Snowy Valentines

Today was Valentine’s Day, and YET ANOTHER SNOW DAY.  I gotta say, I’m pretty much over snow days–after a little while trying to work and making it through a couple video conferences, I just called it a day and played with the kids.  Luckily, I had purchased everyone’s Valentine’s presents well in advance, so being housebound due to the snow this week didn’t cause me any problems.  They got some fun sweets-themed games, like a cookie-match game, and Kendall got a shape/color matching game that looks like a heart shaped box of chocolates!  Brian got the complete series 2 set of Star Wars Angry Birds (yay eBay!) and they got a couple more baskets of play food, since those are such perennial favorites.  Kendall wore her cute Valentine outfit today, even though she stayed home–the tunic is made to be oversized, so maybe she can wear it again next year.  The kids were a little concerned that their classroom’s Valentine activities couldn’t happen today, but I reassured them that of course they will get rescheduled.  The kids enjoyed playing with Play-Doh today (Kendall is partial to the waffle maker) and the Star Wars toys.  Somehow they managed to bring their Anywhere Chairs downstairs–and used them as a base for playing Star Wars.  The kids appreciated their cards–Brian really loved his talking robot card!  We let the kids play with their plasma cars in the garage some just to get out some of the extra wiggles.  I tried out using Vine to make some six-second mini movies of the kids’ antics.  This evening we made cupcakes–I had some strawberry cake mix and some cream cheese to make frosting with, plus a can of Valentine sprinkles and my heart-shaped liners, so we got it done without a trip to the store. 😉  The kids enjoyed decorating, and Brian begged and begged for me to pipe some icing into his mouth until I gave in–of course I then had to do the same for Kendall.  I called these my “Valentine Surprise” cupcakes–when nobody was looking, I hid some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the bottom of the cupcake cups (a pretty tricky feat with the kids right there!)  Brandon managed to sneak out to visit the pharmacy today–pretty sure that’s how he managed to get some extra contraband into the house.  He gave the kids their presents from him while the cupcakes baked–both Reese’s related candy+plush toy combinations.  Hmm, hoping to snag some for yourself, I see how it is! 😉  The kids loved their candy, especially Kendall, who got pretty crafty about opening up her own Reese’s on the side–I think she got a lot more than we planned on giving her..!  Well, after all that extra sugar, nobody was going to bed on time, so we let them do Kendall’s Hello Kitty puzzle.  Finally, trying to go to bed, Brian was struck with artistic inspiration, and created this Valentine Shrine in his room, with his Curious George Valentine book, any red things he could find, and the kids’ new Mameshiba friend who joined us today, the red Chili Bean.  By the time we got the kids to bed, we were exhausted.  We had a chuckle over Brandon’s present to me, half-price markdown drugstore chocolate, bought on the day of.  Weak and sad, any other year–but right now, I’m just so glad and relieved he’s gotten his diagnosis of ADHD and a prescription–I’m really hopeful this will help things.