Valentine Festivities #1

We started our Valentine festivities Sunday night (well really all month with all of the crafts we did) with a FHE lesson on loving our Family. We played a Family Chutes and Ladders game that I had made for a primary activity a few years ago.

Then we made and ate Heart shaped pizza.

Aubrey saw me get out the camera and said, "Mommy take a picture of me with the pizza since I made it." Which was a pretty accurate statement. I made and shaped the crust and Aubrey added on the sauce and toppings by herself. I am pretty impressed with her ability to spread the toppings out so nicely on the pizza instead of making one big clump!

Brooke saw me take a pic of Aubrey and said, "Take picture of Brooke" and then struck this pose for me. What a little cutie pants!

The night before I had made red heart shaped rice crispy treats for dessert. And since I don't believe a dessert is actually a dessert unless there is chocolate in it, I piped on some melted chocolate chips.

Brooke definitely shares my opinion on desserts because she did not eat hers, but instead licked the chocolate off the top. (This is a common occurrence for her. She will pick out the chocolate chips out of cookies and muffins and not eat the rest.)

 Aubrey saw me taking a picture of Brooke eating her dessert and piped in, "Take a picture of me too."

Then Brooke said, "More pictures of Brooke."

 

  The Aubrey said, "More pictures of me." This went on and on until I finally said that I had enough pictures. I've created two monsters!

 While we were making the pizza, Jeff put up a little canopy/tent and decorated it for Valentines for Aubrey. She went to go see it after dinner.

This was her cute little expression when she saw it.

Then the girls had fun playing with the balloons.

Aubrey started the night sleeping with the tent down, but as expected she got scared and asked for us to pull it up.

Curly Hair

 On Saturday I continued my quest to get pretty curls in my girls hair without disrupting their sleep with sponge curlers.

My experiment: Use strips of fabric to tie up in their hair. (I've done socks in the past, but that was too bulky and hard for Aubrey to sleep in)

 

Notice the pretty red polish on Aubrey's nails. I even added a top coat because the instant dry polish tends to chip/wash off really easily. She sat so still for a long time allowing them to dry. And then the little monkey chipped off the middle of all of her nails Sunday morning.

I knew the fabric would make tight curls - but my hope was that if I untied them first thing in the morning, then the curls would relax a bit before church.

Well, since Brooke has such short hair on top, she ended up looking like a poodle. Not so pretty! Jeff's reaction was to laugh and then ask if I was going to give her a bath.

Instead of a bath, I re-rolled the top of her hair with curlers.

Aubrey's curls were much tighter than I wanted, but still looked cute. Very Shirley Templesque. And they did not relax at all before church or after church or even the next morning for that matter!

My adorable little Brookie Bug looking like a living Valentine on her way to church!

My Aubrey Kaye - oh how I love that face!

Her pics were taken after church and as you can see, the curls were still very much intact!

I already have an idea for Curly Hair Experiment number 3. We'll see if I get to it this Saturday. (No I don't think the girls have to have curly hair for church, I am just having fun experimenting with it!)

Yesterday

Brooke was being a cute little monkey while I vacuumed yesterday.

When we were in Aubrey's room she discovered her apron and hot pad and had to put them on and "make food". (I may need to break out the sewing machine and make Brooke her own apron.)

 

 Then when we got to her room she discovered her babies. The day before Aubrey had filled the rocking chair with all of Brooke's babies. Brooke thought that was pretty cool, so she decided to do that again today. Then she climbed on in and repeated, "rock babies" over and over again. What a cutie pants.

After the chores, Aubrey wanted to make more valentine's. That girl does not tire of crafts! And as luck would have it, as they were decorating the mail man came to the door with a Valentine package from Grandma Buell - which included lots of stickers. They immediately put the stickers to good use on their valentine's!

Later in the afternoon, Aubrey and I got to go on a special Mommy Daughter date. One of the presents Jeff got us for Christmas was tickets to the ballet, Cinderella. Aubrey and I had been excited about it all week!

The day before Aubrey informed me that she had decided what she wanted to wear to the ballet. You must look like a princess if you are going to see a princess show! Then yesterday, as we were getting ready for the show, she told me how she wanted her hair done. I can't believe what a big girl she is becoming!

On the way to the show I mentioned something about it being a special date with her and mommy. Her response was, "But when does Brookie get a special date with Daddy." What a little sweetheart - she is always thinking about her sister!

We had such a fun time at the ballet. For a good portion of the show Aubrey sat at the edge of her seat with her eyes glued to the show. At intermission I told her it was a break and asked her if she needed to go potty. She responded, "I do need to go potty, but is the break a long break or a short break. Because I don't want to miss any of the show." Oh she is so much fun to have around! After the show we got to meet some of the ballerinas and she even got Cinderella's autograph. (Uncharacteristically, I did not bring my camera!) I Love getting to spend special time with my Aubrey!!

Preschool - V is for Valentine

Preschool was at my house this week and I got to do the Valentine Party.

We started off with the crafts this time. I was hoping they would dry by the time it was over - but that did not happen.

First we made Valentine Vases with heart flowers for their Mom's.

Aubrey's  completed vase for Me.

Then we decorated sugar cookies. The night before I told Aubrey that they would be making Valentine's for their Mom's and Dad's. She insisted that she also get to make a Valentine for Brooke. I knew we wouldn't have time to add another craft to the day, so I decided the cookies that they were going to decorate would be for their siblings. After they decorated, I put the name of each of their siblings on the cookie that they choose for them.

Then we made heart frames for the Dad's. I had each Mom send me a photo of their child with their Dad. I had the pictures in the frames for them and ready to decorate. They loved seeing their pictures. They each had to look at each other's picture. It was really cute.

Then we made puppy sacks for them to collect their Valentine's in. After they made the sacks they each put in their Valentine they had brought for each other in the respective bags.

Then I had a little time left to actually talk to them about the letter V. I had printed off pictures of words that start with V (vacuum, van, vest, volcano, victory, violet, vanish, violin). They took turns drawing a picture out of the bag and we acted out the word. They had a lot of fun with this.

Then I demonstrated for them the word vanish by doing a magic trick. I made a quarter disappear. (A trick Jeff has been doing for years.)

Then they got to practice vanishing by playing Hide and Seek.

We tried to squeeze in eating Vegetables for a snack - but most of them just wanted to play instead.

It ended up being a fun preschool day.

As soon as it was over, Aubrey very excitedly gave Brooke her cookie she made for her. She made sure to decorate the purple one for Brooke. (She always makes sure Brooke gets the purple things because she knows how much Brooke loves purple.)

Brooke sure did Love her cookie.

Then Aubrey wanted to go through her sack of Valentines from her friends. She found some candy and set up this little picnic for her and Brooke. Aubrey is always very sweet to share with Brooke and usually I don't even have to ask her to - she does it on her own.

 

Then we had the Smith's come over and help us decorate the rest of the cookies.

Brooke was so happy to get to join in on the fun. She was being a cute little decorator.

 Cute cheesy smile!

Clayson was their too enjoying the yummy cookies and sprinkles.

 

After the cookies the girls got into costume and put on many plays.

Aubrey changed costumes after each play, but Zoe and Brooke were content to remain a witch and a ballerina.

The only play I remember is Zoe the witch was after Brooke the ballerina. Aubrey the fairy runs in and saves the ballerina from the witch.

So Stinkin' Cute

 I took some pictures of Aubrey & Jeff for a Valentine craft we're gonna do at preschool. I got some really cute ones that I had to share. I am in love with this first one.