More Valentine Action

Our February has been cursed with flu, strep, impetigo, more flu, mysterios fevers, bad attitude, and whining. It has sucked since February 4th when I first took Tucker to the doctor's office for two ear infections. And somewhere in the middle of the chaos, Cameron decided she wanted to have some of her friends over for a little Valentine swap. What started as a small affair, of course, because ten friends and a full blown party. I was sicker than a dog the day of this party as was Tucker, who was quarrantined in the back bedroom with 104 degree temp. And Cameron, who was good when the party started, was sicker than everybody by the time it was over. So, for those of us who were infected, I apologize, but I hope you all had a great time!


We started by having each girl bring 10 Valentines and when they got there, they were asked to put one in each bag. Some of the girls went all out and made some awesome cards.

Then, we had a small snack at our red and pink love table. I cut heart shaped peanut butter and jelly or ham and cheese sandwiches along with pink punch and red jello cups.



The kiddos were so cute all decked out in their pink and red and all smiles....except for Cameron who was getting paler and paler by the minute and more and more tired.


The table before the girls arrived.

A close up of each girl's spot. The great thing about procrastinating and planning a party the day before it happens is that all left over decorations are usually marked down to dirt cheap. I decorated and went all out and only spent a few dollars to do so.

And, aside from the flu, I think everybody had a great time. Cameron proceeded to sleep all that evening and all the next day while she ran the nastiest fever I have ever seen a kid run. She missed school the following week, made it back for one day, and then was home for President's day, when we had to take her to the doctor for a bad case of Impetigo, which apparantly is a version of strep that gets underneath the skin. So now she looks like she has something really nasty and we are on day #20 of being sick in the Brown house. I am ready to climb the walls and want to run away. Sick kiddos suck.

Your Little Sweeties Card

The first week of February, I decided on a list of activities and projects that we would complete here in our house to lead up to the very special 14th. The list included handmade valentines for Camerons class, teacher gifts for both kids, valentines for Cameron's dance class and teacher, a full blown kindergarten valentine party with me as room mom, a home valentine party for Cameron and some of her friends, something handmade for the grandparents and something for Matt.

Well guess what came rolling through out house on the 4th? Two raging ear infections followed closely behind with a 10 day flu for both kids and we are still trying to recover. I'm talking hot fevers, whiny kids, and coughing until you vomit. Needless to say, Valentine's Day didn't go quite how we expected. I did throw a party at school, except my daughter and I both missed it. But I did complete 26 jello sundaes and this card just in time to drop them off and head back to the sick house.



But, I had asked the teacher for an extra set of class photos so I knew she was expecting something, and so I did work on this in between dosing kids on tylenol and cough medicine.

And so used the small baking cups and made sweets out of each kiddo. I glued them onto a chipboard heart that had been layered with a red doilie and lined with buttons to tie it all together. The teacher loved it and it was easy to make!

Valentine Love Jars

I never claimed to be a photographer. My camera was somehow turned to black and white mode and I didn't catch it on this shot of my red, pink, and white jelly beans and Valentine display that was all color coordinated. The one time everything matched, and that's the time the camera decided to try something new.

I have a linen closet at the end of my hallway that is packed to the point that you duck when you open the door and it is full of fall and Christmas. My Valentine's Day decor consisted of about half of a box combined with Easter. This year, I was able to find some awesome subway art, and some blog inspiration and I decorated the top shelf of my baker's rack with pink, red, and white.


On a different day, however, I decided to photograph my newest project. My Valentine Love Jars. I found these containers at the local Dollar Store and added some ribbon and hand made name tags to make them extra cute. Beside the jars I placed a basket of pre cut hearts. Through the course of February, the kids were able to choose a heart and write a note to someone in the family. By the end of the two weeks we had a whole collection of notes to read. I originally planned on writing notes every day of February, but, time got away from me and I think I actually only wrote about four notes for each person. I think the kiddos enjoyed it, especially Cameron who is learning to read and write. Tucker mostly just drew pictures and lost interest, the combination of being three and being a boy doesn't go real well with Valentine Love Jars. But you take what you can get, and hope that if I do enough cheesy love stuff with them, then someday they won't be afraid to show their wives how much they mean to them.

Oh, and if you notice my tags are made out of paint samples from Lowe's. Had time to kill while Matt was "Tooling" around the tool department, and noticed that lots of the shades of pinks and reds were titled things like "First Kiss", and "Cupid's Pink". I had a whole handful of them shoved down in the crack of Brody's carseat. They make great Valentine cards!

Friday check in

Someday Tucker is going to hate this, but for now, one of their favorite games is zookeeper. I'm always a little hesitant to watch it go on, but they both seem to enjoy their roles. Tucker is always the submissive caged animal and Cameron is the zookeeper. Notice the two princess wands stuck in the side of the cage? Yup, those are here weapons of choice. And she does use them if Tucker tries to escape. All I can say is Tucker is going to make a wonderful husband someday. He will be so used to having a woman boss him around, it shouldn't be a problem to have a wife that acts the same way.

And Cameron....well Cameron I'm a little concerned with. God forbid she meets a boy someday, (and you know she will) that wasn't raised with an overbearing big sister. But, I'm sure she'll do just fine...after she uses her Princess wand on him.

I don't know about all the other mom's out there....but since they were little babies, I have always thought about those future husband and wives. In fact, I pray for them daily. It is such a huge decision to make and I hope to instill in my kids some basic values that I hope somebody out there is instilling in their own children right now. Sometimes it seems almost impossible to be able to find someone "good enough" for yourself, but then think about your children. I know it's a long ways off, but someday I'll be able to tell that daughter in law or son in law, "I've been praying for you since you were just a little kid". Creepy mother-in-law? Absolutely! Can't wait! And can you imagine being Tucker's wife and having me hand off god knows how many huge scrapbooks of Tucker for her to keep and cherish? She'd better appreciate them!

So anyways, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, just thought I'd chat randomness about my thoughts on love for my kids and also how lucky I am that I found Matt. This just convinces me even more that you can look and look and look and think you know exactly what you want and then BAM you realize you've met the perfect one for you and he's not at all what you had in mind. He's even better. I even went to school with Matt during high school and I would have never looked twice at him. And I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have looked twice at me. It's just funny how life works out. But when I saw him sitting in the corner of that bar, wearing his Carhartt sweatshirt, wranglers and drinking from a longneck, I pretty much knew I was screwed. I had spent three and a half years in Montana at college, dating and dating and dating and expecting to find a husband (yes, I was one of those girls) as part of the whole Bachelor's Degree package....you know, the MRS. Degree that usually goes hand in hand? And all that time, he was back home in Emmett working in the woods and actually making something of himself while all of the boys I was dealing with were simply trying to figure out how to make Daddy's allowance stretch out to buy another six pack of cheap beer. I was EXHAUSTED!
So when Matt started driving the eight hour stretch, in the snow, after working massive amounts of hours all week, just to see me for a few days, I knew I had found a keeper.

One time he drove from Emmett to Helena (for Valentine's Day) brought a sweater (which is so not him) because I told him we were going somewhere nice for dinner. Took me to Salvatore's, (the local Italian place) where they were running a $39.95 per couple special....or so I thought. It was actually $39.95 a PIECE and that didn't include drinks. $100+ later....I was apologizing all over myself because I didn't want him to think I was a snooty bitch that expected that kind of thing but he still just paid and only gave me minimal crap about it.

We then left Helena, drove back to Emmett, and left the next day for Eugene for my first of many Logger's Conferences. And then back to Emmett, and back to Helena. That's a lot of driving! I think I knew after that that I was in it for the long haul....and that was seven years ago. My how time flies! I love ya, Matt!

I'm off to take Cameron and her friend Mary to a Valentine's Day Party with some of their little friends. Tucker is sick with ear infections, so I think we'll be hanging out on the couch for the afternoon. Hoping he feels better tomorrow because we have tickets to see Valentine's Day tomorrow night. My sister, Marianne, is babysitting. I'm hoping to hit the Olive Garden too. The one good thing about being pregnant. I can finally enjoy all you can eat breadsticks without the guilt that happens after two and the shame that happens after four. You know what I'm talking about?