We kicked off Valentine’s Weekend with me being the parent helper at Haley’s school for her party and bringing her class Haley’s half-birthday cupcakes.
 |
| Haley’s placemat for her party |
 |
| Delivering Valentines |
 |
| Parent Helper |
 |
| Russell got glasses… soooo cute! |
On Saturday, we went to workout and did some “school pages,” as the kids call it. I got two new books for the kids that have some great practice activities for afternoon post-lunch quiet time.
Then after lunch, we gave the kids our Valentine’s gift: a bag with a letter and some envelopes for a weekend full of surprises.
Envelope 1 wasn’t really a surprise: Haley and Jim’s Dad & Daughter date to Husky gymnastics, and JT and I had our friends Lisa and Trent over for bike riding, pizza, and games.
 |
| Dad and Haley are gone – time to get crazy! 😉 |
 |
| JT and Trent getting ready to play games – fuzzy. Grrrr. |
Sunday morning we went to church, and then came home for lunch and envelope two…
Envelope 2: Family swim at the pool.
JT got to go down the slide (so fun) and Haley enjoyed the diving board (not old enough for the slide, booo). You’ll have to watch the slide video twice because it happens so fast. I barely caught it because I was swimming with my children (what’s with all the moms sitting in the stands watching?) and had to scramble out of the pool and walk oh-so-quickly-without-running to the other side to grab my phone.
Envelope 3: After dinner on Sunday, a trip to our favorite gelato place, followed by family movie night (very rare for us!). We watched the original Disney’s Robin Hood and the kids giggled their way through.
Envelope 4: Monday morning, we all slept in until about 8:30 (awesome) and then we told the kids to go get the next envelope. It was for wearing our pajamas out to breakfast at our favorite pancake restaurant! Haley loved her chocolate chip pancakes, and JT finished off his as well as Haley’s leftovers and the side of bacon.
Envelope 5: We invited some friends to Lake Meridian for lunch and boating on this beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately, our boat engine overheated because the impeller got clogged/stopped working and wasn’t pulling lake water in to cool the engine as it should. Thankfully, our friend Carl was able to kayak us back to the dock.
We didn’t let this hiccup ruin the fun. We had lunch on the dock and then the kids and I went kayaking. I couldn’t believe what a great job JT did controlling his kayak. It was super fun! What a gorgeous day.
Envelope 6: Okay, we said there were five. We had a hidden bonus envelope in case we had enough time. 🙂 The bonus envelope told the kids they could open the Amazon boxes that arrived at the house on Friday. (We get so many Amazon boxes they don’t even notice or ask what’s in them.) Inside were two new games and some new science project equipment, like a microscope. We played Apple Letters tonight before bed and we’ll break into the science activities tomorrow.
We had such a great weekend spending time together. It’s easy to spend lots of money on gifts, but time is so much more valuable and that’s how memories are made. Hooray for three day weekends!
The Keene Family 