Valentine's Day - 2023

In the week leading up to the Holiday of Love, the boys worked on their classroom valentines.  I'm down to only two kids doing this now (I DO miss when all four of them would sit at the table and write out their classmates' names and put them together!).  

We have now upgraded to using sharpie markers -- something that I never would have allowed at the dining room table when the kids were younger:

Jimmy took his time with each one:

This year, we opted to give out Rock Candy Sticks with a tag that said, "Valentine, You Rock."

Jack was long-since done with his and Jimmy continued to work ...

Pretty soon, I invited the girls to help finish up with the ribbons while the boys moved on to other things.  I think that they miss doing classroom valentines too.

All ready to go (I later put them all in gift bags with a handle to transport to school), including some soft, fuzzy socks for their teachers.

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On Valentine's Day morning, the kids woke up to a simply-decorated table in the dining room and cinnamon rolls in the oven.

I put a special note next to each of their plates with one thing that I loved about each of them.  And -- Jack had gone to the Dollar Store earlier in the week and bought a piece of candy for everyone (with his own money!) and put them next to their spots at the table.

Samantha had to leave early for Jazz Band, but she took her items with her, including the big box of Andes Mints that Jack had wrapped a ribbon around.

He was even thoughtful enough to buy me my favorite candy and have it sitting out.  I absolutely love his big heart.

Later that afternoon, Jimmy dumped out his bag of loot from school and showed me each and every valentine, sorting out the candy from the cards ...

Samantha's Winter Dance - SnowCo

On the same day as Jimmy's 7th birthday ... and his party with friends ... and his basketball practice/game ... Samantha attended her high school Winter Dance referred to as "SnowCo."  It is similar to the Homecoming Dance in the Fall, where the students dress up, usually go to dinner, it is open to all classes and many of them go in groups.  

Samantha's group decided to meet at our house for pictures -- which I loved because I didn't have to travel anywhere on such a busy day -- but it meant that there a few teenagers (and their moms) showing up at our house literally in the middle of hosting Jimmy's party with his friends.  

She chose her dress and shoes online and then I made some modifications to it (not as many as I did to her Homecoming dress!) to make sure that it fit her decently.  It was a very reasonable price and she was thrilled with the whole look.

Those legs, though!

I helped Sam with her hair this time and I think that it turned out just beautiful.

And of course, this girl of ours is never lacking in personality!

The group of 5 ... ready to head out to dinner at Olive Garden and then to the dance.

I am so grateful to one of the moms that graciously took this picture for me.  Just as the group was getting into position to pose for (the 1,092) pictures to be taken, one of the guests at Jimmy's party came up to me with tears streaming down his face and his finger gushing blood all over the place.  It turns out that Jimmy had encouraged the boy to stick his finger in a small pencil sharpen and then TURNED IT!  My boy -- the guest of honor at his party -- certainly made a poor choice.  Luckily, the little boy's finger was not cut too severely and I was able to get it bandaged up without too much extra drama.  Obviously I made Jimmy apologize and the boys went off to play, like nothing had happened!

James Turns 7! (Part 2)

As I mentioned, Jimmy's birthday was a BUSY day but we (somehow) managed to fit everything in.  With his birthday breakfast and family presents taken care of, James changed for basketball and Steve took him to his practice and game.  (At this age, the events are less competitive and it is basically 1.5 hours of lightly-organized chaos with two teams running back and forth on the court attempting baskets while the Varsity Boys Basketball players volunteer each week to be refs.  They are learning how to handle the ball, possibly run a few "drills" and begin working as a team).

Meanwhile, I stayed at home that day to prep for his birthday party with friends.  Jimmy settled on a basketball theme (how appropriate because a lot of our days lately center around practice and games for 3 out of the 4 kids) and invited a handful of friends to celebrate with him.

I chuckled because after he changed from basketball practice, he came upstairs wearing a football sweatshirt for his basketball birthday party.  The boy loves his sports ...

I made his basketball cake and his whole face lit up when he came back home and saw it ... I even added a sparkler candle for him!

Rather than set up in the family room (like I tend to do for most parties at our house), I used the dining room.  It was risky because it would mean a bunch of 7-year-old boys potentially spilling on the carpeting with their pizza, drinks, cake and ice cream, but miraculously, no one had an accident!

The party bag on the left was used to collect candy from the pinata later and those are gumballs shaped to look like basketballs.  Spoiler alert: they looked cool, but the kids later told me that the gumballs weren't that great.

I planned to play some basketball bingo with the kids but they were having so much fun running around that they chose to forego it.  

Celebrating in style:

A basketball pinata (Jimmy's request) set up in the heated garage:

And lots of loot!

Happy 7th Birthday to the boy that completed our family!

James turns 7! (Part 1)

Jimmy's 7th birthday fell on a Saturday this year so we started the celebration the day before by taking in cosmic brownies to his classroom to share with his fellow first-graders.  

The next morning, I woke everyone up so that we could sing 'Happy Birthday" and enjoy our traditional cinnamon rolls together before the day got even busier.  Items on the agenda that day included basketball practice and a game for James, the "SnowCo" Winter High School Dance for Samantha and her friends (with pictures at our house!) and Jimmy's birthday party with friends later in the day.

With so many things on our checklist that day, Jimmy got to open his gifts from us right after breakfast.

He even donned his special birthday hat from school for the event.

Jack picked out a bow and arrow set for him and I am not sure which one of them was more excited about it.

James asked for a special squishmallow (both he and Sophia share a love of them) so Sophia made sure that that particular gift came from her.

And it was fitting that Sam gave her little brother a new Nike bag to be used for basketball now that Jimmy was playing this year.