Valentines Day Disaster

If you have been following my blog, you know that each week I focus on a new letter with my daycare kids. This week I did not pick the obvious letter V for Valentines Day. Instead, I decided to do the second most obvious letter H for heart. I figured doing the letter H for heart would be more fun and easier to comprehend than V for Valentine. If the kids were out and about with their parents, they would no doubt see hearts up as decorations. It would be a fantastic opportunity to focus on a shape and a few basic colors.

We started out our week doing our normal letter activities. We hopped on one foot. We made out bodies into the shape of the letter H ( This letter was a little tricky.) We colored the letter H, a house, and a heart shaped hot air balloon. We read H books like Hop on Pop, Humpty Dumpty, and In a People House (These books are available in my store as well some others). We danced to Valentines Day songs. We sang a song about a heart. The kids brought in H items in the letter bag.

Here is K proudly showing off his Hulk action figure.

Bells pretending to eat the toy hamburger she brought in.

Ruby is enjoying the fuzzy hat that Bells brought in for her H item.





Finally, it was the end of the week and I had BIG plans for our Valentines Day celebration. When it comes to holidays, I try to have things...no, I OBSESS about things being perfect.Not just for the daycare kids, but even in my family life. Christmas, Halloween, and Easter all have to be AMAZING. And I wanted this to be no different. So, I stayed up very late getting things ready for the kids. It was going to be perfect. I had visions in my head of a whole day of HEART filled fun. From the moment my little ones walked into the house it would be valentine and heart central!

The kids would eat hearts for breakfast!

And they would eat hearts at lunch!

They would make Amazing heart filled valentine cards.

They would sing and dance to Valentines Day songs.

They would exchange their Valentines Day cards and treats.

And at the end of their heart-filled day of fun, they would get to take home their homemade heart shaped crayons. Or would they...

DISASTER!!!!!!!!!

Are

YOU

KIDDING ME??????

I had just spent and hour and a half pealing the paper off of old broken crayons to create the PERFECT Valentines Day treat. WHAT HAPPENED???

Well, lets go back to earlier that day when I scored these AWESOME silicone trays in the dollar spot at Target. The trays were in the exact same place I had found the muffin tray I had used before to make our circle crayons. Unfortunately, I was so excited to find them that I never paid attention to what packaging said.

 

ICE CUBE TRAYS!!!!!!

I

 Ugh! So, there would be no crayons for the kids to take home as favors.

Angry and heart broken I cleaned up, sprayed some air freshener to get rid of the putrid burned plastic smell and crawled into bed. 

As you can see from the pictures above, everything else went perfectly and the kids did have an unbelievable Valentines Day celebration. No, they didn't get to take home the crayons I wanted them to have, but their Valentines Day cards turned out amazing and they were soooo proud!

 

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Friday Follow is back!!!
I love Friday Follow! Here my 2nd week of Friday Follow the 5th week for the hosts. Come join the party. I loved reading and following all of the blogs last week. I hope you find something else you like here too!

Welcome to the Friday Follow celebration hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades! We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to follow other interesting blogs. It is all about sharing and having fun.

Here's how YOU can join the celebration:

--Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below. Only need to add on one blog to be seen on all the blog hops.

 --Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots. 

--Follow as many blogs as you'd like.

--Take a moment to comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow.

--Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow.

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each blog. Follow a few or follow them all.

The list is new each week. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. The list is only open to add your blog links on Fridays. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listed.

Please be patient with following or getting followers. With the tremendous response there are a lot to visit. The Mcklinky will stay here all week so you can visit blogs at your own pace.

What's wrong with Mommy?

The snow is melting and life is getting back to normal around here. I enjoyed the days of playing in the snow and hanging out with Ruby, but we were both ready for her playmates to come back. Being here with her alone was far more difficult than I expected it to be. I thought these snow days would be lazy pajama filled days of cuddling, playing and resting. Instead I got whining, grumpy, indecisive, and ALWAYS hungry Ruby. It was annoying. I feel terrible saying that about my own precious child, but it's true she was a real pain in the rear.

It was beyond frustrating trying to keep her happy. She would ask for a toy to play with and I would go and get it for her. When I returned with the toy SHE had requested, I was met with GRUMPY RUBY (grrrrrr)! GRUMPY RUBY would look at me with disgust and then throw her self into a heap on the floor. Face down, she would yell/whine, " No, I don't want the toy! Don't want it!" UGH!

Next, I would try to figure out what would be the thing to keep her happy. Here is a scene from the possible one act drama, What's wrong with Mommy?

Me: "How about coloring? Would you like to color?"
GRUMPY RUBY : No!!!! I don't want color! I don't like a color!
Me: Here Ruby, let's play with the puzzles! Help mommy play with the puzzles.
GRUMPY RUBY: ( whining voice- similar to nails on a chalk board) Ehh hu, Ehhh hu! I sooo tired.
Me: ( slightly upbeat and hopeful voice) You wanna go night night?
GRUMPY RUBY: ( throws self in heap on floor, face down) I don't waaaaannna go night night! No, No Yogurt Drink! Yogurt Drink!
Me: We are all out of yogurt drinks Ruby.
Grumpy Ruby: ( still face down, whining voice escalates) NOOO! YOGGGGUUURT!
Me: ( takes deep breath) Ruby, stop whining or I am going to put you in time out. We don't talk to mommy that way. Stand Up. Look at mommy, take a deep breath. Tell mommy what you want.
GRUMPY RUBY: (Hug) Sorry mommy
Me: Thank you Ruby. Now, what do you want to play with?
Returning to normal Ruby: I want the toy. ( points to original toy that started the fit)
Me: ( twitches and shakes) Here! ( Walks away twitching and shaking mumbling about a head ache.)

AND SCENE!

I know I am not the only one out there, who went through this. I was on the phone with Bell's mom, Sonia. She didn't sound much better than me. She too admitted that she might go insane if there was much more of the bickering and whining at her house. My dear friend Sarah said she was soooo ready to go back to work after dealing with her little darling. We are all great moms, but we just needed a break.

SO, While I LOVE the alone time with my sweet Ruby, I did NOT enjoy the extended visits of......
GRUMPY RUBY!!!!!

Writing a book? Hmmm

Okay, so in the last 2 days I've had several folks tell me that they think I should write a book. It's sooo flattering that people like my blog and are enjoying my style of writing. There is no question that I would love to tackle that task and I have thought about writing since high school. I have visions in my head of a best seller, as I am sure anyone who would even consider the idea would. There is only one problem... I have NO idea what I would write about. It's one thing to write a little blog post a few times a week, it's a whole other thing to write a mind stimulating book of any length.

Let's just suppose that I did decide to write a book. Would it be fiction? A Children's book? A How To Book? Would it be a book of poetry? A non-fiction funny/dramatic/moving book about my life (that would no doubt be turned into a movie) ? I am certainly not a  guru of ANY subject. I would consider myself pretty good/great at a lot of things (singing, teaching, being a mom) but I am not awesome at any one thing. I know so many people who are far better at all of those things than I am. I try to surround myself with those people hoping their fantastic abilities and talents might rub off on me!

So, how would that translate to paper? I can see the title now... "How to be Middle of the Road and Happy with it-a Guide to accepting your Mediocre-ness?" And YES I would put a question mark at the end of the title. That wasn't an accident. I did that because the people reading this book would be like me, constantly questioning themselves. The question mark would give them the breathing room they need to accept or not accept their abilities, or lack there of as the book title suggests.

Hmm... the possibility also exists, that maybe I have just been middle of the road because I haven't tapped into God's  true plan for my life. Maybe writing will be the one thing that shows the AWESOMENESS that is dying to get out  (see Wonder Woman costume). Of course, there is also the possibility that I am blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Perhaps, those wonderful folks who said I should write a book were just being nice and really they just like the pictures and videos on my blog.

SEE!!!! Constantly questioning myself! Well, I think I will pray on it and ASK God for some clarity. There's a lot of praying at my house these days. It's a good thing God doesn't get tired of hearing from me! I wonder if God is going to show me that I need to write a book, or if he is going to show me that I have lost my mind due to being stuck in the house for so many days because of the snow. I'll be okay with either!