The McCarty Family

This year we had a Valentine's party for the kids in Noelle's preschool class and their families. It turned out to be really fun.

We played some games, one was really easy and cute. I cut out a ton of paper hearts and brought the kids inside while the adults hid them all over the backyard. The kids were in teams and searched for them. The winners got to decorate their cookies first.

I tried to keep it simple by just doing appetizers and dessert. And I took a friend up on her offer to bring something, always nice. For me, this party was a little victory. I think it was the first party I prepared for that their was not a moment where the stress or anxiety got to me. There always seems to be a point the day of where I get overwhelmed. But not today!

A random party doesn't hold the same kind of pressure as a birthday party and was easier to actually make about the kids. It was really fun to see the kids interacting since they are together so much but you hardly get to see it at school. Noelle's friend Cole, who is a favorite, came with his mom. He's in the red hat.

When we got to school the next morning, the kids were already lined up and when Cole sees us he puts a fist in the air and says, "Best Valentine's part e-ver!" As if he's been to other Valentine's parties. It was so cute. The teacher said they were all talking about it.

We're missing one or two in the picture. And Noelle and Natalie did have heart dresses on. They were playing dress up, but Noelle ended up in her jammies.

Natalie was pretending to be Glenda from Wizard of Oz and was making up a beautiful lullaby. Noelle starts telling her that she can't sing that and that's not how you sing a real song. Then she starts making up her own song. I jump in:

Me: Noelle, don't even act like you have the market on what a real song is. Let Natalie sing whatever she wants.

Noelle: (with attitude) Yes, I DO have the market on all the songs in the world. I know just the songs to sing.

She continued her ranting but Ryan and I were laughing too hard at the fact that she figured out how to throw that one back at me that I can't remember what else she said.
We are in trouble. Not meaning, like we are in for it someday. Oh no, trouble started a long time ago with this sassy pants but we adore her ;).







Before she was even born, her Grandma Julie nicknamed her a "mighty mite." Still fits. She sure has a lot rolled into one little girl! She loves big too!

The past 5 superbowls were not much for me and I don't think I watched more than a couple minutes here and there. We have also felt like we don't have a core group of friends that we would do a party with as well as no parties we were getting invited to.

So this year was really nice! We had our life group over and even though we had around 10 kids we still got to watch the game. Ryan carried on his dad's tradition of doing a drawing for all sorts of different prize options throughout the game, like the first 4 people to score a touchdown and everyone picks a name of the likely touchdown runners. It made it more interesting and the kids loved to pick the prizes.

My highlight was when the half time show started, Noelle and Natalie just start busting a move right in front of the TV. Noelle gets so intense when she's dancing it's so hard not to laugh. I missed her best moves though. And I don't care what the critics say, I thought the half time show was really entertaining!!

Noelle: Do we really have those white squares that poke up above someone's head in our world?

Me: Like what?

Noelle: You know, the white squares above someone's head, like on Charlie and Lola.

Me: What's in the white square?

Noelle: It's when, like, you really want to do something and you can't, so then you see yourself doing it in the white square.

Me: No, we don't really have those in our world.

Noelle: Why not?

Me: Well (geeze, how do you answer all these questions?), in our world we know what we're thinking in our head but we don't know what someone else is thinking in their head. On TV they want you to be able to see what is going on in someone's head...

I'll spare you the details but I went on to try and make sense of this for her. I am constantly being asked questions that I have to think way too hard to try and answer :). But I enjoy her curiosity and attempt to make sense of this world.