daddy's got a lot of money

Addie woke up this morning with her eye crusted shut.

When I told her she had to stay home from school, she started crying.  I told her she could pick out whatever movies she wanted to watch and we could read whatever books she wanted and she still cried.  This girl loves school... which is completely lost on me.  When I was her age, I snatched any opportunity I could to stay home from school.

But, to her credit, she didn't have school Monday due to President's Day and she was sick Tuesday after having a fever of 102.5.  And I tried to keep her home yesterday because she just looked so tired, but she insisted she was fine and didn't have a fever, so I let her go.  And now I'm pretty sure she'll have to stay home tomorrow because she'll probably still be contagious.  And this girl is devastated.

Luckily, I still have some non-expired eye drops from the last time pinkeye circulated through our house in the fall, so I think we'll be able to avoid the dreaded trip to the doctor.  As you may recall, those aren't very successful for us...

Anyways, the reason for the title of this post... the girls were watching a Madeline movie this morning (which, bien sûr... j'adore!) and Madeline was at the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa.  So I told the girls that mommy had actually been there and seen that.  Millie asked if I could take them there sometime.  So I explained to her that Daddy and I would love to take them there someday, but it costs a lot of money to fly all the way over there.  Millie's eyes lit up as she excitedly replied, "But Mommy, Daddy has a LOT of money!"  "Oh yeah?" I asked.  "Yeah.  Right next to his bed, in his drawer, he has a bunch and bunch of money!"  Yes. Yes he does.  He has a little butter dish full of his spare change.  A lot of money.  ;)

I wonder if $11.17 is enough for a family of 5 to fly to Paris...

In a 3-year-old's world it is, at least.  ;)

our valentine's recap... a few days late

Yeah, yeah... I know in my last post I said I'd share what we did on Valentine's in "tomorrow's post" and now it's tomorrow plus 3 days...  But who's counting, really?

So, here's what Valentine's Day brought our way this year:

These girls share everything... including the prized "licking of the spatula."  This was after they helped decorate this ginormous cookie cake that my lovely mother made for our small group Sunday night:

And there she is.  My lovely mama.  My parents were here last weekend to watch the kiddos while we did our Young Families Valentine's Party.

Valentine's morning brought us making these funky yarn-heart thingies that I found in Family Fun (where else?).

 Daddy came home Monday evening with beautiful orange roses for moi (which I failed to get a picture of...) and funky light-up ones for the girls.

After getting jammies on (so they'd be all ready when the sitter arrived)... we did a Valentine's hunt.

I hid these hearts around the house and they had to hunt them down.  For each one they found, they got to tell us one way God shows His love for us (in exchange for M&M's for some incentive, of course).  I loved hearing the answers they came up with.  My favorite was when Millie said, "By giving us Uncle Mark and Uncle Scott."  Okay, so I need to be honest with you... this may have been in response to a hint, like... "Sometimes God shows He loves us by putting people in our lives to love us..."  But the idea that Millie thought of them was pure sweetness.  I'm sure it'll melt their hearts too.

Addie has grown so much in her knowledge of God that she was able to think more deeply to come up with answers like, "by sending us his son to die for our sins."  And then we were able to come up with verses to match her answers.

Shortly after, Tessha, the sitter, arrived.  She babysat 2 years ago one night when our usual awesome sitter (Emma!) was unable to and since she's getting married and leaving us very soon, we thought we should fit in one more night with her.  And, of course, the kids had a blast!

And then Chad and I headed out to our "secret" Valentine's spot.  We've always had luck with a certain restaurant in our town that is kinda "hidden" so no one thinks to go there for Valentine's or weekend nights.  I know it's not good for them, but it's awesome for us when we want to get seated right away and enjoy some yummy food!  I'd love to tell you the name of it, but... I'm just not so sure I want to take the risk... ;)  We highly enjoy getting seated the minute we enter the doors!  Okay... so maybe, if you live in the area and your dying to know... I may tell you if you plead your case.  ;)

After our lovely meal, we headed to none other than the Home Depot!  I know, super romantic, right?  But Chad bought me an electric fireplace to warm our basement when it's finally finished - they were clearancing at half off!  So, we joked that he truly lit my fire on Valentine's Day! ;)

*****

After a winter with lots of snow... (in fact, this snowman and fort were built with Baba Cornie just last weekend... in nearly 50 degree weather, so they had already started to melt by the time I snapped these pics)

 

... we were super excited for our 68 degree weather yesterday!!!

I didn't have our camera out yesterday to capture us riding bikes and doing sidewalk chalk, so I had to run out this morning and snap this photo for "proof."

Now the snow is all gone and I'm praying desperately that it'll stay that way!

(Although it's only in the 40's today...)

BRING ON SPRING!

cupid's banquet and brawl

This is the busiest "Valentine's season" I have ever had.

We decided (with the help of another couple), that it would be fun to throw a Valentine's party for our church's Young Families class.  I saw some super cute ideas on Kara's Party Ideas for a Vintage Valentine's party, so I thought I'd try and put them to good use.  We named our party, "Cupid's Banquet and Brawl," because we felt that it definitely needed a little spicing up with some good competition after the nice dinner.

I found these adorable vintage Valentines on Craigslist from a lady who lives only about 15 minutes away.  She was selling most of them for just a quarter a piece!

We held the party in our church's "Fireside Room," so it would be cozy and romantic.  :)

I wish I would've gotten a closer shot of those red pom-pom things on the mantel.  They were adorable and sooo easy to make.  Again, I got the idea from here.

These soda-fountain centerpieces were so easy to make.  Go here for a tutorial.  They're not quite as cute as the one's from Kara's blog, but they were much cheaper!  I couldn't find taffy without the hearts on them.  And instead of filling up the glass with M&M's ($$$), I swapped them for the new Strawberry Milkshake Malted Milk Balls (about 1/5 of the price of the M&Ms since they filled the glass fuller too!).

I wish I would've gotten a picture of my sweet friend, Dana.  While I was setting up the games and decorations, she was busy in the kitchen prepping the salads, getting lasagnas in and out of the oven, getting the garlic bread ready and slicing the dessert.  And since her husband ended up with strep, she even had to be without her Valentine for the night.  :(  Poor girl.  But she was definitely a life saver!

The guests finally arrived... 26 of us total!

The couple in this picture on the left (Jason and Amy) CRACKED. ME. UP by arriving in full "competitive gear." Complete with sweatbands, jerseys, tube socks and all.  Ha!

After a lovely meal, we broke for up into 4 teams - Team Amoré, Team Liefde, Team Mohabbat and Team Sayang.  All those words mean "love" and the teams got extra points for figuring out which language it was in.  (Yes, Team Amoré got flack for being the easiest one to guess, but they just got lucky for drawing an easier name! )

Each couple also had a number (1, 2, or 3) so we started out with a team competition and then for the next round, we broke up and went with other couples who had our same number to compete against them for more points for our team.  We had 6 rounds total before our grand finale.

The "I Give You This Ring..." Relay

We had to pass a cup and then a ring down the line using only straws.  And don't worry... we tried to line up husband-wife-wife-husband-husband-wife, etc. so it didn't get too awkward.  ;)

Another round was Just Dance so we could get our groove thing on.

You go, girls!

... and boys!

Oh how I wish Chad would've let me video this one... the Chipmunk Serenade.

 The men had to draw a love song out of a bowl and then attempt to sing it to their wives with their mouths stuffed full of crackers.  The last wife to crack a smile was the winner.  Sorry for the terrible picture with Chad's face pretty much completely chopped off... I was trying to get my "game face" on.

The Ring Drawing Game

The men had to try and draw their wives wedding rings without seeing them and without help from their wives.  

The other competitions included The Wedding Picture Match-Up (trying to figure out whose wedding picture is whose with the faces cut out of the pictures) and Give Me Some Sugar (one spouse feeds the other a Little Debbie cake using only their mouths - first one done is the winner).

And for the grand finale...

The Not-So-Newlywed Game!

Thanks to the brave couples who attempted this, in hopes to win more points for their teams!  I hope none of you needed counseling after this one... ;)

The big winners of the night received...

A large assortment of chocolates (for the winners of the Not-so-Newlywed Game), and the three couples from the winning team got to each have a $10 gift card to either Panera, Olive Garden, or Victoria's Secret.  Ooh là là!

And now I'm excited for my two biggest Valentines (Chad and Addie) to get home from school so we can have our own family Valentine's activity (more about that in tomorrow's post).

And, of course, I must leave you with these pictures of my sweet little Valentine girls.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I slept in past 11 yesterday...

11:17 to be exact. And it was AWESOME.

You see, we've had some sickies around here lately (which is my excuse for my blogging absence...).  It all started a few Sunday mornings ago when Tate threw up 8 times between 3:30 - 7:00 a.m.  And then a few more times later that morning.  The poor little guy was so weak, he was shaking when he tried to stand up.  :(

We thought we were in the clear (although he did have a few more days of icky poo and strange behavior).

Then Thursday night, Millie puked.  A ton.  All over her bedroom carpet.

Poor girl.  But thankfully, she only did so once instead of repeated times like her brother.

She was fine the next day.  We thought this would surely be the end.

Then early Monday morning, around 3:30, I heard Millie's sad little sobs.  I ran in as fast as I could and sure enough, she was puking again.  :(  

And then I started feeling icky.  Luckily, no puke followed, but I felt nasty and my stomach was burning.  My hero of a husband offered to take a "family sick day" for me (which can be a huge pain for a science teacher), and so I slept in.  When I awoke and saw that it was 11:17, I was baffled.  I haven't slept in that long since... well... hmm... maybe college?  But I don't know if I ever slept that late in college even.  I've never been one who can sleep in like that.  But, obviously, my body needed it and now I'm doing fine.

So anywho, my husband has become a Packers fan (and not because they won the SuperBowl... this all started quite awhile ago), so needless to say, he was pretty pumped for the SuperBowl.  I tried to humor him by dressing in green and gold for the big night.

Can you see the excitement in his eyes?

Saturday, when I was at this super cool open house, Chad made this "ice cream shoppe" for the kiddos.

They had a ton of fun coloring it and giving us "ice cream."  :)

And, I'll leave you with this silly little video.  This is what goes on in the house when mommy is gone for the evening.

Can you tell my girls LOVE to be on camera?  :)

Hope you all have a warm (ha!), healthy week!