Be Mine

I LOVE LOVE valentine's day.

I always have.

Not for the romance of it though

But for the love.  The day where you just love your whole class, your whole family, your whole world.

I love making valentines with my kid's faces.  And with their personalities.

But most valentines it is happening in the eleventh hour and we are all frantically taping, stapling, glueing to get them done.

And since we are in the eleventh hour, I have become good at making them simple and quick to make so they only take an hour to put together.

#1. Take a picture on my phone, upload to my computer.  I just use pages because that is where I have my favorite fonts from DaFont.com and other free font sites. But you could easily use pic monkey or picassa

#2. If you type your child's name on the valentine you just saved your kid 20 minutes of writing their name 30 times. (some may say well I want him/her to practice...Great! valentines are a wonderful way to have them practice IF YOU HAVE THE TIME. More often than not we don't have the time.)

#3. Then print.  I love printing through picassa because it gives you the option to print 4x6, 5x7, 3x5, wallet etc...  I can get the biggest bang for printer ink/paper.  In the case of Alayna's card this year, I just set up the page in 2 columns and printed.

#4. Set up an assembly line and cut them out if necessary. (Allie's was a full sheet of cardstock so her selected treat would fit her wrist just right. She only had 6 little valentines in her preschool class so printing a full sheet wasn't a bank breaker)

She was so sure that her little friends needed a candy bracelet.

So we found candy watches (gender neutral ;)

And wrote: What time is it?

Valentime

What preschooler doesn't call it Valentime at some point?

Alayna didn't want her mug on her card BUT she did want a ring.

We found some squirting rings that were a big hit.  Her cute teacher let them go outside to squirt each other.  She was thrilled to have the hit valentine!

And now, the rest of the story.

A few weeks before Alayna wrote this wish list to Santa

We are not sure when she lost her Ipod, and have searched high and low turning our house and the cabin inside out in hopes to find it.  Knowing Santa is "magic" I think it was a last resort.

Unfortunately Santa is not that magic... :(

So he wrote her this note and set it out for Alayna Christmas morning.

It reads, 

Dear Alayna,

I love you very much.You are a very special girl, and I love watching you be good and trying to be good all year. I know it can be hard with a brother and sisters, but it makes me especially jolly when you are kind to them.

You have a very special place in my heart. I get so excited to hear what you want for Christmas each year. You are a creative one.

You asked me to find your Ipod touch this year. The problem is… I am not in the business of finding.  I give children toys and sometimes they loose them. I am sorry that you have misplaced your Ipod, but I know that you will do your best searching high and low to find it.  And if by chance you don’t find it, maybe that will be something you put on you list for next year. You are a good girl and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the surprises I brought to you this year.

                                                                                        

Much Love,

Santa

She was so funny Christmas morning about the letter.  She read it and announced to me "Santa thinks I'm creative!" but then would not let me see it.  It was just to her and she was COMPLETELY satisfied.

Fast forward to January 7th.  Ashtyn needed a bag for her ski lessons and found Alayna's Ipod in her old backpack.  We were all thrilled.  

But here is the BEST part...

The next morning Alayna found a bedazzled stitch case on her dresser and the Sir George Mud Fudge sitting on Alayna's shelf.  

Santa has still got his "MAGIC"

(I will keep my feelings of the elf on the shelf to myself except... The E.O.T.S. was one of my regrettable motherhood purchases and Sir George is an Elf on the SHELF. The.End. To the dismay of the monkeys, no craziness here.  Although I do appreciate his help in bringing this special late gift back from the north pole, so not a total regret.)

Fall Piano Recital

We changed piano teachers this past summer. Janet was in our student ward years ago and I learned that she taught lessons when we started preschool at her neighbors house and saw a sign. The girls were so nervous to change but loved her from the first lesson.

Alayna was nervous to perform, this being her first recital. She was in tears as she practiced before we left. She did great. She told me after that she made a mistake, I let her know I couldn't even tell, you probably won't either. (I was holding Allie and finally decided to pass her off to Ashtyn, but the beginning is bouncy)

I love that Ashtyn will sit down outside of practice time and play. Thanks to a mom who played us all to sleep every night, I love having a house filled with piano music.

Next to my own children, THE BEST part of the recital were the gang of boys doing the wave after their buddies or buddy's sister performed. Who says recitals are boring?!?

Fairies

Alayna has a very special relationship with the tooth fairy.

She leaves the T.F. notes, playgrounds, houses and of course, teeth.

She tells me that the T.F. uses those teeth. They are ground down to make their bread.

But then she read Junie B. First Grader; toothless wonder.

And according to Junie when you lose a tooth it goes to a baby who grows a new one.

The best part about this very special relationship is

it is so real to her.

We pulled off the freeway and there was a man with

a cardboard sign asking for money.

She asked, "why he doesn't just get a hammer and

knock out all his teeth and have the Tooth Fairy

bring him$32? Then he could buy some food."

BUT...She is not the only one in this family who believes in Fairies....

Maybe it's genetic, but Jay believes in Fairies

In the Sock Fairy

A lovely little fairy, that picks up his socks since he can't walk barefoot on the carpet before bed.

So every night he gets in bed, pulls his socks off and tosses them to the side and magically by the time he gets in bed the next night they are gone and he pulls his socks off again and tosses them to the side.

He also believes in the T.P. Fairy.

This fairy is a little more popular, You know the one that takes the used cardboard roll of toilet paper off the holder and replaces it with the one sitting on top.

As for me, I keep hoping the weeding fairy and the cleaning fairy visit me.....soon.

How long does it take to get to Finland?

Alayna: Mom! can you believe it takes five and a half days to get to Finland?

Mom: Oh really?

Alayna: That is a really long time, I don't know if I want to go there now.

Mom: How do you know it takes five and a half days?

Alayna: Because on the map, it takes one thumb to get to Idaho and that is 4 hours, so I measured how many thumbs to Finland AhhhhND,

it was five and a half days.

I love my Alayna.

Who did you thank today?

Just in case you can't read through all the fold lines and 2nd grade writing....

Dear Cossing (crossing) lady,

Thank you for helping us cross the street.

(She erased some and didn't erase a few words so it gets a little confusing but what she says with the extra words omitted)

If you didn't we would get ran over.

How would we get home?

Why do you help us?

Why are you be nice to us?

Why do you talk to us?

I like you.

From Alayna.

I LOVE finding Alayna sweets!

Spring Dance Recital

Aren't they so cute?!?

Last night was the spring dance recital.
Alayna has been so excited.
I think it is mostly for the make-up and hair.
After the program she said
"Finally, I can have this costume for a dress up"

Ashtyn has had some fierce rehearsals throughout our house.
Making sure each head snap and jump was just right.
Results made me beam, I thought every one was right on.
Ashtyn's costume makes her look so tall in her picture.
But she is not....yet.

I might be a little biased but I think Blame it on the Boogie was the best dance of the show.
I love that you can tell Ashtyn loves dancing. Her smile is contagious and makes you want to get up and dance with her.

The filming of Alayna's is a little off because #1. I was laughing so hard at Alayna and #2 trying to watch the whole group. Alayna had fallen asleep in the 5:30 show. I mean dead asleep. The drowsiness had not quite worn off for the 7:30 show.

She was fascinated by the lights and people. Jay was there to watch her in the 7:30 show and she kept looking for him. She even points out the flashing lights to Jay and at the end she gives him the biggest cheesiest wink. We were laughing so hard...

You can click here and here to see past recitals.
I love to see her grow from performance to performance.

Supah Stahr!

Dropping off the girls in the morning is one of my favorite things to do. It is such a short drive (that could/should and sometimes is walked), so the exchange is equivalent. I love to hear their anticipation rattle off like a spastic bubble machine. Little and big, their insecurities, ideas and schemes float through the car...then POP! on to something else.

I'm not sure if it was the radio or Ashtyn, but Super Star was one of the short lived topics this morning.

Carefully waiting for Ashtyn to step out, Alayna, in a way only Alayna can looks at me and says matter of factly, "You know, (insert "valley girl" huff) I am like a SUPAH STAHR. Everyone knows me and wants to talk to me because I have such a cool backpack." By this time Alayna is out of the car and getting ready to shut the door. "I just tell them all that my aunt Josie made it for me" and paraded off to be the super star of viewmont elementary.....

Thank you Josie for making her the SUPAH STAHR!
And I really need to clean the windshield of my car, it's not the camera...