Valentine Festival

With Valentine's Day falling on a Saturday this year, I felt like it was more of a 3-day festival than a stand-alone holiday.  Cat and Jack had no school on Friday, so they had their school celebration on Thursday, with parties and Valentine exchanges and everything.  After school, Jack told me about how a friend had been extra nice to him during recess (bringing him a ball he'd been playing with) because we're celebrating Love Day.

The funniest thing that happened on Thursday was on the way home from school.  Cat was in her seat eating a little bag of chips.  When I asked her where she got the chips, she said they were a Valentine from a classmate.

"Did it have a note or anything attached?"

"Yeah, it says, 'You're all that and a bag of chips.'  What does that mean?"

I laughed and laughed, and then struggled to explain what that expression from my high school years means.  It turns out, Jack had a bag of chips with the same message attached.  He wasn't interested in the message though, so I didn't have to try to explain it a second time.

Cat had to make a Valentine's box again this year.  She came up with this
idea all on her own.  It's a book,  and the author's name is whatever candy
you put inside.  Perfect for my little bookworm.

On Friday, Eliza's preschool class not only exchanged Valentine's, they had a program for parents.  And of course, since Cat and Jack were out of school, we all went and enjoyed a very entertaining presentation by Eliza and her friends.

All the kids used Blow Pops as their Valentine's this year, with tags printed
from HERE.  And Eliza and I made some simple white chocolate dipped
pretzels to bring to her music class friends on Thursday.

First, the class acted out a love story: The Paper Bag Princess, which Eliza starred in.  Her teacher told me that they debated about where to use her because she knew all the parts so well.  She was a wonderful Princess Elizabeth, then sang loud enough for us to pick out her voice during all the songs.

The class sang "Tony Chestnut," which had us all cracking up.  We all loved this song and found ourselves singing it all weekend.  I'm tempted to type up the lyrics but I'm afraid that would give away the cuteness of it.  So let me know if you can't understand the words and I'll add the lyrics.

The kids were also super cute singing "A Tooty Ta."

When Eliza asked me one day recently if we could square dance, I told her we couldn't because you have to have 8 people to square dance.  I wondered where she heard about square dancing, and then I found out during the program.  They did what I'll call a quarter-square dance, in partners, which was simple enough for 4 and 5 year olds.  First the students were paired up together, then they got to choose someone in their family to dance with.  Eliza wanted Jack, and when Jack refused at first, she started to gather Luke to be her partner.  Luckily, Jack changed his mind and they had a great time quarter-square dancing together.

"Yeehaw!"

Cat helped Eliza hand out her Valentine's, and you can see Luke in the picture below trying to see what was going on.

Between all of the candy the kids brought home and the treats we had in the house from (or for) friends, I started thinking of Valentine's Day as Halloween Junior.  Kinda not cool when Mom is trying to eat fewer sweets, but at least I know that I have some amount of will power now.

That night we made heart-shaped pizza for dinner and watched the second half of "The Parent Trap."