Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines, Crafts and Manners/not Manners



Every Valentine's Day I make spaghetti with meatballs, breadsticks, and a dessert with the hope of teaching manners.  I use my china and make the kids get all dressed up. This year I made individual heart shaped cherry pies, and they were delicious if I should say so myself!  Luke my 8 year old said you aren't going to have candles are you!?  I said, "no, if you don't want me to."  He said, "no, go ahead."  (I knew he really wanted them.)  I made some cute Valentine boxes for my mom and mom in law.  I had the boys give Grammy and Nana flowers.  This was part of the manners lesson.  Then Ryan gave Maranda flowers and I (the beginning of ruining the night) gave my boys hovering remote helicopters!  I didn't mean for them to open them right then! However, dad and both grandads had to put batteries in them and test them out right that minute!!!  Gabe, (my 6 year old world champion pouter) crashed his into the kitchen island and it broke a wing, propeller or something like that!  He went into crazy high pitched crying and annoying bird noises!  I was trying to finish setting the table and ready to bust some butts!!! However, "Grammy to the rescue" was able to get him to the table.  Luke made annoying fart noises if we mentioned any country other than the USA when discussing the olympics.  (This was while he finished his spaghetti in a record 2 minutes and begged for more.) Gabe had another breakdown and decided to leave the table briefly.  Finally, Maranda went to get a napkin and came running back to the dinning room and fell.  She had a mouth full of Grammy's yummy chocolate cake that she had to spit into her fresh napkin so that she didn't choke.  Why did I even try to work on manners?  Once the kids left the table to go play we had a lovely conversation and I few of us enjoyed one of my favorite bottles of  B.R. Cohn wine.  I am working on the end of it now:)  Happy Valentines Day Everyone

9 comments:

  1. Oh you crazy lady..helicopters are always gonna win out over a fancy dinner..who wants a boring ole dinner to remember...bring on the laughs.Your decorations were so cute and dinner sounded great,with homemade cherry pies..WOW!!!I'm impressed.Good job girl!

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  2. Hilarious, Shelley! But you did such a pretty job with your table and all your garlands and crafts. I love how special you make this day. Even though they acted like lunatics, you and your kids will always remember these days and they'll be special. And they'll do the same thing for their kids. Very sweet. I may copy you and do something like this next year.

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  3. I feel like I have just been through a hurricane on coffee. Good for you to do the hosting and the mosting. I hope you managed to enjoy it. XO

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  4. You are hilarious Miss Manners.........Your table setting looked lovely and all the decorations turned out superb. You are definitely heading those kids in the right direction. Keep up the good work Super Mom.

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  5. Those memorable family disasters are called "bonding." Gary Smalley says bonding experiences are the ones that you CANNOT laugh at during, immediately after, or maybe even a week after, but much later you look back and just roll on the floor over it. The pictures look like it was still pretty fabulous! I was watching a recipe with Guida on TV: she made little raviolis with wonton wrappers and Nutella! I think I need to make those next Valentine's Day!

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  6. Hi Shelley! It's nice to meet you - and am excited about really meeting you in Savannah! I can't wait! Jenn is just a doll - I know she's going to just make it as special as she possibly can!
    It is my understanding that the gift exchange can be whatever you want. From something you make to something you buy - but remember you have to have enough for everyone that is participating. We are waiting on an exact number of how many gals will be there.
    Hope that helps . . . it's so vague I know - but nobody really gave a good answer . . . I asked the same thing!
    Looking forward to April . . .
    Karen
    Some days are diamonds

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  7. Thanks Shelley for the comment on the stick pins. You will love using them. I think Cindy was going to order more.

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  8. Ok- I was sitting in the dentist office (waiting on Will) and I literally laughed out loud when reading about the "manners" lesson. I swear I love hearing about other peoples wild and crazy children. Makes me feel so much better!
    The table looked great and the pies "yummy". Great idea! Can't wait to see your stuff when I come to OK.

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I would love to know what you think! :)