Valentine Party.

For those of you who read the previous post about how this whole little Valentine Party came about you will be glad to know that the bully has stopped being mean for now.

I just felt like I needed to make that update.

Now, on to the details of the Valentine Party of the year!

Bridget did a lot of planning for this and the planning went as follows...

The hor's d'oeuvres:

little strawberry swiss cakes cut into slices

marshmallows dipped in pink frosting w/sprinkles

sugar wafers cut in half and dipped in pink frosting w/sprinkles

(So basically I sent the kid's home with rotten teeth and sugar comas.)
Fun and Games:

scavenger hunt

fashion show

valentine bracelets

picture frame craft

This picture was taken after they found their goody bags during the scavenger hunt. Inside were some hershy kisses (more sugar) bows and cute little valentine socks.
This is the picture that will go in their frame.
Isn't that so cute?!

I've started taking pictures of food...

... Is that weird?

Yeah... I'm thinking that it is a little weird. I'm so busy these days that I have to plan everything, and I mean everything to a point of anal retentivness. So, during the weekends I plan what I'm going to cook for dinner each day of the week. I'm not one of those people that can just whip something up. I have to have a recipe so I've turned to recipe.com for most of my dinner plans. After all of that hard work I felt like it was just a shame for it to be eaten and not shared for all to see. I wanted everyone to revel in the beauty of my creation, or shall I say my ability to follow instructions. So, I've started taking pictures of my food and posting them on allrecipes.com. Here are some examples of the creations I've managed to duplicate.

Charleston Breakfast Casserole (for dinner)

Tortilla Soup

Teriyaki Chicken

Oh yeah that's right! Move over women of the fifties with your cute little aprons. There's a new kind of woman in town and I'm armed with a camera! A digital one at that!

The hobby that makes me cry.

Crossfit.

If you havn't heard of it you should look it up. Brent has been doing crossfit for years and he has gotten into awsome shape since we've been married. ( I used to be the hot one.) Well, his hobby has turned into a family hobby even though I wasn't so enthusiastic about it at first. Crossfit is intimidating! The people who do this are ripped and in amazing shape so instantly I told myself there was no way I was going to be able to do this. I was wrong, I think I actually may end up being pretty good at it. If soreness is an indicator of how my body is changing then I'm going to be a hard body in no time. Crossfit is kind of hard to explain, basically you have a different workout each day, it's hardly ever the same. You do these exercises for time or repetition and you basically compete with the people around you and ultimately with yourself. It's crazy how fast you end up improving. But for now I still look pretty goofy.

Below are some pictures to illustrate some of the things we have to do:

I'm giving Brent death glares while doing these sit-ups because I really didn't want to come this time.

I needed support sitting on the toilet for a few days after this one.

Apparently Brent is a stud.

And so is Bridget. She actually has her own workouts. There is an official kid's crossfit workout that you can get online. Bridget does her workout before we do ours.

See how strong she is?

Yeah..this was my first workout and my left arm didn't work for a week afterward. I'm not smiling, I'm grimacing.

Oh yeah, and we run.
This guy is crazy! One time while he was riding his bike to work he got hit by a car about a mile and a half away from his house. He ended up hopping back onto his bike and riding the rest of the 9 miles to work instead of riding the one and a half miles back home. That's when he decided to call his wife and let her know that he had gotten hit.
I don't ever think I'll be that tough, I whine too much.

Artichokes and Broken Hearts

... and so it begins.

Bridget came home from school today talking about how a girl in her class was being really mean to her. She said that she's one of those bossy kids who is sort of a ring leader. It turns out that this little girl decided to tell all of the other girls in her class not to be friends with Bridget. Bridget said that this girl would tell the other girls not to sit next to her or to talk to her and then they would whisper to each other and then look at Bridget and giggle. Bridget was bothered by it but not super upset. I guess it helped that her best friend is in a different class and she was able to play with her during recess.

I was actually proud of how she was handling it. There are only nine girls in her class and all but two of them were being mean. So, after school today we headed to the library to plan her little Valentine's Day Party that she is throwing this weekend. We wanted to make it the most fun party ever! (Bridget is a planner so all of the planning helped lift her spirits.) We sifted through party books and came up with some great ideas. We also found a quiz in the American Girl magazine on how to deal with bully's, which was perfect for her.

We've actually been planning this party for a while and we are only inviting three girls to come over since we are limited in space. We were originally planning on sending the invitations through the mail so that we wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings. I hate to admit it, but once I heard what was going on, my plans changed. We got the cutest little invitations for Bridget to hand out AT school in front of the little girls who were being mean to her. She was going to give them to the two girls who were not following the evil plan of the bully. I'm not really sure if that was the right way to handle the situation but it sure felt good.

I explained to Bridget that she shouldn't be mean to the other girls but if they were to ask her why they weren't invited she can be honest and tell them that they hurt her feelings yesterday and she wanted to invite the girls who were being nice.

So, tonight we cooked an artichoke (which Bridget loves), sat at the table and wrote our invitations out while she watched her favorite show, John and Kate Plus Eight. For Bridget it turned out to be the perfect ending to a not so great day.

Gound Hog Day!

6 more weeks of winter!

In our home we celebrate any chance we can get. This is why Bridget woke up at the crack of dawn to watch Punxsutawney Phil predict when spring will arrive.

(She was a little ticked off by his prediction.)

She saw all of the guys in the ground hog club wearing their top hats and decided that she wants to join the club when she grows up.