Happy V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day....to my children this day means a party at school and SUGAR. They have been hyped up all day! Yesterday afternoon was spent making 51 cupcakes as seen below. Thankfully Super 1 was selling plain frosted cupcakes for way cheaper than I could make them. So all I did was add the train, track, and "smoke stack". Thought they turned out pretty cute, considering I am far from anyone who might resemble Betty Crocker. A huge thank you to my sweet friend and co-worker Sharon for letting me use her kitchen and help to make these sweet treats for the kids and their classmates. They were a hit!

Can you tell they were excited about heading to school? When I picked them up they had their bag full of Valentine's cards from classmates. It was fun to see them open up the cards and get excited about who it was from.
This year I decided to start a new tradition with the kids. It was not an original idea but one from a friend and I thought it was great. When thinking about Valentine's Day I considered getting Jake and Landry Grace a "happy". Nothing big but something to surprise them with that morning. A friend suggested that we make a donation to the St. Jude radio-thon(it was last week) instead of a gift. So last week I talked with them a little bit on what St. Jude's is and why children have to go there. I think Jake caught on and it was a good experience for them to give to those in need. Each gave a little bit of their savings(hence the piggy banks) and we gave them a donation to put in the bucket at Super 1(where the radio-thon took place). I loved this idea and thought you might want to join in next year!
Jake will be making his soccer debut this weekend. The weather was in the 70's today! Matt and I took him to get his gear and he practiced outside for a bit. We'll see how this goes.
Hope you had a great Valentine's Day and are grateful for all that you have. With each passing day my children are slowly growing up. They are at a tough but very tender age....God keeps showing me on a daily basis that we are doing something right. Jake had a tough week at school last week but during one nightly prayer he actually prayed that he would have a "gooder" day tomorrow. Landry Grace loves to give hugs and tell us that she love us. I am so very grateful to our gracious Lord for these small blessings that are really the biggest blessings. My heart is sometimes tired but always full.