that day...

It's no big secret that I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day (click that link - it's pretty funny). It's been several years since I was alone on Valentine's Day, but still. I make my husband heart shaped egg-in-toast all the time. Why have a holiday for this? I have no idea. I find it silly and unnecessary.

Rodgers likes Valentine's Day. He's very sentimental like that. I think it disappoints him a little that I'm not more festive, so I make an effort for him. I'm ok with using the holiday as an excuse for a date because I love going on dates with Rodgers, but the date won't be on February 14. We always have to schedule for a more convenient time. Really it's a normal date, which we do when we can anyway.

My favorite Valentine's Day by far was 2011, which I don't think I blogged about because it was still a secret. We had not yet told anyone that I was pregnant with Ben. My first doctor appointment was the week before Valentine's Day (at 8 weeks pregnant). Rodgers was working the 3 pm - 11 pm shift then, and he worked every weekend. I was unemployed at the time. Thus, Nate was not in daycare. We used Rodgers' work schedule + Valentine's Day as an excuse for the babysitter. Rodgers could go with me to my first appointment, and we could have a lunch date.

They always do an ultrasound that first appointment, and I wanted Rodgers to be there to see the baby with me. Then we headed to CVS, with my treasured Zofran prescription. As we waited, we picked out Valentine's cards for each other, exchanged them, read  them, and put them back on the rack. We grabbed some snacks (which we did actually purchase, unlike the cards). I had Dove dark chocolate. After I took my meds, we went out to lunch together, where I was able to eat a full meal for the first time in two weeks. I didn't even feel like puking, thanks to the Zofran, and that was oh, so romantic.

lunchbox

lunchbox, with insert and matching water bottle

In Kenya, kindergarten is 3 years, encompassing what in TX would be preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Kids start KG 1 at age 3. Nate turned 3 in January. Thus, when we got back from TX, he started school. He was very, very excited to start school. After a week and 2 days of school, he isn't so excited about it! Every day, he tells me that he misses me. :(

School is 7:30 am - 4 pm. We originally planned on him eating the lunch provided by the school. However, I was worried that he wouldn't eat, that he would have a horrible time because he was hungry, etc. They have tea break at 10 am, when they serve porridge, which he won't eat, so I pack him a snack as well as lunch. They don't have clean drinking water at school, so he has a water bottle that matches his lunchbox. Too bad I didn't think about snack when we were buying this. I think they had small snack containers in the same theme...

Nate's snack and lunch for tomorrow, minus the sandwich. I'll make that in the morning.

I have pinned lists of little kid lunchbox ideas, but he's 3. He wants to eat the same thing for lunch every day. He loves having the same lunch every day. Some days for supper, he requests lunch, meaning a peanut butter and honey sandwich, fruit, and chips or pretzels. I'm glad there aren't so many food allergies here, so we don't have to worry about a peanut-free school! Packing his favorite meal makes school so much better for him. He gets excited when I put his lunchbox in his backpack in the mornings.

As with all Kenyan schools, he has a uniform. They have one uniform they wear on Mon-Wed-Fri. On Tue-Thu they have P.E., so they wear a P.E. uniform. It's white. White canvas shoes and white shorts. They come home reddish brown. He loves his school clothes, even the tie. How cute is he?!

MWF uniform. He has a school badge on the pocket of the shirt now.

TTh uniform. He didn't have his shirt yet. It's a red T-shirt with the school badge screen printed on it.

creepy

For my 12th birthday (if I remember correctly), I was given a super fun gift: Creepy Crawlers. It is an oven similar to an Easy Bake, but comes with little metal trays and "Plasti-Goop," with which you make little rubbery bugs. They are fun to make! I have heard that they now have gummy solution, so that you can make edibles. That sounds like even more fun.

Every now and then, when I am at my parents' house, my dad goes to Toys 'R' Us to buy some Plasti-Goop and pulls out the Creepy Crawlers for us to make some. My parents have moved a billion times since I left home. I moved back home once or twice and had "my room" at their house again, but still, they have moved a billion more times. That they still have the Creepy Crawlers is a testament to just how much fun we've had making rubber bugs over the years. The fact that it still works after 18 years is simply amazing.

While we were in Texas in January, of course, we made Creepy Crawlers. Nate and Ben were already asleep for the night by the time we got it out, but they had a lot of fun playing with the bugs the next morning. Rodgers did not participate, as he wasn't feeling well (possibly flu). Only one was ripped to pieces: the giant spider, which was a new mold.

Giant spider cooking

I don't think I realized before that they would stick to the wall. 

Nate's birthday

So Nate's birthday was...weeks ago. You know because I posted his interview on his birthday. That was simple though. The post was ready to go; I just filled in the answers that morning while he drank his juice. He ended up having 3 small parties, which I think was suitable, considering it was his 3rd birthday!

About 10 days before his birthday, we were at my sister's house. She (and family) wouldn't be able to come to where we were for Nate's actual birthday, so we got a small grocery store cake, some decorator icing, a #3 candle, and a toy fire truck. Rodgers and I had a meeting that afternoon, and when we got back, cake was ready and pizza ordered.

We had cake before pizza. My kids have never eaten their birthday cakes well because they enjoy their birthday meals so much. This time, I decided: eat dessert first.

That's binoculars - one of his very favorite birthday gifts.

On Nate's actual birthday, we didn't do much at all. We were at my brother's house, and it snowed! I had been hoping that the boys would get some snow while we were in TX, but you know it doesn't snow regularly in TX. They had sooo much fun playing out there! At lunchtime, I had been planning to make frosting-less chocolate cupcakes, but found Betty Crocker's cakey brownies recipe in one of my sister-in-law's cookbooks. So we had brownie bites, decorated by Nate (and I helped).

THEN, the moment we were all waiting for. The day after Nate's birthday, we went to a FIRE STATION. Frisco's Fire Safety Town, actually, but the kids got to play on a fire truck, which was what Nate wanted for his birthday. We finished a bit early, so Gigi suggested that we get some ice cream!

Turning the emergency lights on and off.

The jaws of life, one of his favorites.

Christmases

I promised that I would blog some Decembery stuff after we got back from TX. So...in a nutshell...

Christmas always starts with my birthday. For my 30th, I told Rodgers the only thing I wanted was to go swimming. My birthday is in December, just 6 days before Christmas. I've never had a pool party. Rather than just paying to use the pool at a beach resort, Rodgers took us all on an overnight adventure to Jumuia Beach Resort in Kanamai, with full board, meaning we didn't even have to find food for our meals. It was fab.

That Saturday, we finally spent Christmas with Rodgers' family. We were supposed to have Christmas 2009 here, but of course I was pregnant. Then we were here in the summer of 2010, so we knew we couldn't come back for Christmas that year. Again, we planned to come for Christmas 2011, but decided not to since we were going to be moving here in the first part of 2012. It was a long time coming. We decided that, since we'd be flying out on the 27th, it would be best to not go anywhere on Christmas Day. We invited Rodgers' siblings and their families to their mom's house for lunch on Saturday. We wanted to introduce the idea of a sort of potluck. Though it would only be 1 dish, cooked there, everyone should bring something. We weren't sure if everyone would cooperate because they are used to having all the food provided for them, but they did! And Nate and Ben had a blast playing with all of the cousins.

Christmas morning called for bacon and eggs. After breakfast, we read the Christmas story in Luke and put the baby Jesus ornament on our tree, hoping that eventually the boys will understand that Christmas is about Jesus. Then we opened gifts. The boys are still at an age that they share everything, so they were both as interested in each other's gifts as they were their own. My favorite part was watching them watch each other pull things out of their stockings.