Valentine's Revisited

In Preparation For Valentine's Day:

Meredith and Lissa wanted to do their own homemade Valentines this year. This one is Meri's.


And these are Lissa's.


(Anderson hated the ones we bought for him but they turned out to be cool after all-- "Mom, even the girls were like, "Do you want your bug tattoo? Can I have it?"")

Rosalie left me a cup of fresh squeezed monkey.


Valentine's Day:

Anika, who no longer has to do a Valentine for every kid in her class, decided to do one for every one in her family. She left us a card and a plate of heart-shaped pink pancakes for breakfast. There was a rhyme inside for each of us.



Is that my hair? Is that my hair?

Clarissa dressed up all fancy for the 6th Grade dance. (Ah, the 6th grade dance, such memories. Mostly awkward and yucky ones.) She had a great time. So did the other moms and I as we circled the floor taking pictures and remembering back when we learned the same dances taught by the same teacher.


Boy's choice


Girl's choice

I dropped in on Anderson's class. They were playing "minute to win it" games--balancing dice on a popsicle stick held between their teeth, etc. I just missed seeing Anderson hold four dice without moving. So he showed me how he looked when he did it.


Meredith wore her most pink clothing and her tights with hearts on them. She's actually wearing little sister Rosalie's skirt. (Rosalie has sworn off all clothing but her brown butterfly dress. She's been wearing it for three weeks now.) On the tray--our family night dessert, provided by Grandma and Grandpa Songer.



As always, Rosalie told me she loves me several times during the day.


What did Casey and I do for Valentine's Day?
Me: I didn't make monkey bread. And I gave away all of the sugar cookies we baked so that we could avoid temptation. Wasn't that nice of me?
Casey: Said to me, "Don't you look valentine-y!" What I heard: "Blah blah blah tiny!" (Aw, thanks, sweetheart!)

Disturbing

Rosalie threw herself on my lap and announced to cousin Ellie, "I found another one!"
Ellie squinted at me sideways and then said, "Okay."
"Another what?" I asked.
"You're in the game!" announced Rosalie.
"What am I in the game?"
"You're in the game with us," she said, patient with my apparent slowness.
I asked, "Am I your mom?"
"Yes, " she said, "Our new mom."
"What happened to your old mom?"
"We killed her." Ellie stated, "Cuz she kept us in a high tower."

I wasn't sure I wanted to be the new mom. I knew I didn't after I related this conversation to Casey and he told me he'd overheard them saying that not only had they killed the old mom, they'd eaten her.