Friday, February 24, 2012

Valentine's Day this year

The best part of having a cat is that it makes you laugh.

Especially when it gives you a bath with it's scratchy tongue.
You missed a spot Lulu.

I think that someone should invent a business that sells Valentine's boxes, cause when you've got a boy like Dalton it's no problemo to create some wild contraption, but when it's Shelby and she could give a fart about a creative Valentine's box, it would be nice to have a plan B.  Luckily big brother Dalton was our Plan B this Valentine's Day.  Here is the box he made her out of duct tape.
And Shelby and I spent our energy on making the cutest homemade valentines ever for her class.
We used kitten and rose stamps, patterned paper, and lots of do-dads from my previous life when I was creative.  It was fun to flex my uber-flabby crafty muscles with my daughter (aka:love of my life).
Shelby is a little artist.  Along with her classmates, she wanted to make a valentine for her lunch lady Shirley, the school janitor Lorna, and her new Principal Ms. Malouf.  Of course she made one for her teacher Ms. BC, who is Fab.
Gavin was in Boston, so when the kids woke up on Valentine's day they didn't have him but he had left us each a card.  I had put together some goodies for the kids too.
They've never gotten anything on Valentine's Day, so this was a big surprise.  I actually prefer stuff like this, rather than Christmas and Easter, where there are big expectations.
Shelby posed for me with her Valentine's Day gear before she left to walk to school.
The boys showed off their loot.
Garrett had me hang up his valentines from his Dad which were print outs of different Transformer pictures.  These were sacred and stayed up for a week.  No one could touch them.
My darling friend and neighbor, Suzanne, brought over some amazing dark chocolate treats for me in the morning.  She was a good valentine.
Shelby got a card from her Grandma Martha, perfume and smelly lotion from me (since that makes her feel very grown up and special), bath confetti, a chocolate sucker, and a pretty card from her dad.
Dalton got a new canvas for his painting class, some shower stuff, a bubble wand, a card from Grandma Martha, a card from his dad...AND a brand new Kindle.  Lucky guy.

Garrett got european treats, bath stuff, and a bubble wand.
I got a card from Gavin.  I bought myself some nice stuff, including this plant and some Tory Birch boots from Nordstrom Rack.  Happy V Day to me.  
Then we played some Candy Land...because that is the best part of every day.

Garrett got in my tub with all of his bath toys.
I went in to Shelby's class to help with the Valentine's Day game.
We did a Valentine relay race where the kids got to take a heart from off the wall and they had to do what ever it said on the other side.  Once they did it they could put a puffy ball in the cup and run to tag the next person on their team.  It turned out to be fun.
Here is Shelby following the instructions on the back of the heart, and pretending to wash her hair.
This is one of her classmates pretending to be a robot while Garrett looks on in the background.
I think one of these kids is being a snake and the other is being a cat.
Shelby as a robot.
Shelby and her best friend in class, Kate.
Here are the girls with their teacher, Ms. BC.  She is amazing at what she does.
I tried to get a picture of Garrett, but he wanted to hide.  He was super well behaved, and stayed in his spot playing an IPad while the class did their activities.  
Some of the class mates choosing a heart.
One of them doing a "crazy dance".
More crazy fun.

The kids got to decorate sugar cookies with Sabreena, Elysia's Mom...yum!

When it was all over we hung out in the school's kiva.

And then went home to chill.  Me and one of my loves on Valentine's Day.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Dalton's 11th birthday

Dalton woke up to this:  A peace sign necklace from Grandpa Eddington, a card from Mom and Dad saying that he could get a new air soft gun, a letter and money from Grandma Hoopes, a letter from Garrett and some silly puddy, as well as a card from Shelby and $11 that she had earned to go towards air soft pellets.
He read and opened them all.  Shelby, Garrett and Lulu watched.




Dad made breakfast, and since it was a school day, he got ready for school.
I told him that he could invite a couple of friends (as many as would fit in our car) down to my parents place for the weekend and they could do an air soft battle.
They had fun.  Pizza from Fat Jacks (Grandma Paula bought enough pizza to feed three armies), soda, chips, and chocolate cake from Magelby's with vanilla ice cream.

My two book ends.
Once they had eaten dinner, they got on their gear and headed outside to pelt each other with tiny biodegradable bullets in the freezing cold...fun!
Shelby brought down one of her best friends, Gabby.  They pretended to be baby pumas, or lions, or some other type of wild cat.  Hence, the reason that Gabby looks like she is screaming.  I was pretending to be a goat or some type of lame animal that her and Shelby had been chasing around, trying to eat.

The cake lasted for after dinner, a midnight snack, and was finished up after a lunch of left over pizza.  Yes, it was a super healthy weekend.  I did make them eat snap peas, and kiwis too.
Shelby with her brother's new gun.  
And the gifts!...everyone chipped in some dough so that Dalton could buy a new shoot-em-up video game that he was dying over.  His Grandma Paula bought him a new acoustic guitar that he immediately serenaded everyone with.

Time for bed...
...but not for the boys.  They went out for another battle...
Grandpa Dan was awesome and took the boys down to the indoor arena so that they could do a battle in there.  He set up targets and things to hide between.  He gave them the best battle EVER!
Shelby and Gabby set up little lands of tiny animals all over the place, like this bronze statue with a forest of animals on it's head.
Luke B getting ready to pound someone outside.

On Saturday morning we all went down to the arena to see the rodeo that was going on.  Grandpa Dan was roping in it, and he ended up taking 4th place! 
Grandma Paula got them hot dogs and cheered the riders on.

Yum!
This is the cute couple that helps out at the rodeo.  She gets all the steers gathered together, his parents MC the rodeo, and Alex does all the "horse stuff" (no idea really what that entails) but they are a darling cowboy family.
Papa Dan on Muzzle, his trusted horse.
Grandma with two of her favorite grandkids.


It was a good time.  No one seriously maimed, the boys stayed up till 1:00 AM playing video games, Dan made pancakes for breakfast, and everyone was happy.