A snowy Valentines Day...

This is yesterday's photo of the day... Brendan reading before school. The half-on, half-off the bed, feet in the air, holding a sword while reading took some talent, I think... :)

We were expecting a storm overnight &, lo! it materialised. Pretty shocking, actually. I've come to think of predicted storms as a sure sign that they'll pass us by. Brendan, of course, was ecstatic- not just a snow day, but one where there was actually snow falling. Last week's 2 days off were due to extreme cold & he couldn't go out to play. He made up for it today by going outside twice, once with the kids next door & once with Charlie after he came home from workng this morning.

Our morning was spent playing Adventure Quest in 2, 45 minute sessions (Brendan) & making new placemats for me & Charlie (me with Brendan's assistance during AQ breaks). I needed a new placemat because I had a cocoa disaster yesterday that ruined not only my placemat, but 2 post-it note pads & Charlie's japanese notes (kept tucked under his placemat & used to bone up on his japanese during breakfast). The 8 oz. left in the cup of cocoa also hosed two walls of the kitchen, the table, floor, refridgerator, chairs, my clothes (including a sweater, mittens, & slippers), & my new swiss army pen (arrgh!) which I was able to rescue & clean off. The clean-up took quite some time, & was hindered by a swollen right knee... Needless to say, it was no fun. However, the destruction of my placemat did inspire me to finally replace both mine & Charlie's (I asked him if he wanted a new one, too). I'd made them both at the same time, back when Brendan was a toddler & they were both close to being tossed-out anyway. I went through a placemat-making phase back then (for us & for gifts), using my new ability to print photos out on our computer printer, & would collage the photos with pretty papers & stickers, then sandwich them between sticky sheets of plastic (the most difficult part of the process). This time Brendan could help out, too, & having just put away the valentine-making supplies, we were still in the mood to create :) Brendan picked out a photo of he & dad sailing for the base photo of Charlie's placemat. I used a piece of drawing paper as the base & we picked out nice pieces of scrap paper leftover from bookbinding projects to surround the photo. Then I turned Brendan lose with the stickers, the only request being that he not cover up any faces in his frenzy. He did a very tasteful job of placing fish around them in the water of the photo & skunks on the bridge in the background (plus a bunny- bunnies are a must for the placemats :). I chose some pictures of flowers & fall leaves taken over the past few years for mine, surrounded by pretty origami paper & my favourite stickers, for an all-seasons feeling. It was fun to have a project to do together on this unexpected day away from school...

Brendan also enjoyed valentine-making this year- I think partly because we collabourated on the ones for his teachers (to be given out tomorrow, I hope!) with me making origami trays filled with chockies & wrapped in lace & Brendan doing the tags. The cards he made for Grammie, Tomoko, & dad all featured foamie-hearts piled up like snowmen on the front of folded-over cardstock, with wiggle-eyes of various sizes stuck on the hearts & a hand-written message inside. Very original & well-received :) I made Brendan one with a rabbit made of foamie-hearts & a couple for Charlie, too (no rabbits). We gave each other chockies, too, of course :)

We hand-delivered Grammie's valentines & gift (& birthday gifts, too) yesterday after school. Grammie has had bronchitis & wasn't up to celebrating her birthday with us on Monday, & with a snow storm on the way I wanted to make sure she got not only prezzies but the food (birthday cake & rice pudding- our favourite comfort food) we had for her. Grammie lives about 15 minutes away but we don't visit there terribly often, mostly because she has 3 cats & I'm allergic :( She does come over for dinner most every Friday, though, which allows us to keep up to date with her. Brendan enjoys trying to play with the cats at Grammie's (they are never quite so enthusiastic) so he was very focused on that, while she opened presents & cards (she intercepted him to ooh & ahh over his handmade birthday & valentines cards with him :). It was just nice to bring her a ray of sunshine, since being sick & stuck at home is nobody's idea of fun.

Brendan has had a couple of difficult school days, trying to find the old (or a new) school routine, post-play. As he himself told me, "If it's too structured, mom, I don't like it... & if there's not enough structure I don't like it either!" The timing for getting back into a routine is not optimum either, since next week is Winter Break week. Somehow, missing a day or 2 of school this week (who knows what tomorrow will bring...) doesn't seem to matter very much, especially with him getting more & more interested in spending time reading a book, instead of just playing computer games. Getting ready for next week will take some planning, to make sure we actually do something, but we've got a book to write (we've already picked-up where the beginning, written for Charlie's birthday, left off), a woven scarf to finish, japanese to bone-up on, & there's plenty of snow to play in :)