That Time of Year

I realized while grmbling to take the last christmas stuff down that I had to do it.  Why?  So I can crack out the Valentine's Day stuff!  Hallmark Holiday my ass. I collect heart shaped things so if you give me an excuse to decorate for it... I sure will. Starting right here..

Monday Mix

It's bright & sunny. It's a day off for the kiddies. It's supposed to snow again tonite. OMGosh could I have them home again tomorrow?? Day five in a row? Actually, we've been ok. Not too many smackdowns, fights or moments where I needed to completely lose my shit & yell like an idiot.

How was your Valentine's Day? Mine was interesting. DEE DEE DEE decided to grace me with his presence. If you remember back to Christmas before we officially split, my gift was 48 bucks in scratch off tickets. No seriously. Someone gave him the tickets, he scratched them & handed them to me. Merry Christmas Ruby O Woman That I Love More Than Anyone Else In My Life Ever! Only a slight exageration there. Anyhoo, He arrives on Valentine's Day with a gift bag. (I know right? A bag alone can cost 48 bucks these days!)Candy for the girls. 2 (no lie) quickly dying RED roses (you know how I feel about those) and a wrapped box. In the box, nothing romantic but something costly. The $90 running shoes that I'd never buy for myself ever. He spent real money? And why is Valentine's Day a worthy occassion? I was thankful but more than a little confused.

After that I spent most of the day shopping with my sister & the kids. Mostly window shopping but it was an hour a way which in itself was nice. There was a girl who stomped in front of me in a ladies room. Skin tight skinny jeans, bomber jacket, hipbones that could cut glass, blonde Paris Hiltonesque hair extensions & on her feet? FLIP FLOPS. In 30 degree weather with snow & ice all over the place. (Note to girl: Honey, even your Uggs' wearing besties are laughing at you. Buy some boots & eat a cracker, will ya?

Are you watching the Olympics? I used to love pairs skating, now not as much. I'm SO anxious for ice dance next week though :) Had to love this couple last night & by love I mean cringe at the site of...



Good day overall. Irish stew is in my crockpot, red velvet cake is in the oven, The Bachelor (Thoughts?? Who are you favoring??) & Olympics later...I also have a bunch of new pics to upload :)



WATCH THIS! Poreotics on ABDC. The season technically hasn't started yet but these guys are arguably the best.

Happy Heart Day

Girls Are Fickle- Even at 6

The big news coming out of first grade today was that JJ broke up with B (not my B but another B). B is my B's BFF- got that??? Has been since PreK. JJ is a boy that my B crushed on in PreK until she conceeded defeat to her BFF. My B decided marrying Jake in his backyard was acceptable & therefore BFF B got to keep JJ.

Following me?

Okay, so after two years of loving BFF B, JJ told her today AT the Valentine's Day party that he was, "Broking up" with her. To quote my B, "They broked up!". B tells me this whole story about how sad BFF B is (still following me?) and then stops as a smile starts to light up her whole face. "Wait, I really thought JJ was cute in preschool. Maybe he broked up with her cause he likes me better!"

I stopped dead. Then actually had THE talk, with my SIX year old about how you never, ever, ever, never date (or whatever it is at her age) your best friends'... whatever it is at age 6. We had a nice chat about friendship and loyalty. A talk that I never thought I'd be having with a six year old. To ease my mind my B informed me of every couple (sort of) existing in all three of the first grade classes.

Somehow it was just little comfort to know that this kind of conversation must be happening a lot.

The Great Cupcake Massacre

Yesterday we made 5 dozen cupcakes. 5 dozen. Valentine's Day Funfetti with white or pink frosting, heart candies, pink, red & purple sprinkles, matching M&M's, Hershey's Kisses. Each one was a wee little masterpiece. Em frosted & decorated each & every one for her class, herself. I helped B do hers & they were PERFECT. We also did 3 trays of chocolate covered pretzels. After everything was done I figured school would be cancelled. We got a call last night revising the entire schedule. They were supposed to be off at 11am today, now they went to school at 10 & are there all day. Two 11am dismissals will happen next week to make up for parent confrences that were cancelled in the snow. GREAT! No school tomorrow, none Monday & they are now out at 11 on Thursday & Friday. This makes the third consecutive week of pretend school.



Anyway, so the kids slept late this morning & we left early. We walk the two blocks because I'd end up needing to park at my house anyway with the morning drop off rush. So out we go. Emmy has two trays of cupcakes in a big bag with a nice handle. Perfect fit & I have her school bag over my shoulder. Em's mission, carry your cupcakes & stay upright. I have Br's cupcakes in one hand, am holding her hand in my other & off we go. One block down...two blocks...we got about 8 inches of snow but its all snow except for slushy intersections. No ice which is good. We get to the school yard & it's a slushy mess everywhere. I don't know what the deal is because last year it used to be much cleaner, plowed & salted. This year its always an early morning mess. I see 3 moms wipe out as we are heading for the gate.

"Don't fall Em, just don't fall!" She keeps saying she won't & I figure she's going down. I have a hold on everything but her.

As we're walking into the playground again (as I see someone else go) "Don't fall Emmy be careful."

Then I felt it- you know that slomo feeling you get as you know you are falling & nothing can save you?

Yeah, redhead down. Cupcakes fly out of my arms & go bouncing. Thank god I taped the containers shut.

B screams, "MOM! MY CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Me? I'm flipping over containers while laughing my head off. The cupcakes are all conjoined. Sprinkles, M&M's, kisses everywhere. Stuck to the wrappers. Stuck to the lid. Everywhere. I walk into the school to bring them to Tracey's room still laughing. Actually laughing & crying simultaneously. I show her them & she looks and goes, "OHMYGOD! Look at how much work went into them?!" I tried to reposition them. Pointless attempt if you ask me.



I came home, made more pretzels & returned with them before 11. I tell the office chick what happened & she says, "You fell?? I missed it???" Yes, she is a total bust ass. She carried the pretzels across the hall to Tracey's room, opens the door & says (no lie), "BRI! Look what mommy didn't drop!!" Loves the staff.

I leave the school still laughing, hit the corner & who is heading for me? That's right.

Crushdriver

I'll fill you in on that later on!

Jammie Day

Ok, maybe for once they aren't lying & this storm is NOT going to miss us or magically shift direction. I say that & feel it's safe to say it now that the snow has been falling for hours. Yes, I believe it now that I see it. They predict 25 hours of straight snow and from what I'm seeing, I think it could happen. School was canceled last night & I wonder if we'll have any tomorrow. We only have school til 11am & I'm supposed to be there as homeroom mom at 10 for the Valentine's Day party. So THAT is my biggest dilemma of today: Do I need to bake 50 cupcakes or not in time for tomorrow?! I'm armed with my Valentine's Day Funfetti cake, heart sprinkles & Valentine's Day M&M's to decorate- but do I NEED to??

I had two teacher confrences yesterday & they went wonderfully. First up was Em. I've mentioned her tough, drill sargeant teacher. Mrs. C is older & piles on the homework. I have talked to her at the door on various occassions & have come to really like her. I get it, she yells to get control of her class. She pushes them because they really do their best then. She loves the kids & Emmy has thrived with her. Emmy was ready to be pushed this year. She wanted it & in return she gets great marks. Straight B+'s because as her teacher claims, in the 2nd quarter, they don't deserve A's yet. They haven't mastered 2nd grade. So she gets mostly 100's & is reading at just under a 4th grade level. I asked what area to help her in & Mrs. C said, "Honestly, she works hard & she needs help with nothing. Just do whatever you are doing because she is amazing & a joy to have.".( We also discussed next year & how I'd like her to have Bri. B is a fab student now, much better than Em was last year so I think B would do great with her as well. She told me she'll check the school's policy about requesting & put a request in for B next year.) Music to my ears.

Then I went on to see Tracey, Bri's teacher. You know, the one whose class I constantly visit?? I love Tracey to pieces. She's a year younger than me & has 4 kids of her own, the oldest being 8. She is in the trenches with me & gets it. And she loves her class. OMG you walk in & just feel it. The kids loves her just as much. So I walk in & up on the projector/smartboard is a huge pic of B from the Pumpkin Patch. She had just slide down one of the slides built into the mountain, popped out the opening & Tracey got the absolute joy on her face. I looked at it & my heart melted. She told me she had to show it to me & will FB it over to me as well. We commiserated on how B is the sweetest thing ever. The first thing she said is, "She is always happy, like, EVERYDAY happy. I love her so much & I'm so glad I have time with her." I'm so glad that people see her as I do because I always say, B is a rainbow. I'm glad she is like that with everyone. Her confrence was a breeze. A string of tests, reviews, Vocab assessments, etc. that were 100's or 95's. No more than one wrong on anything. Her report card is a string of A's. We wrapped up with me coming in next week to do a solar system project. I get to introduce it to them because then it's their next science chapter. Have NO idea what I'll do but I get to spend time with them :)

It's 10am and I think Valentine pancakes are calling.

Spin Cycle: Valentine's Day

See that hat on B's head? Make the hearts pink & attatch it to her head since Saturday- that's what I've been looking at. Why? In honor of Valentine's Day! The kids don't have school today so she is currently playing with her Twilight dolls in her jammies, with the hat on.

I love Valentine's Day because I love anything heart related but I'm not a pushover. If you aren't good to me the rest of the year then you're not going to win me over with a batch of flowers your buddies are suggesting you buy because they are THE standard gift to give. Nope. You need to put some thought into it & you need to show me that you know & pay attention to ME. Not that it's all about material stuff. Not by any means.

In this house it's all about the little things. The hearts on every window, the conversation hearts in candy dishes, the homemade Valentine's for school. The 100 cupcakes I'll be making this week for three classes and home. I was putting their Valentine's away and looking at them, how much they personalized each one.

"BFF" with a heart around it

Stick figure drawings of B with her bestie.

Tons of extra hearts drawn in various colors.

I very faintly scribbled "I love you" to a little boy that at age 5 proposed marriage, then suggested a backyard wedding.

Those are the sweet things that matter here.

Read more spins at Sprites Keeper.

I Heart Target

Because they cracked out a PLETHORA of Valentine's Day stuff, including knee sox


Happy Happy.

What else is happening? Oh yes, since several of you guys asked, I didn't have to clock Maya for the cat throwing incident because after B finished bleeding all over the sleeves of her fav High School Musical shirt she totally "brained" her.

Again. Who throws a cat???

Speaking of cats, no kittens yet but poor momma cat is miserable & in obvious pain today. She chose to sleep on the bathroom floor during three kids baths & my shower this morning. It was a water park & the CAT stayed in the room. Any hour now I'd say.

I had stuff to write about & as usual now that I'm here I totally forget most of it. I nixxed the kids V-Day party because it's going to creep up on me way to fast & there's a lot of other stuff coming mid-late January. Two birthday parties & Princesses On Ice all fall within a three day time frame for starters! So I'm thinking a sleepover of some sort, something small for Heart Day.

You all know I LURVE winter right? But i have to admit that I'm secretly wanting it to warm up. I want flip flop weather ok and since Mother Nature is indeed still a junkie we are like, thisclose to contemplating flip flops if this is at all accurate: