Friday, February 11, 2011

Love notes

Mitch will be home from Djibouti this weekend, just in time for Valentine's Day. We're not big on the whole Valentine's Day going out to dinner nightmare, but the kids love having parties at school and having heart-shaped pancakes and pizza, and we always make a decadent dessert for dinner. Last year I got a beautiful bouquet of some red strappy sandals I'd been coveting (seriously, men, if you want to impress your lady, you can't go wrong with a great pair of shoes. Or maybe that's just me.). This year I'm expecting a mug from Djibouti or something of that nature.

Usually the kids make all their valentines, but this year, I had the valentines printed up from a cute idea I saw on the internet and they are decorating the envelopes:






Henry's was pretty typical of a ten year-old boy. It was all his idea and pretty much the only way he could be convinced to pass out valentines in school. He was a little disappointed by the lack of dripping blood:



And then there's Jack, who apparently is the dog's valentine this year. Seamus finally has a job that he can be proud of besides chasing the foxes out of the backyard.  Every morning it is a TRIAL to get Jack out of bed and I have to stand over him calling out his name to get him up. This cuts into my morning coffee-in-bed time, so I came up with a plan that worked better than my wildest dreams could have imagined.  When it's time to get Jack up for school, I open his door and say, "SeamusgogetJack!" in the same tone we used to say "Seamusgogetthechickens!" when the chickens were in the flower beds. Seamus quivers for the briefest of moments, and then goes tearing downstairs, jumps on the bed, and rubs his butt on Jack's face. Then he lies beside him and pushes him out of the bed with all four of his paws. Jack can't get mad at him because, you know, man's best friend and all. It's pretty much the most awesome thing I've ever seen, and it's my favorite part of the day.

4 comments:

Lisa said...

Those Valentine's Day cards are awesome. I'm kinda wishing I hadn't cheaped out with the $2 box from Walmart.

Kate said...

Oh, I'm cheap. I got the girls' photos for a total of $5 printed at Costco, and Henry's were free because I had a Vistaprint coupon ($3 shipping).

Linsey said...

So clever. Maybe next year. Or not. I think Caleb is the only kid in his class bringing Valentine's anyway. He doesn't quite understand what the big deal is. Maybe someday we'll live somewhere (i.e. not foreign or inner-city) where people care about this holiday. Maybe.

Just US said...

Great idea - both on the Valentine's and letting the dog wake up Jack!