Valentine's Day Weekend.

Valentine's Day. The love holiday.

I wasn't really planning on recapping Valentine's Day because... well... nothing exciting happened! I was planning on doing a little recap and sharing a couple pictures of our weekend on Friday (you know, a whole week after it happened! ha!) but the more I typed, the more I realized that it probably deserved a post of it's own. That and I haven't done a weekend recap in a while and since it was a long weekend, I figured why not. #livingonthewildside

I used to be a big celebrator of Valentine's Day, but recently, I just don't care as much about the "holiday" as I used to. I'm a firm believer that it is a Hallmark holiday and I would much rather Seth bring home a random bouquet of flowers or my favorite candy because he saw them at the store and thought I'd like them rather than a holiday telling him that he should get me something. That being said, even though I was a terrible, terrible wife and didn't get him anything, he still got me flowers and wine. #hesakeeper

On Friday, we started off the love weekend with a little family date night to Lazy Dog Cafe (my fave!!!) and then a pit stop to Yogurtland on the way home. Mason was SO excited about the froyo that he ran up to get the cup and even pulled the lever down to serve himself. He was doing a pretty good job, but I don't think he was pulling hard enough so I helped him. I filled it just a little bit full, handed him the cup, and off he ran to add some toppings. Poor boy was so excited about the toppings that he put the cup on the very edge of the counter and it fell on the ground. Upside down. And all the yogurt spilled on the floor. Not to worry though, Daddy saved the day, and we were back in business picking our toppings. I should really use that term loosely though because all he wanted was one of those pieces of pre-made waffle cones. The kid is easy to please. Seth and I got our froyo all picked out and added some toppings and we got our to-go lids and we were on our way. Mason ate the waffle cone part in the car and he was a happy camper. By the time we got home, it was time for bed, so Seth put Mason to bed and then we watched part of the OJ Simpson mini series and ate our frozen yogurt. The show is actually pretty interesting to watch. Since I was only ten years old when it happened, it's interesting to see what I remember and what I am learning. It's also ridiculously hard to picture David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian. All I see is Ross from Friends!

Saturday morning we dropped Mason off at his ABA therapy for a few hours and Seth and I ran some errands -- Starbucks, Target, and Costco. Then he ran a few more errands and I stayed home and tried to organize some stuff. Knowing that I had a nice, long weekend ahead of me made it so I wasn't so rushed to cram everything in to Saturday so we could have family time on Sunday, like usual. We picked Mason up at 2pm, he took a very short nap, and we took him to get his hair cut at 5:30pm. After the hair cut, it was time for dinner and I was craving Chick-fil-A so we drove home, went through the drive thru, and had a little picnic of Chick-fil-A at home. I got my first Chick-fil-A milkshake and my life will never be the same. It was amazing.

Sunday morning we took Bubbie (Seth's Grandma) out to breakfast for Valentine's Day. We hadn't seen her in a while and we wanted to do something special for her. We went to the Pancake House and as always, it did not disappoint. We were pleasantly surprised that the wait was only 10-20 minutes (it gets CRAZY there on weekends, especially holidays). Mason was SO, SO good and played with the crayons they gave him and his Hot Wheels truck the whole time. He usually gets antsy about halfway in and we resort to the iPhone to keep him entertained, but smart mommy brought some Cheerios (in case he got hungry, but this worked too) and we practiced counting how many Cheerios could fit in the back of the truck over and over. Once his food came, Mason scarfed down as many pieces of bacon as he could fit into his mouth at once and I helped him eat some pancakes too (because while I love bacon too, bacon alone is not a breakfast).

Bubbie gave Mason some Valentine's Day money so after we dropped her off at her house, we took Mason to Target to pick out some new Hot Wheels. He's recently been obsessed with them and literally takes a car or truck with him everywhere he goes. After Target, we went home for lunch and for Mason to nap and then we went over to Nanny's house for dinner with her, Papa, and Bubbie. It was a super nice evening out and we got to play outside for a bit and then had some yummy lamb, potatoes, asparagus, and wine followed up with a brownie sundae for dessert. Nothing super fancy or elaborate but delicious nonetheless.

Monday, Seth and I both had off. Mason's ABA therapist came to our house for the session since his school was closed for the holiday and I ran some errands and went grocery shopping. After she left, we had lunch and Mason napped for maybe an hour or so. We had planned to keep it low key and have a movie afternoon, but then I suggested getting ice cream so we were off. And yes, if you're keeping track, we had ice cream 3/3 days this weekend. #sorrynotsorry

We went to our favorite ice cream place, had some ice cream, looked at the fountain, and then left. I suggested going to a nearby park because apparently when you let your kid eat a WHOLE ice cream cone (minus a few licks I took to keep the ice cream from melting everywhere) AND a whole waffle cone, he has a bunch of energy. So, we headed to the park for about 45 minutes and then headed home for dinner.

Overall, for a weekend with no real plans, we sure did a lot! And now I'm left wondering what day it is (Mondays off totally screw me up!) and when will next weekend be here?!?

Happy Wednesday (I think)!

[Valentine's Day Blogger Exchange] Penguin Valentine's with M&M treats.

This year, Mason and I got to participate again in a fun blogger valentine exchange! Last year I made these super fun, easy Starburst puzzles and sent them to our friends, but this year I could not think of anything for the life of me. I wanted it to be cute yet fun and pretty easy. After all, I needed to make 18 of them! So, I racked my brain and I searched Pinterest and I still couldn't find anything. And then one day I was scrolling Instagram and I happen to follow Parents Magazine and lo and behold, they saved the day again (last year's Starburst puzzles came from them too) with these super cute penguin valentine's! Now, you notice how I only referred to them as super cute? There's a reason for that and I'll get to that later.

I used this template from the Parents website. I printed it once on a regular sheet of paper and then traced the body with the wings on black card stock and the smaller body on to white card stock.

And then I cut out 18 of each.

I glued the white part of the body to the black part of the body with the wings.

I picked out two googley eyes per penguin and glued them on. You can see some of the residual glue, but it dried clear and you couldn't even tell.

 Once all the penguins have eyes, then cut small triangles out of yellow paper to make noses.

The feet are also made out of yellow paper. Cut small hearts out for the feet and glue them to the bottom of the body.

You're done with the penguin!

Now to stuff bags with the treats. I used valentines pink, red, and white M&Ms (but you could really use any candy). I bought some cute heart bags at the store and filled them with a shot glass full of M&Ms (yes a shot glass, I know this is a kid's craft but it was the easiest way to measure evenly). The bags were a little too tall so I cut them to be the right size and then tied them with pink string.

Before I attached the treats, I wrote a little valentine's message to our friends " Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Mason"

I then placed a bag of candies in the body portion of the penguin and closed the arms like the penguin was hugging the candy and sealed it with a sticker. Since I was shipping mine, I also secured them better with some extra tape on the inside but that probably wouldn't be necessary if you were just handing them out to friends in person.

I bought some plain white envelopes to send our valentine's in and sealed them with some festive washi tape. And they were off! Hopefully all of our friends liked their valentine's!

A little PSA though... these valentine's are NOT cheap to ship. So, if making them for friends, I highly suggest handing them out personally. Or, if that is not an option, use less than a shot glass full of M&Ms :)

***

Tawnya, Scarlett, & Bodhi at All of Life's Little Adventures

Jen & Hattie at And Hattie Makes Three

Ashley, Waverly, & Avalon at Being Brickner

Jess & Abbie at Being Mrs. Beer

Elizabeth & Mason at Chasin' Mason

Liz & Jude at Ellie and Addie

Crystal & Mason at Hall Around Texas

Desiree, Marcus, & Julia at Macke Monologues

Natalie & Blair at Nat Your Average Girl

Sara, Mac, & Mim at Running From the Law

Jess, Cameron, & Louise at Scott Family of Maine

Jessica, Cameron, & Emerson at Secrets of a Stay at Home Mom

Sarah, Brantley, & Holden at Seeing All Sides

Karli, Kaye, & Sawyer at September Farm

Chrissy & Elin at Simple Joys Blog

Courtney & Aria at Sweet Turtle Soup

Meghan & Noah at The Adventure Starts Here

Stephanie & Connor at Wife Mommy Me

Whitney, Kinsey, & Brielana at Work It Mommy

The photo above is all the different kinds of valentine's that we received from our friends.  We LOVED getting happy mail in the mail box (instead of just bills) over the course of the past few weeks and are so excited that we could celebrate Valentine's Day with our friends near and far.

If you're interested in making any of the valentine's shown above, click the links and it will take you to all the fun valentine's that we received and teach you how you and your child can make them for your child's friends and/or classmates.

[Valentine's for Kids] Starburst Puzzles

With Valentine's Day right around the corner (less than a month away!), I thought I would share the fun valentine that I made for a blogger valentine's exchange last year.

Last year, we sent our friends a Starburst puzzle that I saw advertised in Parents Magazine. Seriously one of the easiest and cutest valentine's I've ever seen. I downloaded the template from parents.com, printed them on sticky paper, cut them out, and stuck them on Starbursts. 

Easy peasy, super cute, and fun! 

Materials Needed :

- puzzle printables

- "sticker" paper/label sheet

- scissors

- Starburst

- snack size plastic bags

- a marker

- some construction paper

- a stapler

Instructions

1. Print off (or save) puzzle printables.

These are the printables that I used. This first one is for the puzzle itself.

And I used this printable below for the "wrapping" portion of the valentine.

2. Print the puzzles onto "sticker paper" or labels of some sort. I went to the store looking for a whole sheet sticker label but I couldn't find one. I knew that I couldn't use regular labels since the puzzles would be all cut up and on different stickers so I looked around to see what they had. I ended up settling on a sticker label sheet that had four big labels (like shipping label size). A couple of the puzzles printed on the "crack" so I couldn't use them but I just printed two sets and it was perfect.

3. I cut apart the puzzles and stuck the pieces on different color Starbursts. I prefer the "reds" collection since they are my favorite, but you could easily use the regular ones or any flavor that's your favorite.

4. Once you have all the puzzle pieces finished, mix up the pieces and put them in a snack size plastic bag with a backer (it shows what the puzzle should look like when it is put together correctly so it gives the kids a guideline).

5. Cut a couple strips of construction paper to make the portion that you will write the kids names on. I just cut small strips, folded them in half and wrote a simple "Happy Valentine's Day" and a "to" and "from".

And voila! The perfect valentine for your kid's friends or classmates at school!

Valentine's Day 2015 + an Exchange

Our Valentine's Day was pretty laid back this year and I did not complain one bit. To be honest, Seth and I didn't even have any plans until Saturday afternoon. I had originally planned on us taking our February date for Valentine's Day and I had booked something special but then we started the Whole30 so we postponed it until next weekend. Since we postponed, I planned on us celebrating Valentine's Day a week late (which was no big deal since we don't really like to go out when it's so crowded anyway) but when Nanny offered to babysit, we thought we better take advantage.

So our Valentine's Day ended up looking a little bit like this :

We started off the morning with a festive breakfast.  Seth and I had an egg scramble with heart shaped strawberries on the side and Mason had pancakes with sprinkles, heart shaped strawberries, and some strawberry yogurt.

After breakfast, we headed to our first Lowe's Build and Grow. I was so excited about taking Mason to his first workshop but was also a little scared about how well he would do since they are technically meant for 5 year olds and up. We arrived slightly before 9am and waited and waited and waited and I wondered if they cancelled it because I didn't see anyone else. So I asked a worker and it didn't start until 10am. Mommy fail. I remembered the Home Depot one (that we had signed up for the week before but had to cancel since Mason got sick) started at 9am and I forgot to check the time for the Lowe's one. So we left and came back. 

And when we came back... it was super crowded! Now I know why they book up within like 5 minutes of registration opening. Once you go once, you want to go back! We waited in line, handed in our waiver form, and were given a kit and a hammer. We found a place to sit on the floor (like so many other people were doing - there were tables to use if we wanted to) and opened the kit. Mason did ok. He was kinda interested but I think he was getting kinda tired and hungry (hence the apple sauce) and so he wasn't too interested in sitting still. Overall, we LOVED the concept and will definitely be going to another. We got a cute little picture frame souvenir and I've already signed up for the Monster Truck one that they are having in a couple weeks!

After Lowe's, we went to a new nearby park that I had been wanting to check out. It was closed the last time we went but had been re-furbished and was re-opened. This park was HUGE and amazing! Mason had a great time running around and even went down the giant slide all by himself. It was getting pretty hot so we decided to go home, have lunch, and have Mason take a nap.

A few hours later, Mason woke up and Nanny came over and then Seth and I went out for Valentine's Day. We had both been wanting to see American Sniper and although it didn't seem like your typical Valentine's Day movie, we found a 4:25pm showing and headed to the theater to see it. I thought it would be empty because it was early and everyone would want to see 50 Shades of Gray but the movie theater was packed and I was glad we went early. And for the record, the movie was AMAZING and intense.

After the movie, we went to In n Out for dinner. It was one of the restaurants that we found that had a Whole30 compliant option and since we haven't eaten out in over 3 weeks, we were craving a meal prepared by someone else. It was ridiculously crowded (apparently everyone else had the same idea as us) but we didn't mind. A double double protein style, mustard grilled, whole grilled onions, no cheese, and no spread and it was pretty dang delicious. I seriously might order it that way from now on.

After dinner we headed to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for breakfast on Sunday and then to Starbucks to get Nanny a little treat for watching Mason for us. Although it was simple, laid back, and last minute, I had a great Valentine's Day with my valentine!

What's even better about Valentine's Day this year was that Mason and I were invited to participate in a little Valentine exchange with some other bloggers. We all sent each of the kids a little valentine in the mail and let me tell you, I think I was more excited to get happy mail (rather than bills!) than Mason was. I wish I had saved them all for Mason to open when they all had arrived but it was way more fun opening them as they arrived, one by one. And let's be honest, I am not very patient.

Mason totally scored and got lots of goodies from his friends!

We sent our friends a Starburst puzzle that I saw advertised in Parents Magazine. Seriously one of the easiest and cutest valentine's I've seen. I downloaded the template from parents.com, printed them on sticky paper, cut them out, and stuck them on Starbursts. Easy peasy, super cute, and fun! We hope all of our friends liked their Valentine's! We sure loved ours! Thank you everyone!

The mama's and mini's that participated in the valentine's exchange were :

Meghan & Noah @ The Adventure Starts Here

Elizabeth & Mason @ Chasin' Mason 

Tawnya & Scarlett @ All of Life's Little Adventures

Ashley & Waverly @ Words About Waverly

Megan & Olivia @ Willow Way

Sara, Mac & Mim @ Running from the Law

Laureen, Tyson & Harper @ Chateau Deveau

Tara, Declan & Calem @ A Tale of Four Maples

Hope you all had a GREAT Valentine's Day!