February 14 Valentine's Day

Friday: The kiddos are off school for mid-winter break, which coincided with Valentine's Day this year! YAY! I got to have all four grands over for a few hours today. We had a lot of fun. I had a small box of chocolates for each of the kids. We also blew up balloons and launched those around my house for a little while. These guys LOVE balloons.

This is a new STEM toy I got via Amazon. It's kind of a mind twister to see if you can place the little square inserts in such a way that the wind-up car will be able to get to the red circle and dump out a little marble into it without crashing into the tree or reaching a dead end. I didn't show the kiddos this game until later in the day while we were actually back at their house.

I KNEW they would like the Magnetic Tile Creation Book for Kids! I love this book--it gives TEN step-by-step instructions for building very cool things. Aidan got right into this and built several very cool models.

Brendan played for a long time with the 100 tiny magnet circles (he is holding the whole 100 in his hand in the picture below). He had a fun time experimenting with the N and S poles and how he could get them to attract and repel ...

Our littlest boy had fun re-arranging the ocean window stickers while watching the birds at my feeders ...

Erin played with a few of the dolls back in the playroom, but then she came out and played in the main rooms too. Here she is examining one of my larger shells. She also had a few of my music boxes playing.

Erin constructed a little house for her bear stuffy ("Honey") ...

Cal decided to build a huge car ...

Aidan was busy drawing and making a book ...

Here is little "Honey" in her colorful Magnatile house.

I have had a Jenga game for a really long time and I am so glad the kiddos are old enough to play some of these games now! Brendan and Aidan and I played two games--these guys are VERY good at this game!

Look at Cal's HUGE car! It looks like something from ... another planet!

Cal is very particular about his projects and has a LOT of patience ... but then, all four of these kiddos possess that wonderful quality.

I asked the Lord to give us a nice time--especially for strength to handle four very talkative, active, creative children--and He gave me grace. I truly enjoyed the entire four hours they were here.

We returned home to their house at about 4:45. I brought three containers of various games along with us and we enjoyed playing them for the next hour or so. Dear Kelly has been sick (like the kids were) the last few days, so I didn't get to visit with her today. Hopefully, she will recover soon. I remember (way back in time) dreading with all my heart getting sick and still being caregiver to the boys. Thankfully, it didn't happen often!