Build-A-Bear, take 2

It'd been a year since Paige's first trip to Build-A-Bear (when she built the world's tackiest frog), so we'd thought we'd go again and try to make it a Valentine's tradition. She did a little better this year, if only because she chose an actual bear.

See that dress? It has an awesome rhinestone choker that's attached. High heels? Really? And don't get me started on the glaring pinkness of it all.

I think this is one family tradition that I won't be sad to let die. . .

V-day Cookies

This is what we did tonight (and what I did all day - from making the dough, to buying candy for decorating, to rolling out and cutting out and baking dough, to running back to the store when we ran out of butter: an essential ingredient in buttercream frosting...). I wanted to do this because I remember decorating cookies for Valentine's Day when I was a little girl, and I loved it! Paige displayed the same laser-like focus as she did for decorating her gingerbread house. She decorated 13 cookies and wanted to keep going but I had to force her to stop because it was a half hour past her bedtime.

Originally I planned to give them to the women I visit teach (the cookies wrapped up on the real plates are for them). The plates look like this underneath all those cookies:

I cut the vinyl out on my Cricut with the "home accents" cartridge. The plate is $1.97 from Tai Pan.

But obviously we have too many cookies for just the 3 ladies I visit (none of whom have children to gobble them up - the cookies that is.). So I asked Ben if I could wrap some up for the families he home teaches. His reply was something like this, "No. What's the point? No one's going to eat any. They're just going to dump them in the trash."

???

Is this true? Did I just waste my entire day? Doesn't anybody out there like sugar cookies? I mean, you can pick off the red hots and the conversation hearts . . .

Valentines

My mom sent a valentine's kit to Paige so that she could make handmade valentines for her preschool classmates. Paige was so excited! And I was so excited because Honey had done the hard part (cutting out oodles of stuff on her Cricut); all we had to do was glue the things together.
This is what Paige and I did while Claire napped Sunday morning when we had to stay home from church - both the girls were getting over colds and Ben was off at drill.

Then last night for our FHE activity, Ben helped Paige write her name on the backs while I tied each heart person to a little sucker.
Thanks Honey!

Valentine's

We spend most of the day traveling today, but managed to fit in a little celebration time as well.

We started off with brunch at Mimi's in Orem with our friends Jill and Tim and their daughter, Quinn, who is almost the exact same age as Paige. Apparently a lot of other people had made similar plans; Mimi's was packed! Our food was super yummy.

Before bed Ben and Paige and I exchanged gifts. We explained to Paige that Valentine's is a day to celebrate love with the people you love. She caught on quickly, looked around for a gift and said,"where's mine happy valentine's day, mom?".

Ben has not always been the best at remembering to do something on Valentine's day. (As I typed that last sentence I was vaguely remembering something Dr. Laura wrote in The Proper Care and Feeding about that - something to the effect that it's the woman's fault if her husband forgets birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, etc. It just means that the woman isn't taking care of her husband properly). Anyway, I am happy to report that he did VERY WELL this year; getting me jewelry (silver necklace AND earrings) and a beading book. Any men out there who may read this, take a cue from Ben: Encouraging a wife's crafts is always a nice way to validate her :)

Paige got a couple of love/valentine themed board books, some candy, and an adorable plush peacock that we found in Snowmass. She liked him instantly.

Ben received some nice gifts from me as well.

While I think Valentine's is quite commercialized and over-hyped, I am all for any excuse to exchange presents.