How Valentine's Day Rocked: Kids, Bacon, and Baseball

Today we had a Valentine's Day party at our house. We spent time decorating for it the past couple days. The boys' art teacher had them make heart mobiles with contact paper, tissue paper, and glitter last week. So we made more of those in heart shapes and put them on windows, stuck Charlie Brown Valentines on windows, and the boys made construction paper hearts and taped them all over as well.

Art class mobile

Making our own

This one we made into a big heart for the window.

Our guest of honor was none other than Alexandra.

At our party we did a little art: scribbled markers on coffee filters cut in heart shapes and then dripped water on them with medicine droppers. The colors slowly spread out, giving them sort of a tie-dyed look. Super easy thing to do with little ones.

Markers on coffee filters

Finished hearts- I also tied yarn or ribbon through the holes I punched
at the tops so they could be displayed.

Next we did some experimenting with candy hearts: The kids took turns dropping candy hearts into various liquids and we observed what happened. We tried cold water, hot water, lemon juice, and water with baking soda that we added vinegar to. The cool one was the soda and vinegar because the hearts danced and flipped around in all the fizz. The hot water melted chunks of the hearts off, and color from the hearts slowly dissolved in the cold water and lemon juice. In case you were curious.

Philip and Alex check out the hearts and liquids.

Everyone was so curious!

Pouring vinegar on them made the hearts dance!

Next, the eight kids had a picnic on the living room floor. Grilled cheese, strawberries, and banana chips. The other three moms and I actually were able to sit down at the table and talk for a few minutes over some soup and sandwiches. The kids were awesome. Even after having mini cupcakes and Rice Krispie treats, they sat on the couch and humored us for some pictures of them all in their reds, pinks, and purples.

Picnic in February!

Rice Krispie treats on sticks with strawberry cake mix,
hearts, and mini cupcakes

Yum!

Can you say Red and Pink and Purple?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Besties

After the party dust settled, I made my gift for Brian: bacon roses.

Yes.

That's what I said.

I saw the picture here online and modified the instructions. I did not take a drill to a perfectly good mini muffin tin as they suggested (to account for bacon grease), but I microwaved the bacon a minute and a half first, and then rolled it into rolls and stuffed them in small cookie cutters on top of the broiler pan, like this:

I found some fake flowers and cut them off and stuck the bacon roses on.

This. Just. Happened.

Brian approved. Then he laced his leftover grilled cheese sandwich with bacon roses and I had made his dinner as well! Pretty sure I just won an award.

Then mini Nationals Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg gave me some tulips for the balcony. Super romantic.

And my gift from Brian was a subscription to MLB.TV, so we will be able to watch the Nationals even though we got rid of cable!

After my tulip gift, we took the boys to the playground. They ran around like crazy monkeys, hit baseballs off their new tee, and got covered in mud. Then it was bath time, dinner, and bed.

It's taken Brian and I nine years of knowing each other, but I think we've finally gotten this holiday right: kids, bacon, and baseball.

This was one of my favorite Valentine's Days ever.

Vapiano Pizza-Makin' for Kids

A few weeks ago a friend of mine happened to be walking by Vapiano (pizza and pasta restaurant) on a Saturday morning and noticed that they had a little pizza class going on for kids. She stopped in, there was room in the class for her son, and so they spent the next hour or so making mini pizzas. It turns out that Vapiano at Reston Town Center does these free pizza-making classes every other Saturday morning! I signed the boys up and last weekend we had a wonderful time with the manager in charge of the class, the other employees who helped, the kids, and the boys' little friend Sonja.

Rene is the manager and he has this whole experience down. From the moment you walk in the door, you are welcomed, the kids are given (real, cloth) aprons, a paper chef hat, crayons, drinks, and parents are also given complementary drinks. The tour starts with a well-advised trip to the restrooms for the kids to wash their hands before they get to squish down the pizza dough. After the pizzas are all put together and baking, Renee brought out dough for the kids to practice tossing into the air. That was probably Cal's favorite part.

Without further text, here are the pictures. I highly recommend this fun morning (allow a good hour and a half or two hours) for anyone in the area. I'd say ideal ages are probably 3-6. Call ahead to reserve a space in the class, but it's all free! (Reston Town Center location: 571-281-2893)

The marketing worked on us...I'm sure we'll go eat dinner there at some point soon because they were so great to deal with- and the pizza was delicious!

Sonja and the boys get set for baking!

Everyone meets the manager and introduces themselves.

Clean hands are ready to press the dough!

How does my hat look?

Smashing the dough down

Decorating...

While the pizzas are baking...let's throw dough!

Chef Cal catches good air!

And the dough catches the floor a few times...

Everyone gets turns.

Cal does it again...

Yum, Batman: A bunny pizza and a normal little pizza for each kid

Thank you, Rene! 

We're Celebrating the Museum!

Today we visited the National Air and Space Museum- the Udvar-Hazy location. It was the first time we'd gone during their storytime, and I was pleased with it. They do storytimes more often at the downtown location, but it looks like most Fridays this month they have storytimes at the Udvar-Hazy museum.

Before we left to go the museum with my friend Susan and her kids, the boys put on their flight suits and begged to wear them. "Mom, we need to wear them because we're celebrating the museum!" they explained to me. All I could think of at first was that flight suits would mean another layer, but I let them wear the suits, hoping there wouldn't be an issue with needing to shed four layers including a one-piece flight suit in a second's time in the museum bathroom.

The story we heard was a cute one about a Mousetronaut and they did little art projects with popsicle sticks and space shapes. Afterward they got to hold astronaut food, touch an astronaut suit, try on a glove, and see an astronaut's diaper. The kids all enjoyed it.

They've always liked the museum, but today they were the most excited they've ever been about being there. They ran around showing their friend Philip the candy cane airplane and Space Shuttle Discovery. Clark pointed out that it looks like Discovery has ears when you see it from a distance.The glass elevator was a space shuttle blasting off. Oftentimes they were Jack and Jim, Apollo 13 astronauts, getting ready for space.  They talked the ear off a volunteer who showed them pictures from when a Buzz Lightyear toy went into space. One of the tour guides pointed out to his group as we walked by that today we were fortunate to have two real astronauts here. The tourists were delighted, and snapped pictures of the boys as they walked by, oblivious to the fact that what they were wearing was a little unusual (and about a size too small).

I love so much that embarrassment is something they haven't experienced yet. I wish it could be that way forever.

A flight suit just like ours!

I'm not really sure what's happening here...

Story!

Astronaut glove!

Clark and Philip check out the astronaut gear.

Push the buttons...

We love airplanes!

The Apollo 13 astronauts are blasting off on their mission!

Here is my review of the museum from last year.    

Thursday Thesicle

Little kids would make terrifying coaches.

A Nesty Day

I've been nesting today. Yesterday we went over to my in-law's house and got all the newborn things down from their attic. Maybe we're a little early, but oh well. We've had the closet at our house nearly empty and ready for a baby for months.

Now...it is full.

closet, above wardrobe

wardrobe

I have one, stuffed-full drawer that contains only bibs and burp cloths. I assure you this was necessary for the twins, but if Peapod himself needs this much fabric to soak up just his upper body juices, we have a huge problem.

upper body juices drawer

I set aside the onesies with the cute little twinsy-saying on them. Like Thing 1 and Thing 2 and My Twin Did It and I'm with Yin, I'm with Yang, etc. We will most likely not need two mobiles or two exersaucers or two newborn boppy loungers or 35 bottles, or numerous sets of identical newborn-size shoes, and I would really love it if I never have to use that breast pump ever again, but other than that, we'll probably be able to use it all! This dude will be the cheapest kid ever.

The boys were on their own all morning while I got nesty. At first they loved playing with the rattles and puffy toys with weird sounds and pretending the mobiles were spiders (whose bites can only be cured with chocolate medicine). They "tried on" the microscopic socks and undid most everything I did. After awhile they started playing Mommy and Baby and pretending to feed and care for each other. Their real mom didn't care, after all. I didn't notice where they went after that. I'm not really sure if Cal ever got dressed today, now that I think about it.

I knew by the loud giggles and belly laughter that they were enjoying taking pictures with my camera, but I didn't realize until now how many pictures they took, and of what stunning quality. Observe their best art:

Anyway, I'm all nested up. Now I only have...oh, that's right, until July before we get to hold little Mr. Peapod. He has a lot of growing left.

Tonight Cal said, "Sometimes I just like to peek in Peapod's closet."

Me too, Cal.
-------------------------------------------------

Addendum: I decided to put my name in the Circle of Mom's contest for the Top 25 Funny Mom Blogs. I'm under no delusion that I will even place, (I think I'm currently hovering around #165) but they do an up-and-coming blog version of the award, from what I've gathered, that maybe I have a shot for, because I don't know how they determine it. Who knows. You can vote for Whispers & Shouts once every 24 hours until next Thursday-- Valentine's Day. Or not, if you think I'm stupid. Geez.