Valentine's Day Box

This was the first year Lucy got to make a Valentine's box to use with trading Valentine's at school. Last year she had a Valentine's Day party with Valentine cards, but they just make a sack or something to use for the box at school. I was very excited to learn that we got to make our own box for this year!

Lucy and I looked on Pinterest for ideas and inspirations and we settled on making a bird house box. I think it turned out so cute and it was really easy to make, too. I used two boxes and after a little cutting and taping, had the house ready to decorate. We used some very pretty pink heart wrapping paper we found at Target and some brown scrapbook paper I had on hand to cover the box and make it look pretty. I also hot-glued on some fringe-like ribbon to go around the border. I wanted to cut out some cute little birds to stick on the house and put her name on it in a really cute font, too. We didn't share the same ideas in decorating her house, so I let her have fun with decorating it. She used some heart stickers to decorate the box, along with a little piece of ribbon and a bell so the bird would have something to play with. :)

It was kind of hard for me to let her decorate it as she wanted because I had a grander vision for it. But I am very glad that I let her take over because after all, it was her box to decorate and she did a good job with it!

Valentines Day #10

Valentine's Day 2018 was the tenth Valentine's Day that Ross and I have shared together! It's funny how time sneaks by so slowly, yet so quickly. We celebrated Tuesday with a Valentine's Day party for Lucy and her dance friends, and then went out to eat for our traditional dinner at Popeye's. We've been eating there for Valentine's Day since 2013. It's one of Ross' favorite places to eat. Wednesday I got to help out with Lucy's preschool party and then that evening we gave the girls their presents and Ross took Lucy to life group while I took Molly to dance class. Last year Ross was at class on Valentine's Day.....maybe next year we can have an evening at home to celebrate the day!

Ross did surprise me with a very sweet gift. I had mentioned to him about a month ago that I wanted a gold bar necklace. I told him I'd send him a link to what I wanted, but never did mainly because I couldn't decide which necklace I wanted. He never asked me about it again and I forgot about it, so wasn't expecting anything at all. Our tradition is to put our gifts to each other on our bed with Steve, the teddy bear he gave me for our first Valentine's Day in 2009. (I don't know why we put the gifts on our bed, we just do.) I started to open the card but then noticed something shiny on Steve's neck. I looked closer and found it was a bar necklace! It wasn't what I wanted, but I didn't care at all! That was the sweetest gift because he remembered what I wanted and said he looked at lots of places to find it, too. Happy Valentine's Day!

New Year's Presents

Every year for as long as I can remember, I've gotten to open New Year presents from my Mom on New Year's Day. They have never been anything big, but just a little something. She always gets me a calendar, and maybe some note cards, some miscellaneous items, and most always a bottle of sparkling grape juice. Like I said, nothing really big, but something fun and appreciated!

Lucy's Pre-K Progress Report

One day last week Lucy came home with a progress report from preschool. I was so surprised and so excited to see this! Technically, she's in Pre-K, so this is a Pre-K progress report, letting us know how she's doing with everything she's learning. Shes mastered most everything, with a few items marked still working on or not yet. I'm very pleased with our preschool. It is neat to see what all Lucy has learned and how she has grown since starting school in August 2016. I am so very proud of Lucy, too!

The Cookie Monster

A few weeks ago Molly wasn't doing something I needed her to do. It was either eating her meal, getting dressed, getting out of the bath, I don't remember what it was. I told her that if she didn't do what I needed her to do, then the cookie monster would come get her. Boy, did that ever get her in gear! For whatever reason, she was really afraid when I said that and did what she was supposed to. Ever since then I've been using the cookie monster threat and she does what I need! If she won't eat, I tell her that she needs to eat or the cookie monster will come. If she won't get dressed, I tell her she needs to get dressed or the cookie monster will come.....and it works, every. single. time.

Part of me feels bad about this because you can see a look of fear come over her face as she hurries to do what she needs to do. But, the other part of me doesn't feel bad because let's face it, the 2s and 3s are hard years and sometimes parents just need a break and help getting toddlers to do what we need them to do.

On a side note, Lucy hears my cookie monster threats and half the time they work on her, half the time they don't. I'm not concerned about this with her because although Lucy has her moments, she is a much better directions follower than Molly right now. I can tell Lucy is really trying to figure out if the cookie monster is real or not. It's neat to see her thinking this through. One day she asked me what the cookie monster comes in and I told her a mixing bowl and that he uses spatulas to drive his mixing bowl to the house. Picture that...... :)