Day 44 (2/13/11) - Made with Love

This afternoon, the boys and I made turtle clusters and chocolate covered peanut butter balls for Valentine's Day.  Since we made so many batches of each, we sent a container to work with Mike to share with his coworkers.  Ryan and Gavin were the designated decorators.  Their commitment to quality control is evident since they insisted on sampling nearly every handful of sprinkles and begged to eat a carmel pecan turtle and peanut butter ball from each completed cookie sheet! 

Not only were the Valentine's treats made with love, but also the mess that Gavin made when Ryan and I were distracted by our baking.  The boy was on a tear!  It's not an exaggeration to say that he pulled out every toy from every bookshelf, cabinet, and bin on the first floor!  He even dumped puzzle pieces from at least 5 different puzzles into one pile!  Cleanup was a bit overwhelming since I had to scrub the kitchen and organize, sort, and put away all those toys!

After Gavin went to bed, Ryan had to finish his Valentine's Day cards for his classmates so he could hand them out in school the next day.  He had already signed his name at the bottom of each, but he still needed to write each of his friends' names at the top.  I was worried about how long it would take since I assumed he was unfamiliar with how to write some of the letters in their names.  However, much to my surprise, he had all 17 cards labeled in less than half an hour.  I only had to help him with the "S" and the "K."  I am shocked at how well he's doing with his handwriting.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it's already better than Mike's!