Tag Archive | Valentines Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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.20170214_122440_HDR

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. IMG_20170214_130615_849

IMG_20170214_130635_510We 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. IMG_20170215_143640_481

IMG_20170215_143548_948IMG_20170215_143509_831IMG_20170215_143404_263IMG_20170215_143439_011With 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. 20170214_192146

IMG_20170214_211646_946IMG_20170214_211738_753When we got home it was time for cake! Yup, full on spoiling of the kids this year. 20170214_205718

20170214_205818Ken and I didn’t really exchange gifts. He says I cheated because I made him this heart.IMG_20170214_214506_906

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. IMG_20170214_113502_611

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.20170214_151028

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) HERE20170214_210130

 

Fabulous February

Well BUSY and fabulous… as always! 3 birthday boys, Chinese New Year AND Valentine’s Day. Not to mention it is also Nana’s birthday month. I think February has ALWAYS kept us hopping. We tend to not do a huge celebration for Valentine’s Day but we do send out quite a few Valentines. Chinese New Year is always a bit of a big deal. We clean the house, wear new shirts (usually self decorated) and eat special foods. Although we will ALWAYS miss our friends back home who made Chinese New Year so special.dscn14541

imag2443img_20160208_161001We celebrated Emanuel turning 10. Double digits it is!!!dscn14361

dscn14381And made our very own igloo.dscn14421

dscn14451imag2545It was Emanuel’s turn for a workbook completion.dscn14402

The boys were very grateful for their lovely birthday gifts from all sorts of loving friends and family.img_20160206_124921dscn14471

With treats for the girls. Thanks Gammie!

With treats for the girls. Thanks Gammie!

After all, the twins are now 12!!! Where has the time gone? Next year — TEENAGERS.img_20160205_091216

We had fun with the Schwartz family.dscn14501

Swam our hearts out.dscn14621

And in the world of crochet – a heart scarf I gifted to a sweet friend as a pick me up.dscn14521

Hung out with the Novaks (gotta celebrate with our friends on those birthdays).imag2578

img_20160221_011306Had the guys over for game night.imag2559

Raced cars with the scouts… Not only Emanuel this year! imag2594

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I got in sewing time of course – I made a jellyfish mobile for the girls’ room and for a friend back home – a hat that has a likeness to a hat on a certain Sci Fi series. img_20160220_160307

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So a happy belated Valentine’s Day… etc… to everyone! img_20160214_115822

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Fast and Furious February

I think that we have not had a relaxing and laid back February since 2004 and the birth of the twins… compound that with Emanuel being born in 2006 two days before their second birthday and we start our month off with activity already. Then it is Valentine’s Day and often Chinese New Year. 2015 was no different than years past. It helps that we absolutely LOVE Chinese New Year thanks to our adorable god daughters… Anna and Isabella and their families. There is so much culture and beauty we have yet to see and experience, sadly not in person… but through our learning. You can join us with our resource entry HERE for 2015’s year of the goat/sheep unit.

Dragon Puppet

Dragon Puppet

IMAG1508It was a rather unique birthday for the boys as we didn’t have the big old family and friends party. February was also the beginning of Nana and Baba’s vacation in the Dominican Republic.102_0289

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We had MULTIPLE parties, really more suppers with friends. One of those was a totally fun and bad for you movie and snack night with the Schwartz family. IMAG1457

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And the other dinner with the Novaks! IMAG1582

Of course we had the usual, Home Depot.. swimming.. life in fast forward it seems…102_0297

We also hit our 100 days of class mark! This was a fun challenge, I had each of the kids come up with some piece of art or even just something fun made out of 100 pieces. We had Legos, popsicle sticks, stickers… it was great! Trinity glued on sparkly confetti and yours truly made a special poster of heart stickers.102_0292

102_0293We babysat our favourite baby – Jeffrey… the girls absolutely eat him up!102_0290

Emanuel basically made his scout car all by himself with minimal help from Daddy. While he did not win he came home proud.IMAG1412102_0298

We drew…102_0280

102_0283We learned…102_0284

The girls showed off their princesses to go with my crocheted versions. You can actually purchase her wonderful patterns (Kristen’s Kords) HERE.102_0309

102_0313We had readers and rather good listeners. It is always a bit of a a buzz to see them reading to each other willingly.102_0317

102_0320It is hard to believe that we now have two 11 year olds AND a 9 year old! Who gave them permission to grow up?102_0288

IMAG1333We even had a completion of workbook… I swear Trinity is just busting through hers! I am so proud of all these kids and their drive to learn. It wanes at times but we all end up inhaling books and searching down facts.

102_0275Of course we ended up at the YMCA swimming pool, that is pretty normal, BUT we also had the twins BOTH get their pink wristbands. This gets them free reign of the pool! And with them old enough to be dropped off…  this could be a GOOD summer for them. Pictured below in the lane pool (deepest area).IMAG1326Don’t forget about Valentine’s Day when we had our red, pink and white lunch and SPECIAL GUESTS for dinner – Aunty Shandai and Uncle Ravyn!IMAG1468

IMAG1477Dr. Seuss’ birthday was also in February so the girls went to Lakeshore to enjoy the festivities.IMAG1571

 So February was a colourful month full of celebration and love… you can check the overflow of images with some events I did NOT cover in this entry HERE. Look forward to reflecting BACK at March next! IMAG1377