Civilized

There is some saying about choosing the mountain you'll die on that means to pick and choose your battles. One of the mountains Chris may or may not die on is teaching the children to get up from the table like civilized members of society.

Xander has been saying "May I please excuse the table?"

So Chris will correct him, emphasizing the missing words, "May I please BE excused FROM the table?"

Then Xander will imitate him, slightly changing the emphasis. "May I BE excused from THE table, please?" It always reminds me of football players announcing they play for THE Ohio State University.

After she has finally picked apart and eaten the bare minimum of food, Josie will pipe up with "May I PLEASE be excused FROM the table?" Then she grins, all proud of herself.

Valentines Galore

I'm going to lay it out there and say I'm not looking forward to Valentine's Day when all three kids are in school. It just feels so hard getting everything organized, cards, signatures, boxes. Xander and Josie each have less than 20 kids in their classes but there was so much effort. It didn't help that we made things for the cards. I wasn't some crazy mother hand crafting every part but I did have to find and print out and cut the cards.

Josie and I cut up old crayons and melted them down in a heart shaped silicon mold. They turned out very cute!

Xander has been working on his rainbow loom to make bracelets and rings for his classmates. I think this was the part that drove me batty because he'd just be making random things and I would be like 'Did you finish the bracelets for you classmates?' and he'd be all 'no, I'm about half done.' I had to do some deep breathing to not send him to his room until he finished the bracelets. He ended up just fine.

I have no idea why those pictures are coming up sideways.

I did forget to make the traditional filled heart cookies for the family this year. I'm trying to eat healthier so it just completely slipped my mind that I should have made cookies. The kids said nothing about them though so I guess they aren't an ingrained tradition.

Hannah Turns 2

 Hannah's birthday was a low key affair this year. Having a February birthday is rough because everyone is cooped up in the house and the weather can make travel unpredictable. So, a few family and friends ventured our way, we spot cleaned the house, I made questionable choices in the color scheme of the cupcakes and ta-da! Birthday time!

Hannah thought the cupcakes might need more flavor.

But they turned out tasting great without anything being added.

Xander and Josie agreed to taste test with Hannah.

There were many presents but the big ones really made her face light up.