VALENTINES day...

 This year Valentine's Day fell on a Thursday and with me being back to work it was definitely a bit harder to get in ALL of the little traditions.  We started out the morning with heart-shaped pancakes...

and I even managed a quick photo shoot before we ran out the door for the morning drop off to school...

 Jack bought some simple Ninjago sticker Valentines cards and helped me tape a package of Skittle to each one while Emily requested to make her own cards this year.  It was the same type of card as last year but with an updated picture...
LAST YEAR...

THIS YEAR...

The rest of the day was filled with Jack and Emily celebrating at school while Daddy and I were at work.  We had our traditional heart-shaped meatloaf, per Daddy's request, and my heart shaped sugar cookies.  We opted on keeping presents to a minimum again this year.  The kids each got a mailbox (dollar section at Target) with one small candy Valentine inside along with The Lion King DVD to share.  You would have thought we bought them the moon!

I LOVE this day but I LOVE these peeps in my life even more!

Cousin fun...

Emily spent most of the first week of February home sick and had to miss her BIG kindergarten penguin fair.  She was super bummed out but luckily her teachers let her bring it to school when she returned on Friday...

 After school, Olivia and Auntie Jenny made a special visit.  Charlie was head over heels about her and even shared his other Baby Olivia doll with her...

On Saturday Bryan needed the house to himself in order to get our taxes done so we decided to take the kids to Jungle Playland.  I had only been there once, two years ago, but the boys have been going with our nanny during the week.  The kids had a blast but Jenny and I were exhausted.  I had no idea that I was going to be participating in ALL of the activities...

The kids convinced my to join them on the third level.  It wasn't pretty watching me try to squeeze my way up there but the way down on the twisty slide made all that work worth while...

LOVE that we were able to get some energy out indoors while it poured outside but I have to admit that I am definitely an OUTDOOR person! 

Jack's VIP day...

One of my favorite events to attend all year is VIP day at First Lutheran Preschool.  Emily chose to have her daddy come and sing songs with her both years at preschool and Jack decided to follow her lead.  I have to admit, I was a little surprised when he told us he just wanted daddy to play guitar and sing the Choo-Choo song for his VIP day.  I really thought it would be an entire morning of Angry Birds or Lightening McQueen but he never mentioned either one.  Instead we was insistent that Daddy just play the Choo-Choo song and not a single other song.

 Jack sat on the star and then told the kids about the weather and did the calendar...

 Then he got to use the giant pointer stick to show the kids the pictures on his board...

 The kids were having a hard time seeing on the floor so we moved him right up front...

And for those of you who wanted to attend but just couldn't here are a few snippets from the morning...

some videos...

January has been BUSY but it nothing compared to February.  With me going back to work full time for the month, doing home visits in the evenings and then going to Florida the last week of the month (grant presentation) I am anticipating a need to look back on the videos just to see my babies...