Blah, blah, blah....

...blogging rut. As always, I have a lot to say, but not necessarily in the mood to say it. :)
Last Thursday, we had Valentine's parties at the school. When I have been room mom in the past, I used to have mom's calling and begging to help with parties. In fact we had to kinda stagger them and say if you helped with Christmas (oh, I mean "Holiday," we must be politically correct) then someone else gets to help with Valentine's. In Parker's class, we had the room mom and me. There were only 3 moms in Liza's and 3 in Ty's. And it is the same 3 moms from the Holiday party. There are a couple of us who have multiple kids and party jump to try to help all. It is just different.
One thing I like is that each grade level has a lead room mom, and the room moms from that grade all get together and plan the party. They use the money budgeted to them from the donations at the beginning of the year (recommended $10 per child and then divided between 3 parties) and each class in the grade level has the same party, but in their own classrooms. It very effectively eliminates the competition between overzealous room moms who have a tendancy to overdo things. For instance, in Parker's class, the 4th grade room moms ordered a craft from Oriental Trading and all the 4th grade did the same craft. They all had a chocolate fountain and dipped fruit, pretzels and marshmallows. They all had the same punch, the same games and cookies. Socialism at it's best.
Anyway, here are some snapshots of the day:

Both of my goofy boys wore red shirts and red basketball shorts. How Valentiney!
The chocolate in the chocolate fountain went wax-y. I'm glad I was not in charge of it! The kids said it tasted GREAT anyway! They made cute fleece heart shaped pillows.
Liza's class made a cute tissue flower for "someone special" (Liza gave hers to Daddy).

I think that the sixth graders just ate the whole time. They did play a few games (guess how many heart candis are in the jar, and a form of charades), but at this point they all think that they are getting too old for elementary school...at least publicly. Inside, they all love it!

The 6th grade decided not to pass out Valentine's to each other this year! They are just too mature for that! :) T and his friend Nicholas are the tallest kids in their class.

I went on a scrapbooking weekend last weekend. I am overwhelmed at the amount of pictures I have taken, how far behind I have gotten, and how much I really don't remember about my babies and small children.

When I got home on Sunday night, my perfect children had cleaned their closets and Maris had dinner in the oven. I love my family.

See, too much crap. Overwhelming. It is a good thing I have a craft room to hide it all in.

While I was in Weatherford, I missed a tornado watch at home. But the most exciting thing I missed and I wish I had been here to see, was the drive-by shooting. Oh, it wasn't a drive-by, it was the golf ball size hail pounding on our windows. Thoughtful Maris put some in the freezer so I could see them. He knows I have wanted to see big giant hail. We lost power, and apparently the noise was quite terrifying. It did a lot of damage to cars that were out in driveways. Fortunately, ours was in the garage, and Maris' work car just got three dings.

And for my final thought of the day, here is what I have been craving, and therefore eating, a lot of:
Mmmmmm, salmon patties.