Valentine's Day

As promised, here is my Valentine's post.  I reread last year's post and must say I did not have quite as much energy this year, but I still tried to make it special for the kids.  We started on Monday with Morgan's Valentine celebration at her Mighty Max class.  I dressed her in hearts and braids for the occasion.


She enjoyed passing out her Valentine's to everyone in the class.


And she certainly enjoyed receiving them.


At the end of class, her teacher gave her two heart cookies.  She was a happy girl.


The day before Valentine's Day, we spent two and a half hours making the big kids' Valentines.  We made molded chocolates for everyone in the class.  This is the third or fourth year in a row making these for Valentine's day.  I started the tradition because I remembered making them with my mom on Valentine's day.  The first year that I made them with Taylor was quite frustrating.  She was much too little to be of any help and I had not yet learned the secrets to making these.  We have certainly come a long way since then.  In fact, this is the first year that I pretty much let the kids to it on their own.




When I said we worked on this for over two hours, I was referring to me and Taylor.  Charlie lasted about twenty minutes before running off to play Mario Kart.  Luckily, he only has five classmates to make Valentines for!




Taylor was a trooper, though, and helped through every step of making valentines for all 25 of her classmates.  She told me to enjoy this year when we only had 30 to make because next year Charlie will have at least 17 kids in his class.


Finally the big day arrived.  I decorated the kitchen the night before so the kids could start off the day with extra cheer.


I attended Charlie's preschool party.


He made crafts, played games (I brought Valentine bingo), ate sweets, and sang/danced to his guitar-playin mama.


After school, I gave the kids some little Valentine goodies.


We finished the day by celebrating at the Wells' house.  We had a great dinner followed by nice fellowship.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!

a quickie

How's this for you? Two posts in one day!  I realized that I left out one important event from my last post.  Last week I had the pleasure of attending another Mother Daughter event at Taylor's school.  This time it was a pajama movie night.


Grace and Jessica came too.


In true slumber party fashion, they served pizza, cotton candy, popcorn and M&Ms.


I had such a wonderful time with Taylor last year and this year did not disappoint.  I think one of my favorite parts is having my daughter choose to spend time with me.  There were lots of her friends there and they did sneak in the occasional group hug.


However, she much preferred to stay with her mom, making me laugh as she used her cotton candy as a microphone.  It made me realize how little one-on-one time Taylor and I actually have.


I think Jessica had a similar experience with Grace as the two snuggled on the gym floor for the movie.


Am I a lucky mom or what?

The Past Two Weeks

Oops.  Somehow I've allowed two and a half weeks to pass without a post.  Just when I was getting into my groove of a relaxing winter, February began with a bang.  After a month of no professional photo shoots, I had a week of soccer shots everyday followed by three individual sessions.  This of course led to hours of editing, ordering and packaging which translated to less hours spent in front of the computer for personal use.  It did make me appreciate my 'month off' even more and made me realize how much I needed it.  Alas, here are the moments that occurred in between all the aforementioned tasks.
Taylor and Charlie finally beat mom and dad at Beat the Parents (after we modified the rules a bit for them).  A celebration was in order.



Taylor lost her other front tooth.  (Grace pulled it for her on the bus.)


Taylor had Nation's Day at school. Each class had a different country to represent.  First grade was France.


Taylor and Mark finished the first Harry Potter book. (More on that later)




Morgan has officially stopped asking to be called 'baby'.  However, now she has about eight babies that she insists on sleeping with and carrying throughout the house.  She's named them Mommy Baby, Daddy Baby, Charlie Baby, Taylor Baby, Morgan Baby and Grandma Baby.


That little one whose hand she's clutching is Morgan Baby.




As mentioned, Taylor and Mark finished Harry Potter.  So we all watched the first movie together.


Taylor and Mark were quick to point out the movie's inconsistencies with the book.


Despite many trips to the potty, Morgan has yet to actually do anything on it.  Sigh.


We all watched the Super Bowl together in the loft.


I use the term 'watched' loosely.


Taylor sat in so I could get my settings right on an upcoming photo shoot.




Oh, how I love that smile.


Charlie sat in, too.  You can see he was thrilled about it.


I hate to use the term, but Morgan has entered her 'terrible twos'.  She saves most of the drama for her mama.  Lucky me.


I started taking an online photography course.  Here was my assignment on using window light.


My mom gave me an exercise video to do at home.  Taylor has been doing it with me.




Charlie jumps in every once in a while.


Speaking of jumping.  Who can resist a good bubble wrap popping?




Taylor started gymnastics this week. (Charlie starts this weekend.)


It is a very happening place, and was hard to watch her.


This was her very first time on the balance beam.  The coach spent a lot of extra time with her showing her proper technique.


Next time I will bring my other lens.


Finally, here's a shot from yesterday.  Charlie was hanging out in his sisters' room during his rest time.


I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day.  I will post about our day of love this weekend!