My Little Valentines

Valentine's came and went on Tuesday. We decorated the table on Monday night, our simple tradition I started years ago that the kids get SO excited about. I heard them gathering in their hallway, asking "can we come out to the table now?!" just like it was Christmas morning. It never occurred to me they'd wait for a signal.

Everyone was very taken with their new plates (Target dollar spot!), flowers, and chocolate, and of course- the most treasured tradition: milk in the champagne glass. It's the little things that always end up standing out the most in their minds.

We got the now-traditional Valentine's morning couch pic. It started when Cora was a baby and now we're on round 4.

Mind boggling.

And then facebook took me all the way back to Valentine's 2008 and I died a little. Who is this baby?

I mean seriously, who is that? Not only does present-day-Landon suddenly look 15 years old to me, which is crazy enough, but baby-Landon really doesn't look like big-kid-Landon to me at all. But present-day-Landon also doesn't look like 6-months-ago Landon so maybe my whole brain is in denial about the fact he's going to college in like 3 years.

But he labored away at his desk to make me a special Valentine's card, so he's still my little boy, even if he's solidly in men's shoes.

I got to have a lunch date with my Valentine- sushi at our fave place. He even put on a non-swimming t-shirt for me! He loves me an awful lot.

Our heart-shaped pasta dinner was a HUGE hit. This might be a new tradition- it was way easier than hand-shaping a heart pizza. The nice bottle of champagne for after dinner/kids' bedtime tradition remains unchanged, forevermore. Though adding more chocolate is okay.

Cora couldn't figure out this odd new holiday. At dinner that night, out of nowhere, she announced: "I got choc-late today! . . . but I did not say trick-or-treat. . . . and I did not sing Happy Birthday. . . . And I got CHOC-LATE!"

On Wednesday morning, admiring her Valentine's Day spoils still sitting on the table she again verified, just to be sure, "... this is not my birthday party?" No baby. It's just a random day for champagne and chocolate. Enjoy it.

Claire started soccer yesterday!

It was a triumph of friendship and neighbors as Thursday was really the worst possible day for the coach to set her practices. All three kids swim, Landon and Claire starting at 5 and Cora starting at 5:30. Tara takes everyone at 4:30 and hangs out with Cora until her lesson starts and then she leaves and James takes everyone home. Now Claire will need to be at soccer practice at 5:30, which seems like no problem since I usually get home at 5:15, but there's that 45 minutes between Tara leaving to go the pool in the opposite direction of my office and me getting home to potentially pick up Claire. Another mom friend of ours was out of town, as was her husband, and her daughter had Girl Scouts after school and before soccer, and the other mom I know on the team was hosting a church small group at her house at the exact time practice would end. Eight emails later, we had it solved. And Tara, a legit soccer star back in the day, even braided Claire's hair in a super cool soccer braid and then texted me a picture of our little soccer star before they left the house. Not to get distracted, but I pink-puffy heart Tara SO MUCH.

Claire is super excited for soccer to start, even though she has no memory of playing two years ago, prefers to carry the ball in her hands, and excitedly chirped at me Thursday morning before school that she "really hope we win our soccer practice today Mom!".

She's adorable. (And they totally won their practice.)

I picked all the girls up and we rocked out to the Moana soundtrack on the way home. I felt like such a cool mom, cruising in my Hyundai, blasting the speakers and singing along with every word of "Where I'll Go," awash in memories of carpools in my mom's car. Big kids are fun.

Cora started in the primary classroom at school on Tuesday, after surviving her first ever fever on Monday. She is LOVING her new class (there's so much more work for her to do! And no one loves work like Cora loves work), but she is a TEENSY BIT tired at the end of each day. There have been a lot of emotions and on one notable occasion her first big act of toddler defiance-- putting Claire's boots away in HER bin instead of CLAIRE'S bin. Cora's such an orderly soul, I know it hurt her more than it did me.

I'm off to bed because we're off to Houston tomorrow (basically today, since it's 11:50 p.m.). May you all have a fabulous weekend, with all your shoes in the right bins.