Happy Valentine’s Day
I awoke this morning as I always do….to the sound of Ava’s knocking on her door, waiting to get out. The sound of little feet with noise like a heard of elephants had already been traveling up to my ears. Chloe and Jayden were up to something.
With Ava dressed in her Valentine’s Day outfit, we headed downstairs to find a trail of signs hung all over the walls. From Chloe’s elaborate poster board sign, to a whole bunch of pink signs that said “Happy Valentine’s Day” on them which Jayden had created.
In the kitchen I found signs taped to the basement door. One contained a whole list of rules and the other, two labeled sandwich baggies, one for Jayden and one for Ava. It turns out Chloe had secretly asked Poppy via e-mail to bring her some extra Valentine Kit-Kat’s. (Thanks goes out to Poppy for helping her carry out her plan!) She planned and set up a “Candy Scavenger Hunt” for Ava and Jayden.
Jayden and Ava were very excited to get started. Chloe even hid Jayden’s in harder locations and Ava’s in more visible spaces! Chloe planned everything in secret, even I was unaware. Her rules were even broken down into which rooms to look in, proper manners, and how many were to be found by each of them. Like the mother hen that she is, Chloe shadowed Ava around “helping” her find all her candy bars.
Ava was extremely pleased with her “loot”! In fact, Jayden and Ava had so much fun that they spent the next 30 minutes or so re-hiding their bags of candy for each other. Jayden would hide hers, and then Ava would hide his. Only Ava hid Jayden’s in the toy box each and every time! The one time Chloe tried to help her by telling her to hide it in the piano, Ava yells out “In the piano?”. She the proceeded to hide it in the toy box anyways! This little maneuver turned out to be a fantastic decoy as Jayden headed right for the piano after hearing what Ava had so loudly yelled!
At this point, some of you are wondering about what was done Chloe. Of course she made out just fine for Valentine’s Day as well. She not only got the matching shirt to Ava’s, but 2 other shirts as well. Plus I purchased these cute bug shaped boxes with candy inside for each one of the kids. A lady bug for Chloe, a bumblebee for Jayden, and a butterfly for Ava. For those of you that know them, you know each bug has a meaning for them. (More on that in another post)
Happy Valentine’s Day to your family from ours!
February 14, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
First I have to say sorry for this reply not being placed where you were speaking abut homeschooling. I totally understand your moments/days when things are so frustrating. I don’t belittle any of that BUT just as you have expressed in your blog, continue to place more emphasis on the fantastic benefits of being able to value, affirm, and nurture your children 100% of the time. As parents we all make mistakes; we pray that our children will make room for forgiveness and letting go. As your parent there are many things I wish I could do over and be more intentional about. This would include homeschooling the three of you. Unfortunately we don’t get to do life over. Yesterday is gone and all we can do is learn and move on. Tomorrow is not here yet. As I write this, I am reminded of Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”. But today is a new day!!! A dear friend of mine at church shared a prayer written by Hartsill Wilson: Dear God, this is the beginning of a new day. You have given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or I can use it for good, but what I do today is important because I’m exchanging a whole day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever. I want it to be gain, not loss, good, not evil; success, not failure; so that I shall never regret the price that I paid for it. Heidi you will not regret this time in your life that you are pouring into Chloe, Jayden, and Ava. As your mother I can’t help but pray that at some point the Holy Spirit will change your heart; bringing to your rememberence all that you were taught so that this too can be poured into their lives.
February 14, 2010 @ 9:28 pm
Heidi, I just want you to know how much I love you ,and how grateful I am to have your family in my life. Your children are so beloved by us! I adore all 3 of them, and wish we saw more of you. Chloe is an amazing young woman and such a good friend to my daughter. Jayden is a loving bundle of fun and good friend to Jude, and Ava just makes me laugh out loud and want to squeeze her! I can’t wait till she and Lucy ar past the “parallel” play age 🙂