Feelin' the Valentine Love

I've been a lazy blogger lately, especially since discovering Smilebox. So today I thought I'd do an old school post and share some pictures from Valentines Day. I meant to go to Simon's school party, but of course, Nina and I arrived just as the party was ending. Always a minute late and a dollar short! :) I had arranged with my friend Sarah for Zach to come straight home to our house after school. When the boys got in the car I handed them a scroll of paper tied with a ribbon. The note said, "Welcome to your valentine treasure hunt! Here is your first clue: 1,2,3,4, somewhere on the hardwood floor. 5,6,7,8, before Nina climbs up them, we'll need a gate!" They were so excited to get started and hunt all over the house. But first things first. They both had to dump out their valentines from their classmates and eat the pixie sticks. It's colored sugar - what could be better!!



Then they got busy searching for their treasure. Here they are hopping off the kitchen counter after finding a clue in a water bottle in the cupboard.



They finally found their goodies and were nice and sugared up by the time Zach went home. So it's only logical that we decided to make brownies for dessert that night.



Mind you this was still the day before Valentines Day. The morning of Valentines Day, Brian and I exchanged these:



We went swimming on Valentines Day at the Brighton pool. Nina loves it, and loves to drink the water - yum! Simon showed me his newest skill, treading! And we got plenty of time playing sharks and minnows too. It's hard to play with only one shark and one minnow, but we manage. In the afternoon we headed down to our friends down the street for a Lego birthday party. It was a hoot! We played lego charades, had a treasure hunt and lego cake. It was a great way to celebrate O's birthday. Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Scottsbluff to visit Grandma Klein. We love to visit her and stay in the retirement home in guest quarters. They happen to be right next door to Grandma's apartment so it's really convenient. Of course the whole place knows we're coming days before and Simon and Nina get lots of pinches and attention from all of the residents. They eat it up! Speaking of eating, we love to eat with Grandma in the dining hall of the home. My mom's brother Roger and his wife Kathy came to eat lunch with us the first day. Despite the somber looks on their (and Grandma's) faces, they really were glad we came! :)



My uncle Roger is a career military man and will be deployed to Kuwait in April so it was nice to be able to see him and spend some time with him before then.



Aunt Kathy is a natural with the kiddos, and they both love to visit her and be spoiled by her.



On Monday we visited my dad's dad and brother in the afternoon. Grandpa has been in the hospital recently, but he's on the mend now.



Grandma Klein came with us to visit them. Simon and Uncle Bill played catch most of the time. Then they played chinese checkers and the old game of concentration that my brothers and I used to play when we were kids.



When we got home, we got a visit from our Tuesday afternoon crew! We have a standing playdate on Tuesdays with our friends, and Nina was excited to see her BFF again.