Happy Valentine's Week

There are very few holidays, including birthdays, that just get one day of celebration around here.  We are starting off Valentine's Week today and we have already made 20 homemade Valentine Cards.  It started off as such a team effort, but let's just say I understand now why so many moms end up just doing their kids' work for them :)  I had Ruby use Dot-Dots (as we like to call them) and decorate some pink construction paper with red dots.  She definitely did the most work percentage-wise of the crowd...that girl loves to Dot-Dot!  Then, Rachel cut hearts out of that paper. I'll say she cut one-third of the hearts??  I finally told her I didn't want her to ruin her violin fingers when she kept complaining that her fingers couldn't cut any more and sent her on her merry way.  Ford stepped up next to paste the cut-out hearts to red construction paper.  I'm not sure they make a fraction small enough to explain how much pasting he did.  I think he got tired of the glue stick getting on his fingers while he held the heart, but he managed to stick several hearts to paper.  I finished up the pasting while they watched a cute little video on Rachel's Leap Pad about vowel sounds...at least it was informative as well as entertaining!
We started new charts today and as a Valentine's Day addition, I put that they needed to do one nice thing every day for someone else.  Ford built a beautiful cake out of Legos for Ruby and was so proud of it.  Ruby shared her snack with Ford without having to be asked.  I can't even remember now what Rachel did, but by lunch they had all earned that sticker.  We actually had a great school day.  Math is super easy right now and Rachel is just counting and writing the numbers 1-20 which she had already mastered, but I'm making her keep practicing those numbers.  Ford worked on his capital "V"s and wrote the word DAY.  Ruby worked on drawing hearts for her shape of the day.  We also found lots of hearts in the book we read today for her.  Ford and Rachel read a couple of books out loud to us and we all played Legos together and, of course, played Jake travels to the Winter Woods...the fairies are here to stay!
That all sounds so sweet and cute and fun, but believe me there was also plenty of crying and "Don't touch her!" and "Please, just hurry up and finish your snack so we can get the construction paper out!"  It's been a pretty great day for such a yucky day outside.
This afternoon we go back to our music class and all three kids say that they are ready to return.  Ruby and Rachel loved it back in the Fall, but Ford was not so much a fan.  I think he actually liked the class, but he doesn't like new people and he couldn't stand it when he could lead the circle every time.  The group dynamics are a little different this time around and I think it's going to be all girls which will actually be better for him, so wish us luck!