Valentine's Day for the Maynes Family

Our Valentine's day started out with Nate's famous heart-shaped egg sandwiches, topped with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries!  Nate took my shift at Bradley's class, which was nice :).  And while he was gone I got his present all ready for him and left it on the front door for him to find when he got home.  I like it when I can spoil Nate a little.  Hopefully he liked his gift.

I took some time to get things ready for the game I was in charge of at Charity's class.  I made some heart bean bags and gathered a few baskets.  I know it was kind of a generic game, but I got tired of trying to come up with something creative, that would still be fun.  I think you lose some of the fun element, when you get TOO creative.  Or maybe I'm just lazy, who knows :)A little later in the morning, before we left to pick up Luke, there was a ring at the door, and to my surprise.... FLOWERS!!!!! 

 I LOVE getting flowers!  I think it's so fun!  Especially on Valentine's day, to know that Nate had to plan WEEKS ahead to spoil me.... just means a lot to me :).  I can say, I don't NEED flowers, but I smile and think about my sweetie every time I see them, so it's definitely a plus :)

We picked up Luke and then went and got some lunch and headed to the park.  I love that it's been warm enough lately to spend a little time at the park.  The kids need that I think.  We get sick of being stuck in our house!  I brought my camera and took a bunch of pictures of the kids playing.  That was fun.  It's been a while since I did that for some reason!  I've been on a photo slump.

After lunch we came home to surprise on our doorstep.  Grandma Hatch had left a basket full of fun stuff for the kids with a balloon tied to it.  That was a pleasant little surprise!  

Thankfully we had a little time to relax a little before I had to go to Charity's class party.  Nate turned on Real Steel for he and the kids.  I left.

The party was a lot of fun.  I couldn't believe the variety of strategies those 4th graders came up with!  It was hilarious to watch.  Lukey came with me so that he could help retrieve the bean bags, he did SUCH a good job!!  Normally I don't think of Luke when I need a quick helper, he's generally not the most helpful like that.... but he sure proved me wrong this time!  He was a speed demon!  I think the kids got way more turns than they would have without him!  I'm gonna have to take advantage of this at home maybe :).  Jk.  There were SO many goodies at that party!  Donuts, cupcakes, the candy I brought as prizes, soda pop!!  I couldn't believe it!  Mrs. Davis seemed happy that they would be going home on this sugar high  and not staying there for her to deal with.

When we got home, Nate and the littles were sound asleep!  So we tried to stay upstairs.  Nate had been up all night with the little princess, and was exhausted, so I was happy he was able to catch up a little!  I was glad he had decided to take the day off as well because I totally felt this cold hit me as the afternoon came on.  I was so sore and tired! 

The kids all dumped out there boxes and examined the goods.  I couldn't believe how many homemade, creative ones there were!!!  Everyone's so creative!  I wish I could think of that stuff ahead of time.  I guess buying them is just so much easier and my kids think it's so amazing that I let them get the candy ones now (I didn't used to because I think the kids have enough candy, but then I realized that the plain old card ones cost the same as the candy ones!!), that it just seems like the way to go.  Maybe next year we'll get creative and do something unique.... maybe. Or the next year.... who knows :)

Sarah and her boys came by with cute little homemade Valentines for Erika and Noah (and some extra Muddy Buddies for the rest of the kids, which they scarfed down faster than you can say.... something.... they were gone so fast!).  It was fun to play with Charlie and watch Alvin.  We don't get to see them enough anymore.
The kids were all playing outside for most of the afternoon and that is always a good thing!

After the Hatches left, and Nate was at the store with Kelly, I decided to take a minute to rest on the couch.  I was having chills.  Surprisingly the kids let me fall asleep, and I woke up to the smell of a yummy homemade dinner (well, actually it was Lukey's crazy little face I woke up to... breathing on mine, with his nose almost touching mine.  Always a funny way to wake up.... and freaky at the same time).  Nate had whipped up some chicken and a broccoli salad.  He's so amazing.  And so good to me!  I had had all these plans to do a fun Valentine's dinner..... but this was so much nicer!

We finally got our house cleaned up a little that night.  It took a while, but all the days of not having time to clean up at night, had really caught up with us!  This new system has been a good one until this last week, so it was tricky to get things under control again.  Very grateful for my hard workers though, who did what they could and helped out.  Happy Valentine's day to us :)