Sunday, February 27, 2011

doctor love

Whenever George wore his Valentine's Day shirt he would ask people, "Are you heartsick??? Because I am Dr. Love!" It was (and is-- he still wears the shirt) awesome. There are a few pictures of his shirt down at towards the end of the post. Here is a little peek at our Valentine's Day preparations and festivities this year.

G needed to make a Valentine's box for his little classroom party. The only kinds of boxes that I was familiar with (from making them for myself and with my little sisters) involved lots of pinks and purples and hearts. George was less than thrilled with the proposition of making such a girly box, so I had to get a little more creative. My sister Hannah had a mini basketball hoop on her bed and I decided to use that as the main focus for George's box; his friends could shoot their valentines through the hoop. George was super excited about it, and it turned out pretty cute (though it is in the dumpster now). I just spray painted a Nike shoebox black (using duct tape to reinforce the creases so it wouldn't fold down), duct taped the basketball hoop in place, and then let George go wild with the stickers. I wanted to let George do as much of it himself as possible, but as it turns out, black spray paint and duct tape are not very 3-year-old friendly, so he mostly just did the stickers. Here are a few photos.

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Baby sister played around under the table at our feet while we decorated it. She doesn't like to be too far from the action :).
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Georgie is getting pretty good at writing his name all by himself so I let him write it on all the valentines that he passed out to his friends.
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If he looks a little disheveled it's because we did this right after he had woken up on Valentine's Day morning :).
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We combed his hair :) and then went to his school for his party. It is still amazing to me that I have a little boy who goes to school, has friends and teachers, and sits down at a table to play Valentine's Day Bingo all by himself. He put a bean on the number when it was called out, and was so excited when he won (all the kids won at some point). Here he is with some of his classmates, apparently studying his bingo card very thoroughly to find a number.
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While the big kids played bingo and I took some pictures I parked my littlest valentine around the classroom. She was all decked out in hearts :).
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After a few rounds of bingo (and some other games), it was time to swap valentines. Here is George all ready with his box.
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His hoop got a little clogged with all of the goods that came his way :).
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Every time someone would put a valentine in his hoop Georgie wanted to take it out and show it to me proudly. He was excited, little cutie.
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I wanted to snap a picture of my two love babies, but Pearl was not feeling it. She was ready for a nap.
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She's like, "George, please stop trying to make me smile. Just go away, I am sad."
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My happy Dr. Love and my sad heart baby.
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The rest of our Valentine's Day was pretty low key. When John got home from school I gave him the little gift that I had made for him, and I'll post a couple of pictures of that so that someone can use the idea next year :). I always like to get creative ideas for fun gifts, so I thought I'd share. This was so easy and inexpensive, but also pretty meaningful and personal. I just made little fortune cookies out of felt, came up with some personal and thoughtful fortunes for John, and then put it all together in a cute take-out box I found at a craft store. I got the idea for the felt fortune cookies on marthastewart.com (if you search for fortune cookies on the website the directions will come up). The only thing I did differently was use pipe cleaners instead of floral wire and ribbon to shape them (which I would recommend doing-- much easier and less expensive). Here are a few pictures.
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Pearl still wasn't feeling great that evening, so we opted to just stay home, get the kids in bed, and order take-out. Hey, we're parents, that's what a relaxing night looks like sometimes :).