Mommy's Blog: February Love

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day, my loves. There's just no excuse for being this far behind on blog updates, with all the snow days and three day weekends around here. And yet here we are, with me trying to remember what in the world the first half of February was like...

I think at some point there were cookies.

And the sweetest homemade valentimes. Look at my Luminary, handcrafted by my honey...

I was so pleased with the way the kids' valentine's came out. Little books with 24 of their character traits inside. I'm sure they'll never look at it again but the work of making tiny books (sewn together, even!) was entirely repaid by the looks on their faces as they read about themselves. Ivy said, "I could never have come up with that many words about me."

Also pictured in the background-- another thing we did in the first half of February: the Olympics! The two weeks every two years when we have the TV on 24/7. I just love the Olympics.

Jack admired the construction of the book pocket and I took that as high praise.

Because Valentine's Day fell on a Monday this year, we celebrated on Sunday. Because our kids don't like to get up before 11 anymore on the weekends, we had special day breakfast for dinner. Ivy even came in her robe, so it felt very authentic and was very nice.

The kids's gifts this year-- giant "bon bons" full of candy, cash and a gift card.

There were some other days besides Valentine's Day this month, too. Here are some the really good ones:

Swim Team sectionals! I can't believe how fast this season went. It's been such fun to watch Jack grow as a swimmer and a student-athlete, and to be at the meets, cheering and enjoying our community. Sectionals was no exception. An hour drive each way, 6 hours in uncomfortable bleacher seats in a hot noisy room-- and we had a great time all day.

Our Heights parent section was one of the biggest there- and also the only one where everyone was masked. Easy to tell your Heights peeps in a crowd of people from exurbia.

We cheered raucously for every single Heights swimmer, to the point that my voice was hoarse. We cheered extra loudly for our boys 200 Free relay team, who set a new sectionals record!

Jack swam the 200 IM and the 100 Breast and set a new PR in each, by 10 seconds and 4 seconds respectively. I am just so proud of how hard he worked this season.

Plus he's the cutest, isn't he??

We had TWO snow days the week before Valentine's day!! What?? You know you've got extra time on your hands when you are posing Playmobil figurines in the snow for photo shoots.

And also with a cat, of course.

Have I ever mentioned that I love my husband??

Friday we went and spent the afternoon and early evening with our friends, then left Ivy with her besties while Nat and I skiied. A win for everyone.

More gathering with friends: Time with Alex and Amanda and their families... and baby Charlie of course! My heart.

It's Orchid Season at the Gardens and we are always in for that. Nat and I previewed the show on our own then came back to show it to my mom.

When you get a sunny day in the frozen tundra of Cleveland, you go to the lake.

Nat and I got to see Jesus Christ Superstar-- two years after we were scheduled to do so! We missed seeing this show by a week in 2020... So glad they "resurrected" it to finish the tour. It was a fabulous production, with unique staging and amazing vocals.

The experience was even better because one of our friends played in the orchestra for the show-- from a loge box right near us!

More skiing. This season can't compete with 2021- we will probably never have a ski season like that again. Hopefully not, actually, because the only way we got out 28 times last year was because there was literally nothing else going on in the shut-down world. But we've been out more than 10 times this season which is not too shabby. We've found a few timing sweet-spots to avoid lines, and now that we have adjusted our expectations and gotten used to the shoddy management by Vail Resorts, we've begun to really enjoy ourselves. The kids, who have turned into tween/teen sloths and who prefer to lay about in their rooms at all times, haven't been out quite as often as Nat and I. Sometimes its just not worth the effort to bring someone along who's going to mope and complain the whole time. I mean, I do enough complaining myself if the lines are long or the conditions aren't exactly to my liking (when a perfectionist goes skiing....)so I don't need anyone adding to it!

This guy will always be my very favorite ski buddy. He keeps me smiling.

We also visited the Home and Garden show. 2020 was on our minds again with this, as the show that year was the last "mass gathering" event we attended, just a few days before schools were closed down, and it was cancelled last year. Apparently we weren't the only ones who missed it, as it was packed. But our assembled kiddos had a blast wandering around on their own (so grown up!) and we got lots of time to chat with our friends. Plus I am a sucker for model homes and fancy sheds. We dreamed of summer and spent tens of thousands of dollars in our heads. Great way to enjoy a Saturday!