A Week to LOVE

Love. L.O.V.E. Love. We enjoyed a super LOVE-ly week. The Valentine's cards arrived in the mail on Monday along with treats and classroom favors for Amelia and Phillip's classes. Amelia dug right in and finished her cards in record time. Phillip's favorite part was taping lollipops to his cards. I love how their cards turned out this year! We also mailed our family cards Monday morning. The Post Office is in the coolest old building with lots of echoing spaces and a long runway for little boys to play on. I swear the boys sounded like the primate room at the Hogle Zoo. Amelia went to the dentist after school. Her new adult tooth on the right is all the way through but her baby tooth is still hanging on. He said to give it two more months, then worry. Good to know. I attended a preschool meeting for Phillip's next year and paid the dues. Right after that I met with Heather Hausmann, a local photographer, to define the details of my 5 week photography workshop starting next week. Heather is letting me rent a room in her space. So cool! I went to bed after midnight because it took me for-ev-ver to mix up 3 large batches of play dough. The worst part was getting my thumb and pointer finger caught in the kitchen aid. Yeouch!

Play group was at my home this week. I usually don't go in the name of a good Evelyn nap, that does not keep us from hosting! The theme was an ice cream shoppe. The kids had a blast eating and playing with realistic looking and smelling Neapolitan playdough, kept in old ice cream buckets. There was dough all over the east side of the basement. That is a good sign of a successful play date. After school Amelia had Stella and Katelyn over to play ice cream shoppe as well. Yummy smelling play dough is littered around the carpet even now. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the new ladies in our ward. Justin stayed home with the older three while I attended a RS activity at the church. Sis Bowcut spoke on Matters of the Heart. We crafted two Valentine inspired ceramic tiles and ate lots of dessert. Evelyn decided it was a perfect time to shoot poo up her back. Luckily, one of the other mom's was more prepared than I and lent us a clean onesie. Evelyn filled the quiet moments with loud gorilla noises.

Wednesday was Phillip's class Valentine party. He was up and dressed without help. Talk about excited. He came home dragging a backpack full of treats and cards. By 1 pm all the candy was safely tucked into Phillip and Everett's bellies. Phillip graciously shared whatever Everett wanted without any qualms. That kid is a stellar example of how to be a gracious, sharing person. After lunch we went to Daisies and Dragons where Phillip had a poop-cident worthy of an honorable mention. He used two rolls of toilet paper trying to fix the problem. By the time I figured out he needed help it was a stinky, nasty mess. Try giving a hyper kid a bath in the store sink and not make a mess. We grabbed a new pair of "exercise pants" and went home with our tails between our legs. I made a new outfit for Evelyn to soothe my soul and bring some beauty back into life.

Amelia's class party was Thursday. I can only imagine the excitement at her school! Amelia reported that her class was way to chatty! She also came home with candy and Valentines. Her box this year was super cute, a cereal box she decorated in class. The Smuins pulled out of town Friday morning. Meagan came over the day before and brought a bunch of food and took Amelia for a short playdate. I cried once Meagan left. Darn it! I hate to see such good friends leave. We spent a lovely hour at the library before lunch. The boys pick the best books, ones I would never pick. I picked up some needed ingredients to make Indian chicken curry, rice pilaf, red lentils, and raita. Between the flurry of pans and steaming food the meal somehow got made without the house burning down. The boys were outside while I cooked throwing rocks into the melting snow...in the gutter. I was too busy to keep them indoors and they were too sneaky to stay inside. We fed the Elders and Deb, Cydah, Romain, and Gavin the delish Indian fare. There is something exotic about all the spices in Indian cooking. Our house still smells like Bombay House.

For my Valentine's lovies I made pink muffins, fresh berries, and boiled eggs for breakfast. Each person had a fun pile of candy and a card. Justin sent me some lovely yellow roses. Thanks to perfect packaging the flowers survived the mail AND two active boys who threw the box down the stairs. Amelia and Phillip did not have school. We enjoyed a fun day with them at home. We visited Justin at Cabela's for our annual tradition. The kids made so much noise all the folks in his office knew we were coming from a mile away! Evelyn showed off her new screeching noises. Everett showed the ladies how he can "pick it my nose" and his very cute "What Does the Fox Say" moves. Phillip was a little shy (gasp). We enjoyed another tradition of lunch at Pizza Hut. While we were out of the house our carpets got a nice deep shampoo by JNJ carpet cleaners. We planned to leave for Ft Collins shortly after lunch. That plan went south rather quick after I learned that the temple was not 30 minutes away but 1.5 hours. That meant leaving Evelyn for 5-6 hours without ever taking a bottle. We decided to cancel the temple trip and try again in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, that decision also left us with 3 excited kids who could not walk on any of the carpeted areas until they dried. Justin took them to see the new Lego movie. I stayed home with Evelyn and organized the medicine closet. Oh my goodness, the carpets look so amazing. My house actually felt clean for a couple hours.

Saturday we hopped into Justin's truck and checked off one of the locations on our "We Want to Visit" list. Just north of Sidney was the Sioux Army Depot. The depot was created to take care of surplus ammunition, machinery parts, and military supplies. Originally there were 802 storage igloos. One was destroyed while workers tried to move a bomb, it exploded demolishing the igloo and killing one worker. The igloos are large cement and rebar structures camouflaged with dirt and foliage. Now a group of local business owners own the land. The igloos are rented or sold out for storage, farm equipment, and used as animal shelters. Justin took a fun route through several country roads through mud, slush, and snow. He actually used the trucks 4 wheel drive for its intended use! We *almost* got stuck a couple times. The kids were very excited to go exploring. We let the wild turkeys loose to explore and get muddy. We eventually found one unlocked igloo. It was used by cattle so was filled with cow patties. Gross. Justin found a paved road back to Sidney. Fun, fun times.