Valentines and Things of That Nature

Yesterday I decided that Valentine's Day should always, and I mean always be on a Saturday. As my students darted with raucousness from game to game, craft to craft, I kept thinking, Do you know what they're doing in China* right now? Math. And Science. And they're learning how to become CEO's of mega conglomerates who sell heart-shaped junk to Americans!

Also, Jamison wore his new shirt and delivered his heart-shaped box of chocolates, via a friend. The enclosure read, "To McKardy From ???" I know because I witnessed it first hand as I helped with the valentine party in his classroom. I know, I'm a glutton for punishment.

Later on, when I asked him why he liked her so much, he said, "Well, she is the most popular girl in our class and I am the most popular boy." It's good to know that self-confidence isn't holding him back anytime soon. He also said, "she's really smart and we both want to be scientists when we grow up, and we both have three syllables in our names."**

Back to the party, I was, however, proud of the little game I made up. We played our own version of Minute to Win It, stacking towers of conversation hearts. It was such a hit with the second graders that we played it later at home for family night. Try it with chopsticks. And no, the irony of the chopsticks after my China reference is not lost on me.



*China - I am actually tired of everyone comparing our educational system to theirs. They only educate those they deem worthy, and dictate what they will become. We educate EVERYBODY.

**Update - Jamison just walked in and when I asked him how school went, he said, "McKardy asked me to play with her at recess, so the chocolates must have worked!"

Laundry Day

I usually start laundry Mondays when I get home from work. Today when I walked into the laundry room, I found this cute little paper on the washing machine. "How cute," I thought, "Jamison drew me a picture."

If you look close enough, you can see the words "look on back" with an arrow.

"Even better," I thought again, "he wrote me a little note." My heart melted a little.

Allow me to immortalize his words here:

Dear McKardy, You are a good freind. I realy like you, not as in love you or that would be realy werd. I did my best work on this pictur. It steel probaly is not as good as yours!

Sincearly,
Jamison


The plot thickens.
It's a good thing he's cute, 'cause he sure as heck can't spell.

Would You Trust This Face?

Yesterday, while walking through TJ Maxx, this little boy, in his finest cub scout uniform, looked up at me and said, "I think I need a nice outfit for Valentine's Day."

"A nice outfit?" I said while stifling a smile.

"Well, maybe not a whole outfit, but at least a good-looking shirt or something."

"Why?" (as if I didn't know).

"Because it's Valentine's Day, and I think people should look nice. We ARE having a party at school, remember?"

Uh huh. So when we struck out at TJ Maxx, we wandered across the street to Walmart. We did indeed find a red-striped polo shirt. The thought put into this little item of clothing was something equal to what went into launching the Apollo space mission.

We then found ourselves on the aisle with all the red and pink stuff. The kids each picked out a box of Valentine cards to exchange, and then Jamison wandered a little farther down the aisle to the heart-shaped boxes. The ones with chocolates inside of them. He had it narrowed down to three. The first one was red, with the word "love" spread across its lid. "Hmm. That would be to awkward," he said.

The next box was brown, covered in red and pink hearts. "No, that's still too weird."

He finally decided on the pink one, with little spirals embossed on the lid. Even more surprising, he insisted on paying for it with his own money.

Only eight more years until he's allowed to date. It's going be a long wait.

What's Not to Love?

Despite the fact that I never found a cheap last-minute ticket to anyplace warm, Valentine's weekend proved to be okay.

Dan kept trying to give me his Valentine gift all day Saturday. I think he was just excited that he actually had something, and something good. Finally he couldn't take it anymore. He handed me a big Costco-size bag of dark chocolate-covered pomegranate fruit snacks and a gift certificate for a 1-hour massage at a day spa in Provo. He's come a long way since our first Valentine together, when he showed up at my college apartment with a pot of dead tulips and a bag of Fritos. I know.

Later we went out to dinner with his sister and her boyfriend, which was really fun. We laughed pretty hard as she recounted the story from the time that they went to Disneyland and how Dan, at the age of 5, fell from the slide and fractured his skull (not the funny part) and how it was scary because they carried him away on a stretcher and a BODY BAG (the funny part). She meant to say neck brace.

For Valentine's Day we cooked a big breakfast for the kids, complete with blueberry waffles and an assortment of yummy toppings. I'm loving almond butter, by the way (loaded with MUFA). But here is where my horrible mothering skills came into full display. Since Jessica has gotten her braces on, I've been on her to limit her candy intake. But then, without thinking, I went out and bought the kids that gigantic jar of Jelly Bellys for a Valentine gift. When I pulled it out, Jessica immediately burst into tears while Jamison practically made out with the jar. I'm just not ready to deal with emotional girls OR any form of making out.

Hopefully your Valentine's Day was as enjoyable as mine (minus the crying 'tween).