Love Day

Picking up where I left off…

Is it just me (I tend to be a bit of a scrooge, so it may be) or has Valentine’s Day gotten completely out of hand for school kids?? Like what the what is going on here!? Both kids came home with elaborate goodie bags full of treats FROM EACH STUDENT. Uhhhh, excuse me?

Our Valentine’s were cards. Home made cards. They painted them the week before and then cut them out into heart shapes and decorated them with stickers and signed them. That’s it. I feel bad for the kids that got them and were disappointed to not receive a treat, which is horrible considering how much time/thought/effort/love went into them. I shouldn’t feel bad for having my kids make something nice. Since they both looooove crafts, I know they had fun doing it and I highly doubt the other kids even noticed, but in the future it may be a different story…what kind of sucks, right? I mean, the point is not to out-pinterest other parents, it’s to let the kids enjoy doing something thoughtful for their peers. Blahhhh. Parenting can be such a mind f*#%. Anyway, let’s just side step that little vent sesh and move on to the food.

In the bombardment of photos from Pattycakes’ birthday I forgot to show off my lunch from that day. And since it was epically delish, I knew I had to go back and highlight it.

First, I thawed two cornbread waffles leftover from this night. Next, I added several large schmears of cream cheese (Lactose Free Organic Valley is the best best best). Then, I added smoked salmon (the brand is Echo Falls for those who want to know).

If you thought a bagel with lox was the ultimate, let me just tell you, cornbread waffles with lox is BEYOND.

Happy 100th day of school!

Apparently this is now a thing that schools celebrate?! I never did this, but I had been seeing it all over others’ insta and then next thing I know the teacher is sending home a flyer telling us to decorate a shirt with 100 things. I really phoned it in here by getting him 100 animal stickers. Kyle and I each counted it out MANY times to see if he got exactly 100 on and we kept losing count so it may or may not be 100, but the point was made.

Meanwhile, I was throwing all my effort into a secret project for his birthday party.

This was hard core momming, you guys. And I’m definitely proud of how it turned out considering I had no clear vision when I started…

In case I haven’t mentioned it here on the blog, P is OBSESSED with Komodo dragons. He asked for one for Christmas, but for obvious reasons that didn’t happen. He loves learning about animal facts and listens to multiple podcasts about animals and spends hours and hours each week drawing different animals…needless to say, pin the tail on the donkey was not going to cut it for his party.

So, I decided to surprise him with a pin the birthday hat on the Komodo dragon game.

He was thrilled. It was so adorable. And my mama heart was so happy.

PS we now have a Komodo dragon (poster board) living in his room, so that’s nice.

• 

• 

Instead of cake, he wanted “dirt and worms” (something he discovered at camp the summer before which has stuck with him ever since). I was super pleased with this choice because it’s far easier than a cake.

I got the gummy worms from the bulk bins and found compostable paper cups to serve to the kids. Not perfect for a zero waste lifestyle by any means, but I’ve come to terms with my best being enough. Plus, zero waste chef recently posted this and it really resonated with me.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

Rosé is red, gingerberry is blue…I love kombucha and chocolate more than you.

I know I’ve mentioned it on the blog before, but V-Day is not my thing. I have never been super into it, and before I had kids I would often forget about it. My husband is more on top of it though.

• 

• 

Lunch time salad was basically a recreation of the one I was raving about here, with TJs sesame dressing, roasted veggies, and almonds on kale. It was just as good this time around.

I decided to let her skip her nap (which she fights most days anyway) because P’s birthday party started at 3…so OF COURSE she fell asleep at 2:30 in her chair.

His party was awesome, btw. But maybe a little too awesome because that night we found ourselves like this…

Making his way through a new LEGO set from grandma and bumpa while doing an albuterol treatment.

WHYYYYYYY?!?!

It’s such a bummer because I had thought he had managed to avoid getting Valley’s cold, but per usual, he went from 0 to 60 in the span of an evening. His asthma was seemingly much better thanks to OIT, but the rest of this week has been full of sleepless nights. I brought him into bed with us (me) for two nights in a row because I have PTSD from the last croup/pneumonia incident, so Kyle slept in the guest bedroom. At least this way I could be sure he was breathing and react with meds super quickly. I was definitely exhausted running on a couple of hours of sleep…BUT the silver lining is that P has been a trooper through it all. I’ve managed to get him to nap for a few days in a row, too, to make up for lost sleep in the night. The first night I think we only slept 2 hours in total, though. OOF. I’m not used to this phase of parenting anymore! I don’t have an infant! I’m not nursing on demand! The nebulizer really helps. It’s one of the only ways to get him to stop coughing. Poor buddy.

How good does this look!!

I didn’t start making dinner until late because of his party, so I used leftovers to make us Mexican bowls.

I had leftover ground beef and cashew “nacho cheese” from the Super Bowl, rice from our dinner the night before (which was SO INCREDIBLY RANDOM I may not even bother posting about it), and chili from my weekend prep. I added salsa, pepitas, cheese, and cilantro and TA DA dinner was served.

Oh and mine was served in a spaghetti squash boat. Because I had an extra half already roasted and just begging to be topped in ooey gooey sauce.

It was a LOT of squash though, so I ended up sharing a bunch with the kids. I’m a modern day cupid. 😉

And FYI, both of them completely forgot about their bags of Valentine’s loot as soon as they walked in the house. They sat untouched on the counter for a few days before I went through them (removing the ring pops and such) and they still haven’t even asked for them.