That Lovin' Feeling...

I'm typing this post after the SIXTH day school was canceled due to "inclement weather".

As I looked back at our Valentine-y pictures, I realized how far I had drifted from all the warm, fuzzy, lovey-dovey days to the dear-Lord-help-me-not-completely-lose-my-mind days.

In other words, I had Lost that Lovin' Feeling...

I think it would be therapeutic to mentally travel back to a happier time, back before snow days started threatening my sanity...

So, first up -- Making Valentine Love Shacks with my love bugs!

The Christmas season flew by without gingerbread houses getting checked off my holiday to-do list with the girls. I decided Valentine's would be just as fun with all the cute candies.

I set up little pre-made houses and filled muffin tins with all the candy decorations...

Most of the time I set up a craft for the girls, but I never actually join in.
This time I decided to get in on the fun, which they both loved and (truth be told) I loved too!

We came up with lots of names for our Valentine version of gingerbread houses.
Love Shacks, Cupid Cottages, Heart Day Chalets, Chapels of Love, and when we lined them all up Aubrey said, "It's 'Lovely Lane!'"

Whatever you want to call them, I definitely want to do this again next year.
It was much less hectic doing in it February rather than December!

Another little Valentine-y thing we did one day was make a giant geometric heart for the girls' bedroom. Aubrey had been learning all about 2-D and 3-D shapes at school, so I thought this would be a fun thing to make. Super easy -- just cut scrapbook paper diagonally and tape to the wall.

Oh, and this little treat was a HUGE hit in our house...Valentine strawberry brownies! Delish!

I made these for an after-school playdate when Aubrey requested something "girly" as a treat for her and her little friend.

We always have Family Movie Night on Fridays, so on Valentine's Eve I thought it would be fun to spice up the basement a bit. The girls flipped when they came downstairs for dinner and movie!

I made pink popcorn to munch on for dessert after dinner and during the movie. 

All you do is pop your favorite popcorn, microwave some candy melts, drizzle it over the popcorn (after you've picked out all the un-popped kernels), and mix it all around to coat the popcorn. Yum-O.

Candlelight dinners are certainly different after you have kids... ;)

The next morning, the girls woke up to a Valentine breakfast and packages waiting for them from their grandparents.

Daniel is famous in our house for his Saturday morning pancakes, but on this particular morning he surprised us with heart-shaped waffles (with chocolate chips, of course...).

And he snuck out before lunch to pick up a special "bouquet" for the girls. They loved it!

Everything was so lovely and fun...and then the snow hit.

 Which Miss Aubrey absolutely LOVED.

I mean really  LOVED...

While Mina and I decided we preferred being indoors with our big ol' mugs of hot chocolate!

Little did we know this would be the theme for the next FULL WEEK.

Thankfully the girls finally went back to school, and we've all officially started our countdown to Spring! 

Keepin' It Real Christmas

I've been trying to conjure up the energy to tackle the "Christmas" post.

As I scrolled through all my iphone photos (kicking myself for never once taking out my "good" camera), I realized why I took down all our Christmas decorations on Dec. 26th.

This year's holiday season felt like being strapped on a non-stop roller-coaster.
And, truth be told, I'm glad it's over.

As a time saver, I thought about just dumping all the Christmas photos into this post and calling it a day.
But then I realized it would give the appearance of a happy little Christmas holiday where everything went perfectly wonderful.
And that was not the case for the majority of our holiday season.

Nothing truly "bad" happened, but it just seemed like a lot of the happy was followed by a downer.

Here are just a few examples:

Happy: Christmas Break!

Downer: Aubrey getting her very first ear infection the first day off.

Happy: Christmas cards!

Downer: Realizing I didn't order nearly enough 5 days before Christmas.

Happy: Visiting our cute, decorated downtown and getting to sit on Santa's lap!

Downer: Waiting for over 45 minutes next to the world's most annoying stranger in the freezing cold for the free carriage ride that lasted all of 7 minutes.

Happy: Impromptu tickets / date with Aubrey to a musical performance of Rudolph.

Downer: Aubrey crying buckets of tears because we didn't get a "Clarice" stuffed animal during intermission.

Happy: Drive-thru Christmas light displays!

Downer: Arriving an hour too early, having to go back home and come back later.

Happy: Deciding to put up Christmas lights outside!

Downer: These two coming home with this and (unrelated to that multi-light tree) our outdoor electrical unit shorting out -- again.

Happy: Fun treats for Aubrey's class Christmas party!

Downer: Making them the day before and noticing the next morning that the bananas had turned brown and the marshmallow tops were super soggy thus having to redo it all.

Happy: Traveling and spending Christmas Eve with family!

Downer: Coming down with a horrible cold that day.

Happy: Waking up on Christmas morning!

Downer: Waking up on Christmas morning. ;)

See what I mean?

Well, let's end on a few good notes, shall we?

I'll start it off with my absolute favorite part of this Christmas season...

Our Tree!

Aubrey came up with the idea to make a "Fruits of the Spirit" Christmas tree. 

So instead of pulling out all our ornaments -- we dried some fruit in the oven, made cinnamon ornaments and stamped out a fruit of the Spirit on each one, hot glued some cinnamon sticks together for stars, and strung popcorn and cranberry garlands.

And even this project didn't go smoothly! Our first batch of cinnamon ornaments had to be thrown out and remade because I somehow managed to botch the world's easiest 2-ingredient recipe!

But who cares...seeing her happiness in this photo made it all worth it. 

Some other positives over the holiday season...

These girls (despite having sibling quarrels at least once a day) loved getting to be home together. This is one of the few photos over the break of them NOT still in their jammies. 

Going to Patti's to see the lights and Santa again...

and Ms. Claus...

Two school Christmas programs with the cutest donkey and the prettiest dancing snowflake...

Christmas night...

 (Aubrey: telescope, accordion, craft kit, make-up kit, And Then story starters, and Clarice ;)) // (Mina: unicorn scooter, helmet, snow glow Elsa, Elsa/Anna Barbies, The Whale and the Snail, and Rudolph) Not Pictured: Cardboard Castle / Pirate Ship

And Christmas morning...

And our traditional scraggily family Christmas morning photo...

 And, of course, we cannot forget...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!

As I started to feel sad about how a lot of things didn't go exactly as I had hoped, I thought about the very first Christmas hundreds of years ago...

I'm guessing Mary didn't envision giving birth to the Messiah mere feet from donkey manure, so obviously I am not the first one to have a few crappy moments during the holidays.

Now can I get a CHEERS! for 2015?!

Less than a year away from the next imperfect Christmas! :)

The Back to School Shoppe

I have a post in the works to discuss the current status of Kindergarten, but today I'd rather travel back to a time that was filled with tear-free excitement and anticipation.

The day before school started, I stocked a Back to School Shoppe at our house.

I gathered all of Aubrey's school supplies, miscellaneous art supplies, party fans, and a mini shopping cart for the set-up. 

Before the store "opened" -- I read off the school supply list to Aubrey and had her make her own list (she drew pictures of the items).

 (This photo doesn't show the entire list.)

Aubrey grabbed her purse and some play money, and waited for the stock-boy / bagger to open the store. :)

Oh the indescribable joy of buying school supplies!

Aubrey absolutely loved filling the shopping cart with the items and then marking them off her list.

Once she had everything, it was time to ring it all up! The total came to $29, and she decided to pay with her debit card (wink wink). When I asked for a form of identification, she gave me her library card. (I love this girl so much.)

After she paid, she went to the table to label all her items before putting them in her backpack. I had Sharpies and stickers with her initials. 

I think we'll need to do this every year before school starts! It was so fun!

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You can click over to the We Heart Parties blog to see how to make the giant ruler!