'Twas the Night Before Valentine's . . .

 And all through McFarLand, chaos was reigning. I looked back at the calendar and we had more than a dozen things planned for one short day -- and the one short night where you have to sign dozens of valentines for your classmates, too! First there was the Blue and Gold dinner with the traditional cake decorating contest. The theme was something about animals this year, and Rob and Seb made a hedgehog. I was also quite fond of the donut hole bear scat "cake" and the excellent use of chocolate hearts as noses and even working in Fisher Price Little People animals. Another banner year. But back at the ranch . . .

 . . . I had gotten on Pinterest to look at valentines. (I know, I know. It should be obvious by now that I shouldn't try it, but these were so darling, and I am down to only two kids who actually exchange valentines. I went overboard. I can admit it.) Sebastian got these Twinkie minions. Pretty fun once I found the double stick tape.

And Joss got these Build Your Own Snowman kits. Also fun to assemble once I found the candy eyes at Michael's. But we couldn't have pulled it off without Maddie, who came up with a purple minion mailbox for Sebi (the box is where I stop -- I think a paper grocery sack works great).

As soon as we got the kids dinner consumed, Rob and I ran off and attended the symphony where we heard a spectacular Shostakovich. Too, too much for one day, but we couldn't skip all the fun!