Valentine's Day Surprise

We had a very fun and special Valentine's Day this year.  I try not to worry too much about Valentine's being a commercialized holiday and all that blah, blah nonsense.  I think it's a fun time to have a special day to just do cute and fun things.  No, we definitely don't need red roses, big boxes of chocolate and over sized teddy bears to celebrate and have fun, but doing things we don't normally do every day is always fun.

Mitch was very, very excited to fill out Valentine's for all the kids in his class.  Chloe can do all of hers on her own, which is nice, but Mitch needed lots of help writing all of his classmates' names.  He can write them all by himself, but needed some guidance on letter spacing so he could fit the names all on the tiny line provided.  He did a great job.

My parents sent all the kids their own little bag of Valentine's goodies the weekend before Valentine's.  The puzzles, Disney character washcloths and their own bag of chocolate were a BIG hit with everyone.  (Chloe's red cheeks were due to just returning from her basketball game).

The kids woke up Valentine's morning to a "heart attack" on each of their doors.  My kids love stuff like this.  And I love a fun excuse to do it.

For breakfast, I made Cream of Wheat and dyed it pink.  My kids love, love, love having their cream of wheat colored.  I personally think it's gross, but again, a good day to do something for them that they love.

Upon dropping Mitch off at school later that morning, Valentine's in hand, his teacher asked if the parents could stay for a few minutes and help their child pass out their Valentine's to their classmates.

I was more than happy to stay for a few minutes.  I can't imagine how long it would have taken the teacher to help 20 kids distribute their Valentine's into their classmates little bags.

Mitch with his bag full of Valentine's!

Mitch's classroom has a fun little play area, where the girls quietly played while I was helping Mitch.

Mitch also made a cute little Valentine's card for Grandma and Papa Blakeslee.  He didn't get it made in time to send it in the mail, so we took a picture and texted it to them instead.

After getting home from dropping the big kids off at school, these sweet girls helped me make sugar cookies.  I LOVE sugar cookies, but they are so time consuming to make.  Again, we were glad for a fun day to have an excuse to make them (and eat them!)

After lunch, we heard a knock on the door.  It was Leah and Lexi's primary teacher, dropping them by a big cookie and a Valentine and little sticker book.  This totally made their day.  I love sweet, thoughtful people.

For dinner, we got a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's.  It was delicious. 

Afterwards, I passed out everyone's personalized BIG heart shaped cookies for dessert.

After dinner, we gathered round and I distributed a few little gifts for the kids- a book for each of them, some socks for the twins (they love socks) and a little bag of candy for everyone.

Then was time for the family gift.  The kids opened a little red, heart shaped box together and found a piece of paper inside.

The were thrilled with that "piece of paper."

Chloe was the only one who really knew what it was, and as soon as she said "baby," all the other kids started shouting and cheering.

There were 3 pictures on the ultrasound page.  One of the big kids asked if we were going to have 3 babies this time.  We told them it was just one- three different pictures of the same baby.

The kids all wanted a "peek" of the baby (my belly).  Is Mitchell knocking on my stomach?

And then everyone gave the baby a kiss.

These 4 kids are beyond excited.  They sat around and talked about what they wanted the baby to be- Mitch definitely wants a boy (that kid needs a brother!) and the girls all want another girl.  All of the kids offered to share a room with the baby, and some even offered to share a bed with him/her.

Valentine's Day was definitely about love here this year.  A day filled with fun things we don't do every day- finding out about a new baby is surely not a daily occurrence.  We are excited and grateful.

Hurry up September... we can hardly wait!