Valentines and Centerpieces

Eli had his class Valentines Day party this morning. Maddie and I arrived just before noon and the food portion of the day had just ended. (His class tends to have an all-day party to celebrate holidays because their room mom ROCKS and because the kids can handle many more crafts and activities than they could last year.) When we walked in, the students were just finishing up pop-up cards for mommies and daddies. Eli actually made a nice smiley face on his with glitter glue....all by himself! Maddux roamed around, checking out everything she could. As we were walking to the class, his teacher passed us in the hall (the aide and a few other moms were in the room with the kids). She informed me that Eli had eaten SO much food during the party. There were cupcakes, a cookie cake (with bananas on it), cookies and Hershey kisses. Eli had sampled it all, of course.

After the cards came a special story time and then some general play before we left. Eli's best buddy, Sanjit, came over to Maddie and gave her a Valentine - so sweet!! She carried it all around and growled at everyone as she showed it off. (There was a teddy bear on it.) Every time I go to his class I'm amazed at how grown up Eli is becoming. He was very well-behaved today, despite the sugar coursing through his veins, and he was very excited to 'show off' his mommy and sister to everyone. When the kids sat down for story-time, Sangit had just given Maddux her card. She sat with me, but Eli called across the room, "Maddie, dats from Sangit. Can you say 'Sanjit', Maddie?" And when the kids were all playing, I heard another child call, "Eli!!!" and turned around to see one of Eli's friends from last year summoning Eli from across the room to play with him. He has this whole other life at school that I'm not a part of and it is so cool.

When we got home, the kids played on the back porch while I made lunch. We had just put Eli's homemade flowers in a vase on the kitchen table, so Eli must have been in the decorating mood. He came running inside with a long branch containing several dead leaves. (It was actually really pretty!) He said, "MOMMY!! We HAVE to use dis for da table so everyone can look at it." I told him it would go perfectly on the table outside since we planned to eat out there for dinner. He and Maddux spent a good 15 minutes after lunch decorating the table even more. Obviously Eli has inherited this gene from Grandma Cathie; he certainly didn't get it from me! Maddux had a blast finding pine needles, pine cones, and other yard 'decorations' with her brother. I swear she would follow him over hot coals....