Oh for the Love....!

Years ago when I was in grade school I remember valentines day with excitement. Our class would have a small party and we passed out our valentines we had so carefully signed our names on and place them usually in some sort of large paper envelope hanging from our desk. In those days we decorated those envelope the day before as part of art class and the valentines which by no means were characters from disney or any other name brand- we had to go with the generic- no name "be my valentine" kind. I guess with 6 siblings thats the way it is and no way did we ever give out candy and rarely do I remeber getting a whole lot of candy. (Ben informes me they didn't even get to buy thier valentines- they had to hand make them- he always has a story to one up mine on being poor! He will always win at that!) Boy how times have changed! Ethan, Jake and Jocelyn are the kind of kids that I wish I could have been when I was in grade school. The cool kids who have the cool valentines and give out candy with them. The only difference is this is just the norm now days. I don't think there was one single valentine that didn't have candy on it! The kids have been on sugar over loads- it's like halloween all over again and I've just let them eat as much as they want. The faster the better- get it over and done with and I won't find wrappers or hear Riley beg for candy anymore. A few weeks ago I had purchased the valentines while at walmart and the boys seemed happy with my picks, then a couple days later Jake asked "Are we going to give out candy?". When I said no I don't think so - his face just fell. Arrrgh. So needless to say Ben headed to Smiths friday morning to purchase sugar cookies for Ethans class and 2 bags of candies! What spoiled boys! I also remeber in highschool buying valentine grams to send to friends in school- their school did this! Elementry School!!!! Ethan and Jake were on a quest to get the most in each of their classes and I admit I kinda helped out- they did chores to earn quarters and ended up buying each other and themselves the most in their class! Oh to be a kid- they were not ashamed at all buying for themselves and all I could say was -"I could've bought you a whole bag of suckers for that price" which they informed me was not the point of the whole thing!Crazy boys! Ethan even had a secret admirer which he thought he knew who it was but now is not so sure! How cute!
As for thier valentines boxes, Jake just wanted his shoe box covered with paper so he could draw on it- I had to stop him when he started drawing some kind of scary monter with blood on it- for goodnes sakes- valentines is about love!!! So for Ethan, his class was having a contest and I really wanted Ethan to win so after long debate I came up with the idea of it looking like a valentine monster eating the valentines as the kid dropped them in. Well when Jake saw the results he wanted his the same. I wish I would've gotten a picture of his before we covered it with crete paper. Needles to say Ethan didn't win- sponge bob reigned over his and he was a little bummed although quite a few kids voted for his. Nothing a little candy won't solve!

Jocelyn had a fun party on thursday with her preschool class and loved signing her name on her valentines although after about five we traded off and on with writng her name-"Jocelyn is a long name" she said. She gave out tinker bell valentines with pencils. Riley got into it all also. He had a box to decorate and him and Jocelyn made valentine pictures to give to AmyLyn. Jocelyn tried to convince Riley to give his to Andy-"he's a good guy,Riley" But no way Riley just wanted to color for himself! Funny guy! As for Ben and I, we went out friday night-thanks to AmyLyn and Andy for watching the kids- they had a blast and Ben and I needed the break. Even if it was only dinner at chiles and a walk through Target(without kids!-Heaven!!!) Other than that Ben bought me my favorite chocolate-dove darks and hopefully tomorrow we can use our gift cards at see's candy!YUM!