I am not sure if anyone is aware, but Emanuel was SUPPOSED to be a Valentine’s Day baby! He, in the fine Reinsch-Johnson tradition, simply decided to make his grand appearance early. Valentine’s Day for our not so little family of 7 does not mean a huge celebration or crazy event, rather we spent it relatively quietly here at home. Last year we combined Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day into one party and had everyone over. As this year we were working hard to have a larger birthday party Valentine’s Day was secondary. We had a quiet morning as I was up off and on quite a bit more last night with an over stimulated baby girl so I had to sleep in. The kids settled in to watch a bunch of their new videos (I still need to find the translation on those) and then did the dot-to-dots off the UK site that were Valentine’s Day themed. I love when they have them set up according to difficulty so we had 3 different pictures that they could choose from. We put those up on our holiday wall.

Holiday wall

I printed off each of the boys a Valentine’s Day themed mini book to work through. These were off of the Enchanted Learning site. You just need to click on the Valentine’s icon on the main page.

Gavin and Zander

The twins taught ME our craft for the day! Since the flowers they made at Sunday School were so pretty and relatively simple (Gavin gave his to Aunty Esther) I figured I would have us do them at home too! It was very simple – all you need is a coffee filter, markers, pipe cleaners and a spray bottle of water.

I will include step by step instructions tomorrow!

Today in the mail I got the first of 4 eBay purchases (I had a tiny bit left on a bought credit card and WOW can  you get a lot when you are picky and hunt around on eBay). The 50 new hair clips I need to make more hair things for the girls. I am just waiting on the ribbons I ordered – I managed to get a decent variety of colours for a nice price. There are some specific barrettes I want to make – like a Christmas tree, that need specific colours. Of course I will share the instructions as I make them!

Clips

Of course the kids all dressed in pink or red and we HAD TO take pictures! I am so proud of the twins and how careful they are when we have them hold Echo for photos like these. I am waiting a couple days to do the twins’ yearly photos as Gavin still has a scratch on his face and Zander got bonked on the cheek yesterday. Note the brand new shirt Trinity has on – an Aunty Karyn pick! I just can’t pass up a chance to photography our little ones all together. This is (hopefully) going to be my week of photography. I have the twins to do, I need to take some more of Echo AND I want to do some pictures myself.

All 5 of our sweeties

I got 7 pages done scrapbooking last night! Quite proud of myself on that one, but I am definitely running out of solid 12X12 paper as well as certain themes in the same sized sheets. I am hoping to go through the paper I do have and use more of that before breaking down and buying any paper packs. My goal is to get as much of the back stuff done before we move as I can so I don’t have to scramble with loose things and risk misplacing pictures and items.

Sticking out her tongue

Trinity's Halloween pages

Muttart for Trinity

Echo's stocking

Trinity's Christmas Eve page

Pumpkin carving for Echo

I have pulled out an old project to finish as I am still in between projects until Ken gets some spare time to design. The rest of our evening is our own. The kids are in bed, the baby (hopefully) going down for a nap, all in time for our Valentine’s Day meal – Chinese delivery! So Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Our Little Canuck