Just a little late sharing but… we always make a bit of a fuss. I know that we should show love and affection year round, which we do. But it is nice to reinforce the need to SHOW this emotion with a month of careful labeling of Valentines, discussion of how to show we care and a slough of themed worksheets! Which I will share some links to, of course. 

We have a few traditions we do each year. Pictures in red and white clothes, of course.

A red and white lunch… this gets tricky as I don’t like to make the same thing every year. This year I splurged on Swedish pancakes, strawberry jam and chocolate from IKEA, heart shaped cakes, strawberries and whipped cream, those awful candies with words on them and pink lemonade. 

We spend half the day crafting. This coincided with our once a year (at least) request to decorate t shirts. I don’t force a theme on those but let them go wild. This year I picked a new set of rainbow thinner point markers and Gavin proved that they were a rather smart buy. 

With older kids now (oh my the twins are 13!!!) we are able to leave them to their own devices from time to time. So Ken and I made them walking tacos and rented the movie Storks for them, snuck out and went to Khan’s Mongoli Grill for the first time in FOREVER. We ate way too much and had a lovely time. 

When we got home it was time for cake! Yup, full on spoiling of the kids this year. 

Ken and I didn’t really exchange gifts. He says I cheated because I made him this heart.

I had to laugh as earlier in the week he offered me some shopping on Amazon. It just happened to show up on Valentine’s Day. So BAM my present. 

The kids got some Valentines in the mail, and exchanged with each other. We put the fairies and Hello Kitty Aunty Holly sent us out for decoration and had to have a fashion show of the new tops from Gammie.

All in all a fun day! I just hope our mailed Valentines make it to everyone. Poor Ken had a few trips to the post office this month!!! Now for the worksheets!

Activity Village has a whole section for Valentines – they have gone to a pay format but it is so worth it HERE

My collection that includes past years choices on Education.com HERE

EnchantedLearning (also pay for) HERE

Of course with two major holidays (ok in two different countries but major to US) within such proximity to each other there HAS TO BE overflow images… so sit back and enjoy!!!

Can you spot the dragonfly at Walker Sculpture Garden on Canada Day?

Just us Canadian Girls showing our pride

Lucky clover? Couldn’t find any with 4 leaves

O’ Canada!

Where Canada and the United State meet..

The cousins with all of their cousins (both sides)

Rocking the addition of blue

Gavin and Zander

My baby boy

Trinity and her friend

Glow Necklace!

Goof balls

Jeffrey!

Cows

March 24-26

The 23rd ended with a lovely birthday call to my dad catching us up and just generally reminding me of how much of a Daddy’s Girl I always have been and always WILL be. Half a country closer is not close enough but it is nice!

Warm fuzzies gave way to MORE snow! Come on Mother Nature!!! Can we please have that spring now??

So instead we worked on enjoying not only what we did on the weekend…

But new art to draw thanks to Art For Kids (link on right)…

And afternoon snacks. With our regular schoolwork and some together time, not a horrible start to a new week.

Our Tuesday was quiet and full of written work. We are trying to write more stories, reflect more… talk about things more… and of course continue reading together, alone, to each other. Cooperation is something we are really working on, an patience of course.

Wednesday was a special day – FAMILY FUN DAY! Which meant first doing our basics (spelling, math, reading) and then moving onto games.

Emanuel, Trinity and Echo got creative and found all the little hats they could find and the Easter Egg Bunny that they got last year from Gammie and cornered me to take pictures of a bunny hat fashion show! It may not have been hugely educational but it WAS highly adorable!

The willing (?) model

With the bunny done showing off its amazing runway skills it was time to head out for the FUN portion of our day – a trip out to Sam’s Club. The kids LOVE going there… samples, wandering the aisles, talking prices (the twins are starting to catch some of the prices as deals or expensive).

We rounded off our day with a great Freecycle find – a toy chest for Echo and Trinity’s dress up and doll clothes. It needs a little work but that is what a good weekend is for!

I figured it was also a great time to bake a box cake. After all kids who are freshly over a cold and have been working hard on their schoolwork need a  good snack, right?

We are all feeling much better this week! And now the countdown is on to Uncle James’ birthday and HIS birthday call. I miss my brother and his family!!!