Valentines Party!

Lately I have been getting a little tired of the fights created by the holiday's. Let me explain...every holiday McKenna will have a little party at school and come home with all kinds of goodies. I'm lucky if I can talk her into sharing one or two things with her brother and sister. It doesn't take long for the things that she shares to get eaten up and for the next 2 or 3 days I have to hear constant whining about McKenna not sharing her stuff. I honestly don't blame McKenna for not wanted to share every little treat, after all they are hers and she should get to enjoy them in peace. So this holiday I decided to throw a little party for some of the little kids that don't go to school so they would have something of their own when big brothers and sisters came home with all their goodies. (wow, that was a run-on sentence, oh well.) It turned out to be a lot of fun for the kids and for me. Thank you to everyone that came, what a fun group of girls.

The rest of my Valentines weekend was a lot of fun too. John and I exchanged gifts and cards. For my card I decided to write some of my favorite memories of us together down on paper and give it to him. It reminded me of all the things I found unique and special in our relationship when we were dating, and why it was so easy to commit to eternity with him. John's gift was really sweet and thoughtful and I loved it! John gave me two of my favorite movies, which I made him watch with me that night and a humorous card, I'm sure you can guess the humor considering the holiday. However, when he got my card that had all of these things written in it I think it made his sweet gift to me feel a little inadequate, not to me, only to him. So, honey, thanks again for the gift and the card! If it makes you feel better I will dig through the piles of old cards and find all the "humorous" cards I have given to you over the years. I love you!

This year we tried doing fun things for our kid too. I sent a gift and a valentine in McKenna's lunch. McKenna is really into little things like that and you should have heard the enthusiastic thank you I got when I picked her up from school. MOM, THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR MY PRESENT AND NOTE!!! I LOVED THEM SOOO MUCH!!! That night we hung valentines all over in their room and filled the floor with balloons. It was a great holiday.

Karina is such I good sport. I french braided her hair for church yesterday and it honestly didn't take a lot of work to get it to look like this. I was bored and we both got a good laugh out of it.

Confession...

At my request we found a new family for Katie our dog. The only explanation I have for the embarrassing failure is that I am most certainly NOT A DOG PERSON. I was on the fence before and Katie (bless her little heart) threw me over the edge. Katie was a good dog and I really mean that, which only makes me feel worse about giving her up.

We had to do a little bribing to finish the dirty deal so we gave our girls some new Babi's and took them to Chucky Cheese to play. Sometime Karina will come and tell me that she misses Katie, I keep gum on hand for just such moments of sadness, it works like magic. Karina asked if we would buy a new dog and I told her no, the other night at bed time she told me she loved me and would never buy a new mommy.

I spent so much time feeling guilty before giving her away that within minutes of her leaving I only felt relief. I have a whole new appreciation for things now, my house is mine once more.

McKenna, eat your garbage.

Daddy: Karina, will you give me a hug?
Karina: No.
Daddy: Why not?
Karina: Because I didn't miss you, I only missed McKenna.

My kids are big fans of the Disney movie Ratatouille. In one of the scenes Remee's dad tells him to "shut up and eat your garbage." This is now Karina's motto at dinner time. "McKenna, eat your garbage" or "this is good garbage", or "Did you see, I'm eating my garbage?".