The Fun Week that Breaks Up Winter.

I'm grateful for Valentine's Day! Thank you, Valentine's Day, for giving my family something to decorate for in the middle of the long, dreary winter. Thank you for giving us an excuse to bake, to buy and to mail things. 

This year, we asked several cousins to join us for a valentine exchange. 

Making valentines always starts out well, with a festive anticipation. The creative juices flow. Heartfelt messages on top of beautiful paper and cutesy stickers abound. 

And then after the fourth valentine is made and kids want to turn their attention to a movie or playing or getting a good night's rest, it turns into a sweatshop with a maniacal mother telling everyone that they have 12 more cousins to go and no one can be left out so they better not even think about quitting. 

Ahhhh, 'tis the season! We love to love around here!

Asking cousins to participate was smart on my part because we sent out our subpar valentines and everyone sent us truly excellent valentines, gifts and goodies. You don't always reap what you sow, my friends, and this is the perfect example. 

V-Day Eve, Dan and I decorated a little.

You think I bought that garland? I didn't. My sister in law, Shayla, sent it to me. This is what I'm talking about! Surround yourself with good people and benefit.

 I bought those balloons. Nothing else. Go me!

Valentine's Day morning!

See Gwen's glasses? I didn't do that.

See June's glasses? I didn't do that either.

A poem from June to Dad.

See Beck's bow tie? Do you think I did that?

I didn't.

Also on V-Day, the boys and I went to Gwen's school for the wedding of the letters "Q" and "U". You read that right.

Gwen's school was built in the 1920s, and I love it.

Gwen was the maid of honor. And the letter "G". 

 

Are you kinda like . . . whaaaaaaaa? That's how I was too. The wedding was cute. It was fun. It was over the top. It was kinda weird. But it's a huge thing out here, so we went and had a good time witnessing "Q" and "U" promise each other to make a sound together (sounds a bit scandalous) for as long as the English language shall live. Heck, Harris had such a good time, he went missing for a good ten minutes. He also thought the school was very cool-looking and disappeared to a different floor altogether. I love searching for missing kids. Such a rush!

Gwen had to hold hands with the best man. The best man's parents were awesome and got a picture of them together. I didn't. I chased a toddler and a baby. 

And yesterday, we went to Lititz for the Fire and Ice Festival.

Fire=fire shows at night. Ice=ice sculptures.

We didn't go at night so we missed the fire. We did get to see a bunch of sculptures though.

The only bad thing about an ice sculpture exhibit is the temperature it must be for said exhibit to exist. We acted like total East Coast rookies and came without gloves or hats. Or socks. We're awesome. My buns were freezing, and I was complaining like the good ol' pioneer I am. Meanwhile, my baby sat in the stroller and thought it was awesome. I guess he's tougher than I. I hope he takes care of me one day.

We stayed a good 45 minutes and then raced back home like the ninnies we are. We did have an important appointment at home, of course. We needed to watch Beethoven II, to complement the screening of Beethoven I that take took place Friday night. We're trying to introduce the kids to all of the classics of our youth. We watched Mighty Ducks last week. Now there's a terrible film. Beethoven was somewhat redeemable; the second wasn't.

Do you have any recommendations of kids' movies from your growing up years? I'm kinda over all of the new movies we've seen 938423 times.

And today we went to church.

We like doing that.

The End.