Valentine's Fun!!

I love Valentine's Day! It's probably in my top 3 of holidays!! It's just so fun, festive, and what's not to love about LOVE?!?  My favorite thing about Valentine's Day is showing LOVE to my boys, teaching them how to LOVE, showing them examples of true LOVE! I probably always do too much because when I'm in the midst of it, I ask myself, "Why did I do all this?" But I know why- because "the greatest of these is Love," 1 Corinthians 13:13. 

So I set out to shower my boys with overly abundant love!! 

 How could I not do a candy countdown!?!  

 This was our act of kindness jar. Each morning we picked one out and we had to complete it by the end of the day. Simple things- compliment a classmate, let others go first all day, make a card for the neighbors, pray for your brother, make an I-Love-You list about your family, be the BEST brother, leave a gift for the mailman. I was so happy when I picked Grant up at school and he told me about the things he did! I was so proud of him for remembering, even when I wasn't there to remind him! Small acts of kindness can leave the biggest impact in someones life!

Every morning, I wrote a heart for each boy about what I loved about them! This was their favorite part of our morning- they loved hearing the things I love most about them!! We also read about God's love each day! Reading those short and sweet verses really brought about some great conversations! 

This was probably my favorite activity! We took my favorite verse from 1 Corinthians and examined it, line by line. Each night before bed, we'd snuggle up and read through one or two lines and really talk about what it means to show love. The boys were so excited to "act it out" each night and I'd have to guess if they were showing love or not. Love their sweet little hearts! This is a big lesson for them to learn- there are a million was to show love but it all comes down to one thing- Love God with your whole heart and love one another. If they can learn that, they will show love to all who cross their paths! That is my prayer for them!! 

Date Morning With Grant

It's a very rare moment when Grant and I get to be alone together! We have special times at home, where once Wyatt is asleep, Grant sneaks back down and we watch a show together, but that usually is all our alone time we get. Unless we schedule a date and have someone watch Wyatt. But on this day, we were lucky that Wyatt had school and Grant did not, so Grant and I got to have a date morning!! We both were so looking forward to it!! Grant knew exactly what he wanted to do- go to Target for a Lego set he's been eyeing (he did 10 extra chores around the house just to earn this!), and then to the treasure shop! Any surprise that his love language is gifts?!?! 

Cuddles came along on our date as well and got VIP treatment at Target!!! Grant picked out his Lego set immediately, and then he said he felt like we should get Wyatt something too. While looking at the smaller Lego sets, we realized we already had them all, but he was just bound and determined to find something to give to Wyatt. So he picked out a bag of chocolate covered peanuts, one of Wyatt's favorite treats!! You would've thought Wyatt won the lottery when Grant showed him his surprise!

 On each of our dates we've been on, Grant ALWAYS chooses to go to the treasure shop (antique mall). He likes to make it a point to find a souvenir from our date to put on his tiny treasure shelf in his room. This was the one he picked out this time- a boy bear and a girl bear hugging, with a springy heart that says You&Me. He had me write the date on the bottom so he can always remember when we bought this together. Seriously- melt my heart!!

 He really really REALLY wanted to take this guy home! But at $85, he had to stay at the store! Very proud of Grant for getting over it so easily! That's not an easy thing for him to do!

 I had (still have) this doll from my childhood. You pull the string and it talks to you. I always loved it and thought it was adorable. Grant found it in my bag of stuffed animals at my parents house and brought it home years ago. He showed Levi and Levi said, "Get that creepy baby out of here!" Ever since then, Grant thinks its hilarious! So when we found another one at the store, he couldn't believe another one actually existed!!!

 Here is where Grant hit his jackpot!! Tons of beanie babies, all $1 each! He picked out three for him, and three for Wyatt, so they could add them to their zoo of beanie babies! 

At the end of our date, as we were driving back to Wyatt's school, at a stop light, Grant asked me to give him my hand. So I reached back there and he kissed the top of my hand and said, "That's what you're supposed to do at the end of a date!"  I teared up at such a sweet gesture, especially coming from Grant. He typically shys away from emotional moments. But there is something magical that happens when he's alone with me! He just morphs into this sensitive, emotional, sweet little man!!

 I pray for the girl that Grant dates in the future and that she may always see what a gentle natured, sweet guy he is!! I am so thankful for the special dates I get with my boy!

Grant's Valentine Party

The last party of the school year is the Valentine's Party! They have such a good time playing their games and doing their projects. Nicole, our other room mom, always makes some craft for the kids to do that is a treasured keepsake. So before they started their party, I came up to help them paint their creations! They turned out so adorable and will be hanging on my wall every year!! 

 They did a few more activites before their party really started! But they did get a chance to look through their valentine bag, although they couldn't open anything yet! But Grant loved looking through all his goodies! 

 He was especially excited to give his classmates his valentine he specifically picked out...

 His buddies working on a puzzle together.

They started off the party with snacks!! Grant was especially happy to find all the letters to his name in his Cheez-It bag- well, he had to improvise his N from a Z, but it totally worked!! 

 Since I was leading a game, I didn't get to go around and take pictures of everything, but in my station, we played Valentine Head Banz. They also played Jenga, Minute-to-Win-It stacking conversation hearts, and Freeze Dance. What more could a kindergartener ask for? 

I can't believe that was their last school party!! Where has the year gone?!? 

And since I'm on school parties- Wyatt had a little celebration at school, but they don't make a big deal of it and parents done come. But he couldn't wait to deliver his valentine's to his friends! He signed the backs.

Valentine's Cake Wars

One of Grant's favorite shows on the Food Network is Halloween Wars! He loves a good holiday food competition! He also loves Cupcake Wars. So he turned a fun chocolate playdoh experience into an all out competition!! 

We make chocolate playdoh around Valentine's every year. They like to make pretend chocolates, cakes, and just play with all our little valentines trinkets!! But Valentine's Cupcake Wars has been the biggest hit of the season! We've done this multiple times! I'm pretty sure one day, they spent over 2 hours playing this, and I finally had to tell them to clean up because I worried it was all going to dry out! Here are some of their amazing creations!!

On this day, they started with their Star Wars figures and made some Star Wars cakes while I gathered all our Valentine's supplies! This was a big hit as well!

And then the real competition began....

Time's Up!!!

 Wyatt made Valentine Star Wars mini cakes!

 Grant made this beauty of a cake!

 And then combined their powers to make this beautifully crafted creation!! A large cake with chocolate brownies on the outside! 

 Another day there were lots of mini cupcakes being made!!

I love these special activities with my sweet creative fellas!!!

February School and Art

 It may only be February 4th, but we've been in full swing of celebrating Valentine's Day for a few weeks now!! Lots of school, crafts, and festive fun, as usual!! 

After taking down our winter decorations, my bookshelves were missing cute kid art, so we had to get artsy and paint some canvases. I let the boys search my Pinterest board to find what they wanted to make and this is what they chose! I was surprised Grant chose this one since it was so detailed. I just love how cute and colorful it is!! Wyatt had fun dotting his canvas and made the cutest masterpiece!

 Wyatt loves learncreatelove.com and after making about everything on there for Christmas, he had to find whatever was available for Valentine's Day. He did the painting, I did the cutting, he did the gluing. Pretty cute little guys!

 Wyatt and I have been having a ton of fun working on the centers I put together. Our morning time after we take Grant to school is so fun for both of us! His excitement and enthusiasm for learning just melts my heart!!! 

 Soring medial vowel sounds in his CVC words.

 Spelling and writing CVC words

Setting up pink and red heart math equations. His new favorite hobby is doing addition problems!

Sight Word race. He's beat me 10 out of 10 times. He said it's because I always let him go first, but next time I get to go first! Sweetie pie!

Roll and Cover. He takes his dice behind his back to his "labratory" to do his adding then turns around and shouts out his answer! He's such a treat! :)

And it wouldn't be February without our wafer cookies!! Cute and delicious!!!

10 more days til Valentine's Day! I wonder what other fun we will have?!!?

Stuffed Animal Zoo

The stuffed animal obsession in our house is no where near disappearing! In fact, they've played with their stuffed animals more in the last month than they usually do! Their imaginations have just taken over and I absolutely love it!!! 

One afternoon after school, they ran right upstairs and got busy. I'm assuming they talked about playing animals before they went to bed the night before, because they knew exactly what their plan was. They gathered the laundry baskets, bins, boxes, and whatever containers they could find and happily played upstairs for quite a long time. And then they came down to get me and told me I just HAD to see what they made! But first, I had to buy a ticket and get a map because I was going to the Zoo!!

 This was the monkey exhibit!

 The bears, obviously.

 The aquarium!

 There was also an arctic animal exhibit, dog and cat exhibit, and an "unrealistic animal exhibit"(the one with the ghost in it, naturally), and a regular animal exhibit. 

Grant was the zookeeper. 

And Wyatt was the ticket taker!!

Those boys and their love for their stuffed animals! Sometimes they give me a headache because they want to stay up late at night playing animals, and usually when they do, there are animals in every square inch of their room!!! But they so enjoy it and so enjoy each other!! Can't beat it!!