We had a great Valentine's Day! The day started wonderfully with homemade valentines that the kids gave me when I came downstairs from the shower... and hearts full of chocolate candies that we gave the kids for them to eat starting after a bowl of cereal. How could that not start the day off good?!?! We went through a normal school day adding a little "heart talk" here and there and earning "good behavior" pink, red and white candycorns every so often. Then our wonderful neighbor brought over some Valentine cupcakes that we saved for dessert with dinner. After lunch (which I regretfully forgot to make the homemade heart-shaped pizza!) we did chores, then the girls dressed Adam up like a girl... poor kid!... then we got into our fun Valentine's Day Activity. I didn't want to call it a party since it was only one activity... but it took all afternoon... and was a lot of fun. We made our very own candy hearts... that taste the same, if not better, than the kind you get in a box. The kids had so much fun! It turned out to be a great homeschool lesson... in all areas of school! For science, we got to watch the powdered sugar go into to liquid as a powder then completely dissolve into a liquid... and get more and more solid as we added more powdered sugar until it looked like playdough. For math we got to divide the flat "pizza" of dough into six equal parts... we played a little talking about fractions and answering how many sixths I had set aside. For art we got to discuss primary colors and secondary colors and watch how secondary colors are made with primary colors (I only had red, blue and yellow liquid food coloring to use). Then was the fun part to mix the color in and form a snowball sized dough ball... each kid did one pastel-colored primary color ball and one pastel-colored secondary color ball. Then they rolled out the dough and stamped out the heart shapes which we then let air dry while they went outside for recess. When they came in, I gave them the edible ink markers, and they got to write their Valentine phrases on the hearts... Ashley did the most and made sure not to repeat any one of her phrases. Anna did quite a few and also rattled off a bunch of witty phrases... and then started drawing some lovey pictures on some hearts! Adam did a handful... and it didn't take him long to realize that he should use short words with just a few letters... like luv, hugs, I 'draw heart' U... he tried but realized he couldn't write as many letters on the hearts as the girls. That was the language arts part... creative writing, handwriting and reading. All three kids did such a good job and really enjoyed and took pride in what they did! They repeatedly said it was the most fun they had ever had on a Valentine's Day! Ha! Then... we got to eat some... and they even tasted super duper good, too! So much fun!! Allison napped during all this, but she had a fun day, too. She wore her heart pants and heart bib that Grandma Breyen sewed for her. She didn't get as much candy as the older kids, but she did get to try one candy heart and boy did she LOVE it! More than her birthday cake, I think! Wes met us at the rink to watch the girls during their skating lessons, then we came home and had tacos for dinner with a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Wes as our centerpiece!
