Valentine's Fun

The kids really got into Valentine's Day this year. They both decorated boxes for their class parties. It was quite the event at our house with lots of stickers, glue and assorted decorations. They also both enjoyed picking valentines out for each of their classmates. Elizabeth was very careful about which Toy Story character went to each kid and then decided who would get the rest of her valentines. She used up all 30 that came in the box! Ben hand wrote each valentine and was also very selective about who got which superhero. He did not use all of his and only gave out a few extras. His plan was to keep quite a few for himself - "at least 6 or 7". Both kids did write themselves a valentine and delivered it to their own box at school. Guess they love suckers?

The school parties were really fun. Ben's class played Bingo which turned out to be quite the hit. They also enjoyed an indoor picnic lunch. E's class had a couple of treats and then got to look at their valentines. Elizabeth showed each item to both of her teachers. She was so excited to get bubbles, an eraser, a notepad and many more fun treats. We celebrated at home with Pei Wei and presents. The kids got Jayhawk pillow pets as their main gift. They also enjoyed going through their cards and treats again at home. It was a fun holiday!

Bedtime Prayers

Elizabeth – “Thank you God for stickers. Thank you God for this blanket. Thank you God for Dad and for Mom and for Brother. Thank you God for chicken. Thank you God for animals.” And that is only a fraction of her sweet prayers. This girl is very thankful and would go on for a long time if we didn’t help reign her in!

Ben – “Thank you God for making me. Please help all the people in Asia to know about you. God, please make it so I can start prayer tomorrow and the next day. Please help me to get new bed stuff. That’s all.” Ben’s prayers are always extremely thoughtful and often about helping others. And he usually can think of several things he is thankful for. He especially has a heart for those that don’t know about God yet and we are praying about different continents/countries each night and trying to learn more about them. This particular night he put a couple of his own agenda items on the list that he wanted taken care of. He and Elizabeth alternate who starts prayers each night. Ben felt he had been wronged on this particular night and wanted a makeup night. We’ll see how that one plays out. Ben also recently sheepishly asked for new bedding. He went to Dad as he was embarrassed to talk to Mom about it. And probably rightfully so. It did make Mom super sentimental that this little boy is growing up. He wants something without little kid pictures on it. Maybe just stripes. When did our baby boy become an old man? :) I guess he just wanted to ensure that he really does get new bedding so he made sure that God was aware of the situation.

Aquaphor

Ben is such a great kid. We never had the story that he got into Mom’s make up or smeared diaper cream everywhere. But some kids are late bloomers in some ways. This was not mischievous in any way. Ben was just trying to take care of a problem without asking for help. Mom went to check on Ben during rest time and Ben’s pillow looked wet and there were tissues everywhere.

Mom – Why is this wet?

Ben – I had to use my water from my cup to clean up the mess.

Mom – What mess?

Ben – I used my special lotion (Aquaphor) on my legs and then it got on my pillow and sheets so I tried to use Kleenex and water to clean it.

Mom – Why did you get Aquaphor out?

Ben – Well, my legs were dry and I got those red spots (eczema) so I was trying to help them.

Seemed like a logical plan. He had used nearly half of a jar of Aquaphor (if you don’t know what that is, it has a similar consistency to Vaseline). His legs were pretty dry I guess. He just looked shiny. It wasn’t well rubbed in before he laid on his sheets and pillow and so as not to get in trouble for a mess, Ben used his bedside water cup to wet the areas and then “clean” it up with tissues. As he used tissues, he must have thrown them overboard one by one. It created quite the scene of gooey mess. At least it was contained to his bed mostly?