Valentine's Day

The kids were pretty excited for Valentine's Day.  They each got a little personalized mailbox full of Tootsie Rolls from us.  In addition to the class valentines, Emily decided the night before to make valentines for teachers as well.  She even set an alarm and got up early to finish them.  Here are some pictures of my favorites to her P.E. and music teacher:

I was able to volunteer at Lincoln's preschool Valentine's party.  My station was a letter game.  It was a little overwhelming to go from the silence of home to the controlled chaos of a preschool classroom, but it was fun to meet the kids in Lincoln's class.  I also really love his teacher, Miss Melissa (in the red pants).

When I picked up Emily from school, I was met by a teary-eyed girl who handed me the following valentine: 

She explained that she had had a bit of a bad day.  Two boys pushed her off the balance beam during P.E.  She also had an assignment that was "just too hard."  The class read "Goodnight Moon" and each student had to illustrate their own page with a maximum of two things that were in their bedroom.  Emily couldn't decide what to draw because she had so many things (which is true since 35 stuffed animals/figurines were currently lined up for the second grade Valentine's party on her rug).  "The only thing I could think of was two matching shoes."  Then she bumped her leg and spilled her juice during the Valentine's party.  Finally, she had to cancel the big Valentine's party. 

This would be referring to the the class party she had planned while we were in Kaua'i.  She had made invitations for everyone, a checklist of supplies needed and decided that we should rent the Droste building at the fairgrounds to host a party for her entire class on the Saturday after Valentine's Day.  I thought I had let her down easy earlier in the week, but apparently she hadn't given up on the idea.  However, she then started jumping up and down saying, "But all my dreams came true from last night!  I was listening to Go Fish! and thought it would be a great idea to dance to those Jesus songs for Easter.  So I asked Mrs. Nuss, and she said I could teach the class a dance for Easter."  Oh boy.  Mrs. Nuss was standing there throughout this whole explanation.  I was hiding behind the heart because I was laughing so hard I was almost crying.  I guess we have more work to do on adjusting expectations.

But even after all that, as soon as Emily got home and opened up her Valentine's bag with all the goodies, everything was forgotten.  We made frosted Valentine cookies the next day.  While decorating, Emily declared that Valentine's Day was her favorite holiday! <3 p="">

Lincoln may or may not have eaten more frosting than he spread. :)