Valentine's Day

Ah, Valentine's Day.

First, read this, please. This post resonated with me because this day pretty much stunk for me for a lot of years and I know it still stinks for a lot of people for different reasons. And while I'm so, so thankful to God for the opportunity to love on my family on this day, it makes me sad that days like this are not happy ones for everyone. So I hem and haw and wait until it's almost not February before proceeding with posts like this.

So with that said...

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We celebrated a day early for a few reasons, but mostly because it just worked out that way with the kids' school schedule.

It started with heart-shaped pancakes for the kids' breakfast.  No pictures of the others because school mornings are harried as it is and making then serving heart-shaped pancakes almost did me in.

But this guy and I got to return home to seconds with the whole morning unscheduled ahead of us which was definitely alright with us.

Then the hubs walked in with these and this.  Because he just knows, you know?

The Pathlights (young adult) group at our church offered free babysitting that evening so parents with young kids could go out for an early Valentine's date. We don't often ask people to babysit for us because we know it's asking a lot to watch four kids, so we definitely jumped at this chance! They even fed the kids dinner so we didn't have to worry about packing food for them- yet another huge blessing to me.

So with kids dropped off into good hands, we scooted out and had an altogether lovely evening. This guy had made reservations at La Rive Gauche.

No kids means mama's gonna get a fancy grown-up drink.  ;)

These little guys and I meet again. But this time, they turned out to be delicious! Much better than the first one I tried.

The food was awesome. The decor though was very orange and grandmotherly. Comforting, in its own way.

Delicious bites eaten at a leisurely pace over even better conversation that came relaxed and easy. Feeling especially thankful for that last part having gone through seasons when talking to each other felt anything but relaxed and easy. Thank you, God.

Finished with this souffléd delight. And because we didn't specify that we wanted one to share, I got this puppy all to myself.

Thank you honey for being my Valentine for the last fifteen years and never missing an opportunity to make a night out extra special.

And thank you Pathlights ministry for doing this. We are so grateful and blessed by your service!

A Painting Kind of Day

The kids had a day off from school last month. Teacher in-service day.  "Mommy, what should we do today?" The question came while my eyes were still closed as I lay snug in my bed reveling in the idea of a morning to sleep in a bit longer than usual.

Except that my kids are not so good with the sleeping in idea.  If anything, they seem to wake up earlier on non-school days.  Someone please explain to me why this is.

But, it was another beautiful day out and it seemed a shame to be stuck inside when we didn't really have to be.

So, we headed out!  Right outside the front door.

To paint.

Still counts as outside, doesn't it?  At least no one here objected.

Duck lip alert.

"Mommy, can you take a picture of me with my painting?" Happy to oblige.

He took inspiration from the plant behind him. Very refreshing change from the alien battles he normally paints.

My instructions to dip only once into one color before painting seems to have been understood by him to dip once into each color before painting. And look, it only took me four kids to not be bothered by this!

Of course that meant his masterpieces all looked kinda like this.

Artists at work.

Love this girl.

Intent eyes.

Her first (see the 1 in the top left corner there?) of many masterpieces inspired by "Frozen".

Love this girl.

His first time painting like the big kids. He loved it. Aside from mommy making him wear this smock.

The feet of an artiste.

Hmm, maybe I could get them to paint their playroom walls next.

Siblings conferring.

My sweet baby hard at work.

On this. I think we shall call this one, "Rage Against the Machine".

"Thanks for letting me paint, Mom!"

There was definitely a "Frozen" theme here. Along with alien invasion battle scenes.

An altogether delightful way to spend an afternoon at home. I love days like this. Aside from the setting up/cleaning up/putting away required of me.

The Drive-In

We recently had a free Friday evening in front of us. We tossed around a few ideas. We vetoed some. We considered our remaining options. We ended up here...

At the drive-in. With not a small amount of rearranging and moving of booster seats, car seats, and folding down the back row, and despairing at the amount of trash we found under there, and getting a little cranky with one another (the parents), and distributing food (Jack-in-the-Box), and spilling a drink, and kicking off shoes, and trying to find a comfy spot, and snuggling down, and we were finally ready.

For our second viewing of this new favorite movie (of the girls').

And although we never were able to get the radio station without a lot of static, which left Phil wondering aloud if it was really worth driving an hour in traffic, pulling apart our van, listening to the opposite of Dolby digital surround sound, to watch a movie we had already watched and could've watched again at the theater not five minutes from our house, and to entirely miss the second feature because it was getting late and kids were getting tired...

It still made a fun memory for our kids who thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

So yes, it was still worth it.

But it's probably going to be an uphill battle trying to convince the poor man to do it again any time soon. :p

The Floats

In one of those moments of reminiscing, I asked Phil, "Do you remember when we went to see the Rose Parade floats when the kids were teeny?" We shared a laugh over it recalling that we very likely had more fun that day than the kids who maybe might have been bored out of their little minds.

In any case, we woke up the next morning and Phil decided we should go again and maybe the kids would enjoy it more now that they're older.

Famous last words.

Because seriously, what's there to enjoy when there's only stuff like this to look at?

A couple of birds, big whoop.

There was just a touch more excitement over seeing this float because 1) they saw it on tv the day before and 2) Trader Joes!

This was the only time that day where there wasn't a crowd of people around us so I grabbed a quick shot (still the Trader Joes float).

Not ten minutes there and already they were too hot. (Granted, it was a very warm day- the start of a very long heat wave with temps well into the upper 80s. In January! But apparently, these are beach kids who can only tolerate temps 75 +/-3 degrees.)

Not entirely pleased with Daddy's method of cooling him down.

Then they decided they were hungry. We thought this small Jonah-sized snack would tide them over. For a little while.

So we pressed on.

Like I said, it was crowded.

Thankfully, we still have the tank-like stroller that automatically creates space around us. Just the baby sitting on top of the stroller is different now.

But despite the heat, hunger, and crowds,

still totally worth it

to see all the different floats

 and so much creative detail in each one.

Depending on who you asked.

Paying homage to his motherland.

Do you hear the theme song in your head? No? Yeah, totally me neither.

Seriously people, what's not to love about this thoroughly enjoyable day?

A cute, crazy labor-intensive duck!

This sweet, I'm going to say, donkey, made of kernels of corn and red kidney beans among other things!

This big doggy looks like he's licking Jonah's head.  Har har.

This random bucket of potatoes among all the flowers that I still find puzzling now as I look at it again.

But no, none of my enthusiastic commentary or Phil's antics were enough to make them want to linger longer.

They were ready to leave.  Shocker.

Big brother lending a helping hand to his sagging little brother.  Anything to get us out of there faster.

He wanted to push the button and did it the way he's seen his siblings do it- with the back of his hand instead of his fingers. Illness averted. Well done, son.

The biggest smiles of the day? On the way running back to the van.

Hmm. It's looking like we'll not be back anytime soon. But give us another four years to forget the moans and groans, the heat, the hunger, and the crowds and we'll get to reminiscing again about how teeny they were and do it all over again.

Because you know, they'll be bigger then and would enjoy it more, right?

Right?