Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday, we spent the day getting all of Poppy's valentine's ready for school.  She was so excited to pass out her bookmarks...

 We also made these yummy cookies and Poppy packaged them up and passed them out to grandparents...

This morning we were all greeted by chocolates and flowers at the breakfast table.  Then as soon as we dropped Poppy off at school, Sam and I whipped up a heart shaped cake.  Sam was not too happy when I didn't let him eat this cake at 10:00 this morning, but that's understandable.

Then it was off to the Korea House for dinner and back to our house for that cake...

 Poppy checking out her loot from school...

 And how sweet is it that Marc helped Sam make me a valentine - my favorite gift of the day!!!

weekend fun

Poppy stayed home from school for the first time ever on Friday!  She started complaining the night before about her cheeks hurting her and she felt warm and was really emotional.  She woke up pretty much back to normal on Friday, but just to be on the safe side I kept her home.  By about 11am I was looking for some new things to do to keep both kids busy so I whipped up this activity I found on pinterest...

It was just a ziploc bag filled with a teaspoon each of baby oil and two colors of water soluble paint and then you double seal the bag with tape...

They thought it was super cool- for about 2 minutes!!!

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Saturday morning, the boys stayed home and Poppy and I headed out for a day of fun together.  First we had music class and a concert at suzuki strings.  Then we went out for a quick lunch together and headed off to West Seneca to see a high school production of Beauty and the Beast.  Poppy was super excited to see this musical and couldn't believe we were able to get a ticket to the sold out show.  And then of course as soon as it started and she saw the beast on stage she said that she was ready to go home!  After a while she relaxed and was able to enjoy the show, right up until the last scene when she hid under my coat!  She is a hoot, this girl...

 After the show she said that she really loved it, and then fell asleep about 2 minutes later...

Meanwhile, daddy introduced Sammy to the art of fingerpainting....

Marc said he really liked painting and even the cleaning up part...

Then we came home just in time to help daddy make some chocolate pudding...

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Sunday was nice and relaxing, just hanging out playing all day...

 Sam accidentally knocked this tower over as soon as I snapped the picture and then he just kept looking at the aftermath with this look on his face, like he was about to burst into tears...

And now we're getting ready for some Valentiney fun...

Happy Birthday Uma!

We celebrated my mom's birthday tonight at PizzaThursday.  We changed up the pizza routine and ordered Moe's to go.  Followed by almond cake.  Yummmm.

lessons

Tuesday - piano lessons...

Wednesday - ballet class...

Not sure what I was thinking when I signed Poppy up for both piano and ballet this year.  Two days of lessons back to back is kind of a pain, and we would still like to see her in a team-orientated sport or activity.  But now the problem is that she loves both piano and ballet, and I'm not about to sign her up for a third activity.  Hmmm.

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So today was one of those days when I thought it would be really nice if I was back to work.

Sam bit me this morning.  And wanted to be held all day.  And he's heavy.

Sam has started this new little trend of pooping every time I get Poppy's coat and shoes on, Sam's coat and shoes on,  and my coat and shoes on and are about to head out the door.  Seriously, he's done it almost every morning for the last week.  Do you even know how annoying that is?

Poppy and Sam played "monsters" all afternoon, which is really cute to watch, but leaves me with a headache every time. (all they do is scream and chase each other around the house)

I tried a new recipe for dinner (which was a lot of work to make).  Poppy took one look and started whining.  Sam took one look and pushed his plate away.

As Marc and I were getting the kids ready for bed (at 6:30 because we both just needed them to go to bed already!) I said I could really use a spa weekend getaway.  Unfortunately that's not in our budget, but I do have dinner and (an adult) painting class with a friend on Friday night to look forward to!

Monday and a new(ish) haircut

Playdate #1 - my friends from school, Carolyn and Tony, came over for a visit with their kids this morning while Poppy was at school.  Bringing the "coffee klatch" back!!!

Playdate #2 - meeting up with all of Poppy's school buddies at the science museum after school....

(notice she is playing with all the boys, while there were plenty of girls to play with too)

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After naps - I love to see this thumb-sucking, blankie holding face looking at me...

Poppy made a new reading spot for herself...

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And I somehow forgot to mention that Poppy got her hair cut last week, which was a pretty big deal around here!  I've been trying to get her to go to a salon for weeks, but she would have no part of it.  Until I sweetened the deal with the promise of taking her to the bookstore for a brand new book of her choice after the haircut.  So the next day, we went to her very first salon experience.  She did such a great job, getting her hair washed and then sitting in the chair all by herself.  She told her stylist that she wanted her hair cut just like snow white.  And snow white is exactly who she looked like when she walked out of the salon...

 How cute is her haircut?!  Love, love, love it!

The weekend.

Friday at the art gallery...

Saturday morning reading...

 Sunday morning ballet exercises...

Nice relaxing weekend, just the way I like it!

Thursday

I've discovered how to make homemade miso seaweed soup.  This makes for 2 happy kids at lunchtime...

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Poppy and Sam discovered these hanging on their chairs today.  Their own personal mailboxes so that we can leave them love letters and sweet surprises.  Today they each had a sticker sheet waiting for them in it, and I just put a heart shaped container full of Kix in it for them to find tomorrow morning.

(they are actually Christmas mailboxes I found at pbkids on clearance after the holidays, and I just put a piece of felt over where it said "Merry Christmas" so that I can use them for different holidays)

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Playing games with cousins at Pizza Thursday.....