Cupid Definitely Shot Me with Some Kind of Arrow Valentine's Week

Ok, so I know Valentine's Day was over a week ago, but since pure CRAZINESS ensued, I'm only just now getting the time to share what went on that week.

I thought I was doing good, maybe a little ahead, but nope.  It caught up with me.  

First off, on the 13th, my littlest turned 2!!!  2!!!  Ahhhh!!  My baby isn't going to be a baby much longer!!  :O(

On the 14th, my husband had a birthday (I won't share his age) :O).  Yep, he's a Valentine baby!  (LOVE him!!)

If you read our post about Monday Made It, you saw this, and I'm sure you are wondering if it won or not (it's ok if you forgot about it, just go with it!)

My daughter knew I posted it on my blog and that everyone loved it, so that made her feel really good!!  (She knows all about blogging because she watches Dog with a Blog on Disney channel.  Yes, I am a teacher and I allow my child to watch TV.  At least she learned something so that makes it educational, right?  Ahem.)

Anyway...she was feeling pretty good going into the competition because of such wonderful feedback from you all.

Well, my daughter's box did NOT win!!!  Can you believe it???  Out of, like, 8 categories it did not win anything!!  She came in my classroom at dismissal time and said, "I didn't win anything!" (she was pretty upset)  and I said, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" and my kiddos in my class said, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

Then they told her they thought she totally should have won!!  Then, I took the box, with her, into Stacia's class and asked how many of her students would have voted for her box to win (I was trying to boost her ego a little) and they all said they thought she should win!  A group of her students even came in my room a little later to tell her that they didn't know WHAT those 3rd graders were thinking!!  It made her feel a ton better.  Plus, it matches her bedroom and she loves it.  She even asked if she could use it next year, so I think she's good now.  

This is what I gave my kids for Valentine's Day:

They each got a sock monkey (there's a red one to the right that you can't see) and the little can of treats.  :O)

I gave something similar to my coworkers:

I do realize that everyone does not love York Peppermint Patties as much as me, and I was being selfish by giving MY favorite candy away, but everyone seemed to like them.  :O)

Now, onto the CUH-RAZINESS of Valentine's Day at school.

We are not supposed to have V-day parties in 4th grade.  Well, we do a schoolwide reward system of giving compliments to classes, and when a class gets all of their "letters" (by getting compliments through the halls, etc.) they get a treat of some kind.  So...I decided to have our compliment party on V-day so we could kinda have a V-day party but call it a compliment party.  You with me so far?

So, I had 2 parents that were going to come in at 9:15 to help me set up because we were going to do hot cocoa and cupcakes while the kids passed out their Valentines around 9:30.

Who walks in my door at 9:00 to do my unannounced, formal observation?  My principal.  Yep.  ON VALENTINE'S DAY JUST BEFORE I HAD PARENTS COMING TO SET UP FOR A PARTY I WASN'T TECHNICALLY SUPPOSED TO HAVE!!

Oh boy.

So, I was teaching small group math, how to simplify fractions, and of course, it was my lowest group that I had pulled and they were struggling.  I was also in the floor with them because my small group table was covered in Valentine's stuff.  So...yeah.  She comes in with her laptop and sits on the floor with us and starts her evaluation.  At this point, I just pray it goes well and that the parents coming in won't be a huge distratction.

The rest of my class was doing fraction games on the floor, and they did really well (thank goodness!).  My parents ended up being late and the first one didn't come in until about 9:30, so that was good.  Overall, it went well.  

But really?  A formal observation right before our Valentine's Day Compliment party?  Ugh.  It could have gone a lot worse.  I'm just glad it's over!

So, onto the party.  Here is a picture of the goods from our hot cocoa "bar":

Mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, whipped cream (not pictured), and fun marshmallow sticks they could stir with.  We also had mint sticks they could stir with, too.

Oh, AND one of my students used all of his punch cards (my reward system in the classroom) to buy a movie and popcorn party, so we had tons of popcorn popped as well.

(And my roomom got me that pretty hydrangea too!!  How sweet!)

Here are the cupcakes.  They were so yummy.  I have a student with a red-dye allergy and so her parents often make stuff so that she can eat the treats.  I had NO idea how many things have red-dye in them, especially that aren't even red!

So, after all of that craziness, we went camping to celebrate the 2 birthdays from the week.  Of course, it was the coldest weekend in GA when we went, but we enjoyed our 4-day weekend by the campfire!  It was all about making memories with the family!  Sometimes, you just have to have a break and we definitely needed it!!  Hopefully, my kids will remember this time together for many years to come!

If you hung in there, and read all of this, BLESS YOU!!  Do you think my week was as crazy as I think it was?  Maybe I'm being dramatic?  ;O)

Have a fantastic weekend!
Amanda

Also, our friend Jess at I {Heart} Recess is having her 100 followers giveaway!  Go check it out!!  There are some great prizes!!