day, but he knew his brothers were excited and that was good enough for him!

Josh brought this home from school.  This is funny for three reasons: 1) "Malkling" and
Frens". I know I shouldn't make fun of Kindergarten spelling, but that's pretty awesome.  2) If you know Josh at all, he does the opposite of putting his heart into making friends.  The boy is a true introvert and would rather do anything than deal with making friends.  Oh, once he's comfortable with the person he's fine, but in the beginning?  Not so much.

That evening we gave the kids their usual little gifts - a box of chocolates and books.  Tess was quite pleased at getting her own chocolates and quickly gobbled down - and then spit out - each of her chocolates.  Ever the lady, Tess.

Cole also got in on that action, only he didn't spit out the chocolates after he was done chewing.  Thank you, Cole.

I think I did a pretty good job of picking out books this year.

Tess got this book:

Omigosh.  She LOVES this book.  And so do Cole and Josh, for that matter.  I have had to read it at least 10 times this morning.  This is good and bad, for obvious reasons.

Cole is a bit obsessed with school buses right now, so this was an obvious choice.

He also loves the original "Monster at the End of This Book", so of course I had to get the sequel.  (Not quite as charming, in my opinion, but it gets the job done.)

For Josh I chose a beloved book from my childhood.

It's actually out of print now, so it was kinda hard to find.  But I did and it was totally worth it because he giggled like a proper Kindergarten boy should at the Stupid Family the whole time I read it.

Josh also got one of my other favorites.  (Can you tell I like James Marshall?)

Spencer go this classic.

 

It's a pretty easy book for him, but, like I said, a classic.  I'm pretty sure he'll love it once he gets around to reading it.  (He's reading The Lightening Thief right now.)

I also got him his first Guinness Book, which I'm pretty sure is a rite of passage for boys his age.  He wasn't that impressed until he started reading it - and then he wouldn't put it down or stop telling me different records.  Fun times.

Lance surprised me with a little scavenger hunt for my gifts.  He went a little above and beyond this year and bought me some Burpee tomato cages I had been coveting.  (Nothin' says love to a gardener like really good tomato cages!)  He also got me a bag and some earrings that I had been wanting for a while.  (Woo-hoo for Amazon's wish list! :)  I loved them.  And I love him.  And it totally made up for all the poop I had to deal with that day.  (Well, mostly.)