100 Days, Dalmatians, Valentine's, Birthday Parties & Baby Showers!

Just typing out that blog post title, I am aware that this is probably a lot of ground to cover for one blog post...but when has that ever stopped me before, LOL! I kept meaning to get a post up mid-week, but it just never happened. I felt this week like I started a lot of things & didn't finish much...but I'm keeping with my "slow & steady" theme, and I know that eventually I will be crossing things off of my list!
So if the title didn't give it away, we have had a full, but very fun week! We got off to a slightly bumpy start with Sophie home from school a few days with a virus. I don't know if you guys are the same, but having one home from school just sort of throws my whole day off kilter & I wind up being far less productive when I'm out of my normal routine. But that's okay, we got to enjoy some extra snuggle time & I wouldn't trade it...I'm daily reminded that these moments are flying by as our kids grow up before my eyes.
We got things back on track by mid-week & Sophie returned to school on Thursday, just in time to celebrate the 100th Day of School! What a fun day to celebrate & I love how this is such a big deal! All of the kids in class made a 100th day poster with 100 of something on the poster.
Sophie came up with the idea to do 100 jelly beans in a jar, like we have sitting on our kitchen counter.

Sophie & Darcy counted out 10 groups of 10 jellybeans. 

I helped a little by drawing the jar in pencil on the poster board & then Sophie traced over it with a marker. 

Then it was time to get busy gluing!

The finished product turned out great & looked quite yummy! 

Those are some of the posters displayed in the hall at school.

I love the kids' creativity & how each poster is so unique!

Well of course, after 100 comes 101, and we wouldn't want 101 to feel left out of all of the fun...so Sophie's class also celebrates the 101st day of school in true 101 Dalmatians fashion! All the kids dressed up like dalmatians & it was SO cute! I believe they started this tradition the year Jack was in K, and thankfully we still had the "dalmatian" shirt we made for Jack tucked-away stuffed in the depths of the dress-up bin.

I think Sophie makes a darn cute puppy!

Throughout the week I have been working on jazzing up the house a bit with some festive Valentine's Day decor...

As a result of nesting, I have been cleaning out a lot of closets & I found these little crafty hearts that I made last year for Darcy's class. I put them in flower pots that I painted red & pink.

And I used them here with our Blessing Blocks spelling out Valentine!
(We seriously love our blocks & the kids have so much fun finding all kinds of things to spell out!)

A bit of red to jazz up the island.

I also worked on making a heart garland for our new fireplace mantle.

Here is how my desk has looked for almost a week, covered in all sorts of hearts & shapes...

And here is how the garland turned out!

I still need some pops of red on the mantle to jazz it up a bit.

I made a little V-Day wreath from a wreath that I used 2 Christmases ago as a Christmas card holder.

Here it is as it had been hanging on the back of our bedroom door for ages...

And here is the new version! 

I think it turned out pretty cute for using items that I already had on hand...I did purchase the ribbon 2 weeks ago...I had stopped by Michael's & they had clearance bins of full their wide, wired holiday ribbon, but the "holiday" collection had tons of colors like pinks, blues & purples...the rolls were originally $9.99 and I got them for $0.99 each!

I'm not sure if it will stay here on this table or if I will eventually hang it on the front door...

I also found these old candle sticks that my dad found at a yard sale, probably for free...I have been meaning to paint them for ages & you can see that at one time I started to paint one of them brown...Well, now I'm going to paint them red & use them somewhere as part of my Valentine's Day decor...maybe I will jazz them up with hearts or polka dots...I love that I can just repaint them for any holiday!

These are one of the unfinished projects, so I'll have to show "after" pics next time!

So that's pretty much our week...Friday was a very cold, rainy, sleety, dreary day...we were all in & out of the rain all day, so it was a perfect night for a fire, pizza & a family movie! We all snuggled up together with our popcorn & watched The Princess Bride...a favorite from my own childhood! I didn't take any pictures, but Drew was SO adorable at the start of the movie propping up a pillow & sitting down in front of the TV with his bowl of popcorn. In true "movie night" fashion, Drew didn't sit long, but wandered around the playroom eating popcorn & playing with toys. And about half way through the movie, we took a short intermission to put Drew & Darcy down to bed. The bigger kids really enjoyed the movie & I look forward to watching it over & over with them!
Saturday morning the bigger kids woke up & actually didn't wake us up right away! Darcy didn't come in until almost 9 am to tell us that Jack & Sophie were playing a board game & wouldn't let her play. It was nice to get a little extra rest before starting our marathon Saturday...First up, Darcy was invited to a Pink-a-licious Birthday party for her sweet friend, Harper. All the girls dressed in pink & it was so cute! Every detail was planned & perfect!

  Darcy was super excited to get her nails painted pink!

The girls had so much fun just playing & trying on lots of bows & headbands & jewelry!

 There was story time (Pinkalicous, of course!), and crafts, and pink food, and best of all...

...decorate your own cupcakes...the more sprinkles, the better! Not a single sprinkle was safe!

After the party, we came home to get ready for our next fun event...a baby shower for our new baby girl! This required a wardrobe change for the girls & I needed to finish wrapping-up these little hostess gifts for the four amazing ladies who threw me the shower!

Since this post is epic already & since the baby shower was SO beautiful...it really does deserve it's very own dedicated post...so I will sign-off for now with warm wishes to you for a beautiful Sunday afternoon!