Valentine’s Day—2019!

Oh. My. Stinking. Goodness.

Lemme tell ya (and you may already know this or remember this): Valentine’s Day is no small thing when you’re a mother of preschool and elementary-aged children!

I mean, holy bejeezes, am I EXHAUSTED in that Christmas school party kind of way, ha.

What a marathon day (with lots o’ other life craziness packed in there somewhere, with moving estimates that happened today and so on and so on and so on).

Basically, this was my first year with two kiddos officially in school. And if it was this raucous with just two, I can’t even imagine was three will be like next year!

And the parties were even slightly staggered in timing today. Someday, when I have three in the same elementary school (be still, my heart), I’ll be one of those mothers running from room to room to give some face time to each kiddo within a short one-shot-to-catch-them-all party window, ha. 

But, man, was it a fun day.

That only would have been sweeter if they hubby had been around to participate. :( So I suppose we’ll be dragging out the festivities at least until tomorrow, when he makes it home. :)

So...we started our day with little gift for the kiddos (costumes), which is why Little Man was dressed like this for our morning errands:

And, yes, I caved and got him the stuffed Groot at the grocery store when we were picking up flowers for the teachers, because: 1) I’m a softie like that, especially on a national holiday celebrating love, and, 2) he’s truly taken the brunt of my distraction and necessary move-related errands over the last few weeks, and he handles it like a champ, and I love him for it. 



Also—this is what your flowers end up looking like when you take tiny children along for opinions, ha.



So now...way back in September, at the start of Chicklet’s school year, I, of course, had no idea that our life would turn all topsy-turvy. So it seemed like a wildly brilliant idea to sign up to take care of her class Valentine party because, hey, at least it wasn’t the Christmas one, ha.

But, oh, hooo was I mistaken. There’s plenty involved in any school party, no matter the season. And I’m starting to become convinced that Valentine’s is even more labor intensive because of the, well, Valentines you have to assemble for each and every kiddo in your child’s class(es)!

But it was completely manageable with some advanced planning. Which meant her teachers were either super-pumped or super-scared that I was emailing them mid-January to say that all was in order, ha.

Again—planning is my life, these days. It’s the only way to control the chaos! A couple of nights dividing stickers into heart baggies for the crafting fun, creating love bugs for each kiddo, assembling goodie bags, and baking sugar cookies for decorating, and life was good. 

And every stinking time I show up at Chicklet’s school for any event, I’m sooooo glad I put in the time, because she’s always wildly proud and excited to have me there (in case these pictures don’t convey that, hehe). I just love hearing her say to her little friends, “that’s my Mama.” :)









And bless her ever-loving teachers for their patience and stamina with all of the hyped-up kiddos today. They crafted all, dang, day, and each kiddo seemed particularly happy, happy, joy, joy. :)







I just adore their cute, little love bug hats. :)





I mean, who wants to decorate the cookie when you can just lick the straight icing??? ;)









It was just so fun and so joyful, and Chicklet was so excited over her first, official round of Valentines. It was all so precious.

And then...we hopped in the car and went straight to Chica’s school!

Despite being rather slow (and slow to eat) this morning, I let her go to school, and I’m glad I did, because she seemed to handle it fairly well, and I would have been sad on her behalf, had she missed. 

Look at all their cute homemade Valentine boxes!



I have gobs more pictures of her classroom fun than I’m posting, because I try, when possible, not to post clear face-shots of other kiddos. But I assure you, the fun and craziness was had by all!



And somehow, my crazies ended up sprawled on the floor quite a bit, ha.



I finally just wore them full-on out! ;)



I mean, I know a lot of people loathe the manufactured-celebration that is the Valentine holiday, but I’m not one of of those people. I just love it up. And despite our moving craziness, I think we did it up right on the big day and the weeks leading up to it. :)



And lastly, I may or may not have fed them at 4:45, bathed them at 6:10, and had them all snuggly in bed by 7:00 on the dot.

Did I mention that Valentine’s Day is exhausting??!

But delivery pizza helps with that. ;)

Oh, and lastly, lastly—the costume presents.

As you noticed, Little Man was Spider-Man, Chicklet’s princess dress was a bit of a bomb because she declared it too scratchy (I’ll have to return and come up with something else), but Chica’s was a big hit!

Long ago, in 2015, she was obsessed with Elsa’s Frozen Fever dress, and we got it for her as a potty training present.





I mean, look how tiny she was, and I remember thinking how old and huge she was back then! Ugh. It hurts.



Anywho. The dress (a size four) hasn’t fit for ages, and we haven’t thought about it in awhile. But it somehow crossed my mind, and I searched on Amazon and found this amazing one for about $20!

She. Was. Ecstatic. Especially since we hadn’t talked about it in so long, so it was a total surprise!









So in summary:

Valentine’s is a marathon. But today was a fabulous one. And that makes my heart happy!

Over and out.