The big kids both had school the morning of Valentine's Day. I don't know why, but Valentine's Day was always my favorite holiday at school. I loved the mail boxes, the cute little notes, and the candy.
Cayben and I (mostly I) made a cute little creature mailbox (way too late the night before V-Day).
Embrie's teacher provided her class with Valentine boxes. She rocks like that!
Cayben's Valentines were super cute because Pinterest makes me seem like an awesome mom.
And Embrie's Valentines were cute just because I am an awesome mom.
Later that afternoon we had a park playdate with some friends. Everyone brought food to share. The kids and I brought sugar cookies along with all the fixings to decorate them.
Cayben has started pulling this face followed by a horrendous noise on a regular basis.
Cracks me up every time.
My boy is 6! HOLY COW! I imagine I'll feel this way every year since he's my oldest, but WOW! Where does time go?
Anyway, we had a party... of course. Cayben is more like his father than his mother and didn't want a party with a bunch of hype and a bunch of kids. He just wanted family and his best buddy, Nathan and little bro at his party. So that's what we had.
We still had a theme because I get my way a little bit. We decided on a camping theme because...well camping is just fun.
We decorated the living room like a campsite.
And Shay made sure everyone knew where to go when they needed to go.
We had the camp stove and some trail maps in addition to some sweet treats.
Smore cupcakes with marshmallow cream cheese frosting.
These little treats pictured below were the best. It's giant marshmallows dipped in chocolate and graham cracker crumbs. I think I'll just bring these little big guys camping with me next time and avoid the mess and hassle of trying to make smores with soot/dirt covered hands.
The "goodie bags" were water bottles filled with camping related items such as, flash lights, granola bars, hot cocoa packets, bandaids, etc. On the outside of the bottle I tied some smore mix (Golden Grahams, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.), which is also a very convenient way to eat a smore and attached this cute free printable.
Cayben opened presents in the tent.
Pinatas and bounce houses have nothing to do with camping, but everything to do with parties, so we had them!
Cayben's whacking the beast.
Embrie's giving it a try.
Here's a little scary side note, the look Embrie gets on her face while hitting the piñata is the same look she gets when "loving" her little sister. I think it's something similar to this:
The kids all had ample opportunity to destroy the thing…
but finally Shay had to do it.
Here they are reaping the reward. I think Shay might be nearing a sugar-induced coma.
So the bounce house people apologetically "had to give" us a complimentary upgrade. Awesome! We'll take it! This thing could of held the millions of kids that would of been here if it were my party.
Here is some footage of Shay diving through the opening of the bounce house.
Here is me trying the same thing.
FAIL!
Let's watch it again in slow motion because it's hilarious!
After lots of playing, it was time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles!
Every year Lompoc hosts a Daddy/Daughter Valentine's Dance, so Shay took his beautiful little girl out for a night of dancing and fun. Embrie had such a wonderful time. She hasn't stopped talking about it. Shay loved it too. Shay had the prettiest date and Embrie's date won the limbo. Winning!
Shay's the Young Men's President in our church, so he's involved in the local Scouting program. Cayben loves to tagalong with his dad to Scouts, especially if it's camping. (I do too if I get the chance. Did I ever tell you about the time I poached Scout Camp and spent nearly a week camping with my family?)
Last night they went camping at Cachuma Lake. They had fun, stayed warm and Cayben had many ghost stories to share when he returned.
