My teeth are shrinking . . .

. . . from all that f*&#ing valentines day candy you are eating.  Oh, no, that’s not what I said to the Id (the baby) today.  No, today she decided that she couldn’t do her chores because . . . and I quote “my teeth are shrinking”.  We can’t figure out if this is because her teeth hurt because she has a bacterial infection in them because her parents don’t adequately supervise the nighttime teeth brushing routine, or if this is one of those “I can’t do my chores because it takes away my smiles” moments.  Either way, Husband from Heaven couldn’t help himself but laugh out loud and make her repeat it to me.

On the valentines day candy note, we had our first annual Runamuk Manor Valentines making tea party yesterday. 

Here’s what I learned:

1) When you show your 6 year-old a variety of valentines choices, she will invariably pick the one that has 10 steps only four of which can she complete herself.  I stumbled upon a fantastically creative website for valentines cards - http://spoonful.com/valentines-day/best-valentines-day-cards-gallery.  This is the Disney family fun site that has all the crafts, recipes, etc.  Love this site.  Of course, of the fifteen choices, my child selected THIS as her valentine choice:

I could piss and moan about this one, but I gotta be honest, the only part she didn’t finish 

was the earphones and that’s because it was too hard for her to tie the strings and attach them to the Rolos.  

Oh, and on that note . . . when you allow a child to have easily accessible candy for her valentines, 

DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK.  Otherwise, she will play the “one for me, one for you” game.

2) When you have all the children play a game where they stack candy hearts, please make sure that the next day you label those hearts as “DO NOT EAT”.  Otherwise, you may find the Nana nibbling on those candy hearts.  I’ve never seen her spit something out so fast!!  I'm also pretty sure that after seeing this picture she's put herself on prophylactic antibiotics!

3) When you have a “pot luck” party, be sure to send the mommies the original instructions that you find on the internet.  Otherwise, you may find that your instructions get lost in translation.  We had a couple games that went a little awry, but the children were none the wiser and it gave the mommies a good laugh.

4) This should actually be #1 – if you ever want the mommies to stay and work at your party, ALWAYS supply alcohol.  Of course, don’t tell them this, but for me, the alcohol I offered to them was only because I needed to make myself feel better for starting to drink at 2pm.

To all my valentine Runamuk mommies, thanks again for all your help (my house was immaculate afterwards), and for bringing your girlies.  We ALL had so much fun!

Here are the valentine activities we did:

Food

Heart shaped pizzas for the girls and their dolls

Strawberry shakes for everyone (out of “mommy” glasses of course) 

– the doll version had strawberry yogurt so as to ensure they didn’t spill too easily

Iced Tea

Games:

1) Cupid's surprise (game where progressively larger boxes are wrapped, and the girls unwrap the boxes until they get to the smallest box that has a surprise inside)

This is one that went awry.  Three days before the party mommy added 5 children to the guest list, and asked two different mommies to help with this game. Some children had bags with treats and some had wrapped packages with treats.  All the girls were gracious with their gifts, but mommy realized she made a big mommy party foul with different packages for each girl.

2) Heart mate (hearts are cut in two along jagged lines and the girls have to find their heart mate)

This one also went awry because when I said "jagged edges", the mommy helping thought I meant around the outside.  She was a good sport and cut them just before we did the game.

3) Heart stacking challenge (the girls have to stack conversation hearts as high as they can without the tower falling over)

Crafts:

1) Handmade valentines for classmates.  Kill two birds with one stone - entertain the children for a good hour, and save yourself from the February 14th 2am valentine making party!!!!