Valentines and the Vacation Sanity Index

One day into vacation:
VSI (Vacation Sanity Index) is registering in the green. So... we're good.

We had a fun Valentine's Day- beginning with Maura's last basketball game and a play-date afterwards; Adam's last regular season basketball game and our traditional Saturday night homemade pizza. Except this time Gordie spiced it up with Gorgonzola, sausage, mushrooms and apples. Super Yum. The kids had a pepperoni all to themselves. 

We then proceeded to eat this cake which was actually as good as it looks. There are evil bits of Heath-bar in it as well as pernicious little bits of chocolate. {evil+pernicious=good}

My littlest Valentine had to bring 20 Valentines to school on Friday. I had the bright idea to hand make his Valentines. In hindsight the idea was not even partially bright. Since a  package of Valentines cost about $3 for 32 pieces I could have saved myself so much time and he would have been thrilled to be handing out Sponge Bob or IronMan cards.  But I would probably never have traced his little chubby mitt onto paper and explained to him what we were doing with it. He learns a little bit of ASL in class since some his classmates are special needs. This sign mean "I love you" in ASL. He was quite pleased with the whole idea. Isn't the blue a great color? The construction paper is from Canada and the colors are a little nicer than we have here- something I've noticed with art supplies actually. And chocolate. 

During the week we had these heart shaped biscuits- we are all about the food here :)

Another project that took on a life of its own began life as these little darling hearts. 

There are 16 girls in Maura's Girl Scout troop and we lovingly refer to them as our Sweet 16. They really are a sweet little bunch and for Valentine's I planned to make a little pin for each of them. It was a rerun of one that I made for Maura last year. To determine if the girls would like the pin, we decided on a quick market analysis of our target demographic.  Maura wore it to school one day and came home with very favorable reviews. The project was a GO! 

Beginning with the hearts pictured above- I sewed them onto the large pieces of felt and then the smaller hearts onto them. It is amazing to me that even though each piece is made from relatively the same pattern, they are actually very distinctly different end products. {You know there is an analogy in there somewhere!}

I love doing projects like this, so forgive my indulgence but I just thought the colors were so delicious and the hearts so adorable that I had my camera out most of the time. 

Then each piece is cut out....

The pin handsewn onto the back...

The little girls did seem to like them but what I actually got the biggest kick out ofwas seeing a mom wearing it at the Basketball game on Saturday. 

Like I said, I had the camera handy the whole time I was making these. Landon was dying to use the camera and I did let him go with it, with the strap around his neck. I downloaded 75 pics that he took- mostly of the TV show that was playing. 

Here are his photos:

This the end table in the living room- and this is not a decorating fail- in fact, Landon has taken framed photos from other rooms in the house and put them here- pulled up a chair and calls it his "Picture Desk". He gets very agitated when you remove the chair to use it for say...dining with. Very, very agitated. That is what this photo (and about 12 others almost identical) is all about. 

That's me sewing. 

That's me, still sewing but with a really bright flash going off. 

The kitchen, which he mistakenly, yet mercifully managed to only get above the counter and sink, which I can't imagine was cleaned up if I was sewing. 

His blanket which is still somewhat important to him, randomly. 

Some things overheard:

David while wrestling with Adam "Your breath smells like spray cheese."

David while eating eggs that he cooked  "there is a certain satisfaction that comes from making something for yourself" Let's just say that I wanted to squeeze his little egg filled cheeks right then and there. 

Landon at a baptism last night:

"who's having a baff?"

Then Henri emerges, ready for his baptism, Landon asks "Why does he have clothes on if he is having a baff?!" 

David at age 2 after writing on the walls "God and Moses told me to do it."

Maura making fun of the sometimes abysmal American Idol performances says in a whiney voice "give me another chance- I didn't mean to sing like that!"