My Little Valentines 2013

We LOVE Valentine's Day at our house.

Ok, we love any chance to celebrate/decorate/dress up/give presents!

We skipped school today.

{I've got connections with the principal}

We ate pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.

We hit the town in our Valentine's gear.

We shopped for books. {thanks Grandma Bev}

I lugged my "real camera" waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on my unsuspecting children.

{they aren't always in the mood for a photo shoot}

Luckily, I found the right moment.

This girl was most certainly in the mood for some cheesing!!

Awe!

Look at my loves!

I love this picture.

I have a thing about putting my kids in order by age.

Is this normal?

Caleb staged this moment himself.  I was snapping away with both my real camera and my iPhone SIMULTANEOUSLY

{super-mom, I know, right?}

And I noticed him telling Caity to give him a kiss!

What a good boy!

This one may need to be framed!

A little extra brother love is required on Valentine's Day!

{check out Caity...she thought this was so funny!}

I pulled the girls aside and told them I wanted a picture of them surprising Caleb with kisses.

He is smiling away...no clue what's happening behind him...

Kisses!

I love that the little ladies are still thrilled to match.

My big girls, not so much.

I'll be working this stage as long as possible.

The girls' shirts were two amazingly successful DIY projects.  

I say this because crafts usually end in frustrated Mommy and kids or spilled paint.

Or both.

I chose two projects I found online.

Mailee's shirt was inspired by a tutorial at The Pleated Poppy

It turned out so cute.

I like to give the kids a choice. Each of my kids is so different.

I wasn't surprised that Mailee picked the more precise, time consuming project.

This suits her personality.

She did so well making each dot perfect.

The other girls' shirts were a fun new adventure with freezer paper 

and a fantastic tutorial at Hazel and Company

I was too busy helping kids remember not to eat the paint to take a bunch of pictures during the process but click on the links above to get two very complete tutorials!

Making the big heart shirts with the two little girls was a breeze thanks to Erin's brilliant idea of covering the ENTIRE shirt with paper except for the heart.

It worked like a charm.

TIPS:

-If you live in Canada, you can buy freezer paper at Superstore. {not at Walmart, or any of the grocery stores I tried}

-I cleaned the girls up and sent them to play once I could tell they were getting bored.  I then took the liberty of perfecting their creations by adding a few dabs where needed :)

**disclaimer: I did give Caleb the option of doing this project but he chose a box of avengers Valentines instead of a shirt. Cute boy.  He was very sweet to keep his eye on the project and compliment the ladies on their finished products:)

Ballerina Toes

We've been driving to dance for a lot of years.  

We've logged a lot of hours at the studio.

All my hot and tropical vacation fund money goes to classes and slippers!

Mikayla has been working so hard this year.

As a parent, it is really exciting to see a child reach goals and set new ones.

She is already accomplishing things I only dreamed about doing!

This year she got pointe shoes in ballet.

Apparently they get thrashed quickly

{along with the dancer's pretty feet}

So we decided to take some photos while the shoes are still lookin' good.

Consider these my hot and tropical vacation pictures...

Bracelets were Mikayla's idea

Cute, right?

Fan was Mailee's contribution.

Love it!

This might be my favourite.

Mikayla's other favourite thing is reading/books/libraries/bookstores. 

 Made sense to combine her two loves:)

My other favourite pic.

This is my girl.

Dancing, reading, teal-loving achiever.

I have to say, taking out my "big camera", or "real camera" felt SO GOOD!

Being creative also felt SO GOOD!

I've been in a bit of a slump recently and this was reviving.

Pull out your cameras ladies.

Let's not let our family's memories be captured only on our IPhones!!!

Hawk Star of The Game

Did I tell you?

Caleb has been playing hockey this winter.

He is loving it.

I'm still not completely sold on the length of time it takes to get the gear on and off, or the stinky-ness that wafts from the change room after the game but I love to see my little guy get out there and play!

Here are some pictures from last week's tournament;

Number 6

{Caleb}

I am pretty sure his biggest goal in the game is beating his teammates to center ice for the face off.

He's very motivated.

I guess he really likes this part of the game:)

So cute!  Some of the guys on his team are 4 years old.

They are tiny!

Lots of slipping and sliding.

Caleb is one of the older kids on the team.

He has been doing really well and we are very proud of his work ethic.

Caleb's team is the Hawks.

After every game the coach picks a player of the game (Hawk Star) and gives the star the Hawk Box.

Look who earned Hawk Star at the last game of the tournament!!

We are all so thrilled for Caleb, gettin' out there and hanging out with some guys, doing well at a sport that his Daddy loved when he was a kid, and being an awesome teammate.

Way to go Bud!