Valentine's Day 2024

This was Jack's last year doing valentines for his friends at school, as he will be moving up to the Middle School in the Fall.  It's the ending of an era and a sad one for me.  We have always 'stepped up our game' with the valentines and passed out something other than a small piece of candy and I have loved watching the kids work on them at the dining room table.  Jimmy will still continue doing valentines for another 3 years and I plan to savor those moments while I can.

This year, I printed out stickers to put on nice-sized bags of Sour Patch Kids that read, "Valentine, you make life less sour."  

These are one of the boys' favorite kinds of candy, so it was fitting to choose those to hand out to their classmates.

When the kids came home from school later that day, I made sure to have the table all set up for each of them.  Aunt Chris sent along special bags for each of them to celebrate the holiday and I made one of everyone's FAVORITE desserts: brookies.  

Those are a combination of a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie and are completely irresistible.  

Jimmy's 8th Birthday

On Jimmy's "real" birthday, he woke up to bunch of gifts all wrapped with dinosaur wrapping to complement his chosen birthday theme.  We had a basketball game to attend for Jack later in the morning so we made sure to start the day off early celebrating this 8-year-old.  

Of course, we had our traditional cinnamon rolls with a candle in them for breakfast and everyone sang 'happy birthday.'

Jimmy took turns opening gifts from all of us and one of his most favorite items was a gel blaster gun from his brother.

Later that evening, I surprised everyone with ice cream sundaes in waffle bowls ... and ALL the toppings!

Jimmy loaded up on chocolate syrup and gummy worms ...

And then I stuck a candle in the top and we sang 'happy birthday' again.  Such a great day celebrating the youngest member of our family!

Winter Dances

The girls each went to their respective Winter Dances this year with friends.  

Sophia's dance was at the Middle School and as a 7th grader, this was her first dance to be able to attend.  She chose her dress online and then I made a few modifications to it to make sure that it met her expectations.  Of course, it is the trend to wear comfortable shoes -- especially Converse -- with your fancy dress now.

A quick pic of Sophia and her dad before she left for the dance:

She has now officially surpassed me in height, even when she isn't wearing her platform Converse shoes, and I can't believe how grown up she looks.  She will be turning 13 in just a few weeks.

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Samantha also chose her dress online and then asked me to make a few modifications, as well.  I'm glad that she chose to go with a long-sleeve for the winter season and I think that the navy color was so stunning on her.  

Sam loves our cat so much and wanted to be sure that I captured a picture of them together.  I don't think that Mia was quite as thrilled for the photo shoot.

I say this every time -- her legs are SO long.  This is one of the reasons why she is so great at hurdles on the Track Team. 

I helped her with her hair and I think that it turned out pretty cute.  

I can't believe that her sophomore year is almost over already.  Time is really flying by!