Valentine's Celebrations

We had a fun weekend celebrating the Day of Love. 

Katherine had a fun little Valentine's performance at dance the Friday before Valentine's Day.

Elisabeth wanted to look festive for her class too even though she's outgrown the Valentine's dance 😥

Katherine did a great job during her performance. Her class was poorly attended because of the ice storm, so she got to perform it again for us the following week. She dances and jumps and twirls all over our house all the time. Dancing is her thing!

After her dance we came home to get ready for our Valentine's Day Party with friends. We had some up in the air plans for the week of Valentine's Day, so our party was planned pretty last minute, and we kept it small with just our party friends, and the boys' best friends. Then at the last minute, one of our friends woke up sick, so the party was even smaller, but the kids didn't mind. They still had a great time celebrating, snacking, and exchanging Valentines. 

They had fun decorating Valentine boxes for the party. 

Nathan's was especially creative. 

Our friends came over after lunch and the kids were ready to exchange their Valentines. 

Asher's box was also super creative. 

They couldn't wait to dig into their boxes and find out what they got!

These girls loved the scratch off Valentines. 

The kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing together. The girls conned me into letting them watch a show in my room. I thought Kate might fall asleep during it.

The boys spent most of the afternoon playing Rock Band. 

I'm so thankful for these friendships and getting to do some of the normal school parties even while we're homeschooling. It has added so much fun and excitement to our schooling this year. 

Friday night, Matt and I were able to get out of the house for a Valentine's Date. He planned a fun, special evening. He's the best Valentine around. 

Saturday looked like the last normal weather day before another winter storm hit, and we wanted to take advantage of it. I texted Brooke and asked if they wanted to get out of their house and come spend the day with us before we were all cooped up inside for another week. They jumped at the idea and we spent Saturday visiting, playing games and listening to the kids play with their friends. That evening, we kicked Brooke and Corey out for a much needed date, and we ordered pizza for the kids and let them have a movie night. We all felt renewed and recharged with friend time to keep us going through another week of bad weather 

Sunday was Valentine's Day, and the kids snuck upstairs and worked all morning on a Valentine's Day present for me and Matt. It was the sweetest thing. One of our Valentine's Day traditions is to have a treasure hunt for the kids to find their Valentine surprises. This year the kids made one for us, and our present was a homemade book about what they love about us. Cue all the sappy tears. I just love them so much! Those kids are absolute treasures!

I don't know how they'll top this next year. They hit it out of the ballpark with their thoughtfulness and creativity. 

After Matt and I finished our treasure hunt, we sent them on theirs. 

They managed to solve their clues pretty quickly and were all happy with their surprises. 

That evening we had our traditional cheese fondue for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. 

We also shared about reasons why we love each other over our dinner. 

Katherine says she is a big fan of our Valentine's Day traditions. 

I hope the people inside our home always feel loved because they are loved more than they'll ever know. It's joy to celebrate so much love every Valentine's Day. 
 

Life Lately

The beginning of new year is usually a slow time for our family (and also one of my least favorite times of the year). We have had a pretty slow start to 2021, but there have still been a few fun highlights. 

The kids packed up a game to take to play while Katherine was at her gymnastics class. I'm happy that they enjoy playing together so much. 

Samuel is playing basketball for the first time this season. He's been enjoying it, and it has been fun to watch him try something new.

This isn't exactly fun- but my kitchen has looked like this for a lot of the new year. Matt has been working hard on refinishing our cabinets. The mess drives me a little nutty, but I'm thankful for his hard work and the way he always prioritizes making our house look nice. He's a keeper! And I love how the cabinets are turning out!

I added Kate to our 2021 date schedule and she got the first date of the year. I took her to Cherry Berry and to do a little shopping. We had the best afternoon. Katherine has a way of making everyone feel special. She has a bright, fun personality and always enjoys spending time with people. She's a gift and I was thrilled to spoil her and spend some quality, uninterrupted time with her. She was a fan of Cherry Berry and is already planning her next trip.

Then we did a little shopping at Claire's and rode the carousel at the mall. 

She named her horse and gave it a kiss when the ride was over. Three Year Olds are the best! I want to bottle her up.

We ended our date with a trip to Barnes and Noble for a new Pinkalicious book and Shimmer and Shine book. 

We've tried to continue our fancy dinner nights but they've been a little sporadic. Elisabeth asked to try French food, so we tried a new recipe and had crepes for dessert. 

I don't think I'd ever made crepes before, but they turned out pretty well. We'll have to try them again another time. 

Katherine asks to play Sleeping Queens multiple times per day and we always do. I never want to forget how obsessed she was with this game when she was three. 

She also does a dance/gymnastics show for us almost everyday too. It's another thing I always want to remember about her. 

Nathan set up all his Harry Potter minifigures for display. Both the boys are in the middle of Harry Potter books right now and are loving them. 

Elisabeth got to spend a special day with Sarah for her birthday. They went to lunch and painted ceramics and then had a play date. These two are the cutest little friends. 

We had Makinley and Ainsley over for a play date and the girls dressed up and put on a gymnastics competition for the moms. So cute! The girls all play so well together when they get together. 

These little dancers are cute friends too. Katherine gets so excited when she sees Amelia at dance each week. 

Elisabeth was on a play date kick during January/Februrary and had one of her best friends from Pre-K over for the afternoon. I know Elisabeth wishes she could see Paige more often- She was spoiled getting to play with her daily last year in Pre-K. They had a fun time playing together. 

They were kind enough to let Katherine join in the fun too. 

We've been learning about the human body as a part of our homeschool, and the kids got to make edible spines one afternoon. They like the hands on learning activities, particularly when they involve food, ha!

They spent a weekend building a duplo store/amusement park/movie theater/fun land. They called it BFL which stands for Baugher Fun Land. It fills my heart so much whenever they all work/play together on a project. I'm always telling them that it's one of my all time favorite things to see as their mom. 

Those four kids make the cold, boring month of January much more bearable.