Happy Valentine's Day

 We have no special traditions or expectations for Valentine's Day here. Some years, we go out to dinner. Sometimes, there are flowers or a card, and sometimes, the day passes without much notice. This will be one of those years. We agreed that we weren't going to do anything to celebrate this year, because we've been too distracted by other things. So today, the plan is a doctor's appointment, laundry, and swing dance practice. 

However, this morning, I am remembering Valentine's Days when Wally and Theo were young. Oh, how I hated the valentines that they had to hand out at school. Neither of them had good fine motor skills, and preparing Valentines for their class was torture for both them and me. However, we all survived. 

I am also remembering Wally's third-grade Valentine's Day party at school. It was an interesting afternoon as I watched the girls and boys behave very differently. I've shared this story here before, but I'm going to do it again below. In the meantime, I hope you have a good day today, whether it is filled with hearts and chocolates or laundry. 😀

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Boys vs. Girls—You Choose 

 Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and I didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly, there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as not to bias you, I'm going to let you guess who the boys are in the stories and who the girls are.

 Today's Story 

The Event: Wally's Third Grade Valentine Party

The Scene: The kids were seated around tables and naturally grouped themselves into two groups, with all boys on one side and all girls on the other side.

The Action: One group was carefully reading each Valentine and talking about who liked whom. The other group was seeing how many Red Hot cinnamon candies they could stuff in their mouth before their mouth burned too much. 

You choose: Which group was the boys and which was the girls?

Until next time...

Happy Valentine's Day

 

We have no special traditions or expectations for Valentine's Day here. Some years, we go out to dinner. Sometimes, there are flowers or a card, and sometimes, the day passes without much notice. This year, we started our celebration last night with couples yoga at the gym. It was a fun and occasionally challenging hour of doing yoga poses together. Today, we will be cooking dinner together and eating at home. We chose the menu from favorite dishes and ended up with comfort foods, including creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli with cheese sauce, and blueberry crisp. 

However, this morning, I am remembering Valentine's Days when Wally and Theo were young. Oh, how I hated the Valentines that they had to hand out at school. Neither of them had good fine motor skills, and preparing Valentines for their class was torture for both them and me. However, we all survived. 

I am also remembering Wally's third-grade Valentine's Day party at school. It was an interesting afternoon as I watched the girls and boys behave very differently. I've shared this story here before, but I'm going to do it again below. In the meantime, I hope you have a good day today, whether it is filled with hearts and chocolates or not.

__________________________________

Boys vs. Girls—You Choose 

 Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and I didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as not to bias you, I'm going to let you guess who the boys are in the stories and who the girls are.

 Today's Story 

The Event: Wally's Third Grade Valentine Party

The Scene: The kids were seated around tables and naturally grouped themselves into two groups, with all boys on one side and all girls on the other side.

The Action: One group was carefully reading each Valentine and talking about who liked whom. The other group was seeing how many Red Hot cinnamon candies they could stuff in their mouth before their mouth burned too much. 

You choose: Which group was the boys and which was the girls?

Until next time...

Celebrations

We are not big on celebrations here. However, we try to do a bit from time to time to break up our everyday routine, and recently, we did our bits. 

First up was the Super Bowl. Neither Ward nor I are big football fans, but what better excuse for snacky food than the Super Bowl. For the game, we made guacamole and pizza sliders using up several leftovers we had - except for the avocados for the guacamole, which are always on sale this time of year. The pizza sliders were made from leftover rolls from the freezer which we had at Christmas. They were topped with tomato sauce and various toppings from the fridge. They were delicious. Theo made chips for the dip with corn tortillas that we've been meaning to use up. 

Then with our snacks in hand, we set up a puzzle and turned on the game. Well, actually, we watched other things and occasionally turned back to the game to get the score and watch a few commercials. BTW, maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but I think the commercials used to be better than they are these days. 

Pizza sliders. Toppings included pepperoni, yellow peppers, ham, tomatoes, and smoked turkey (leftover from Thanksgiving).

Ward finished the 1000-piece puzzle a couple of days later. It was a Christmas gift from Aunt Martha.

And just a couple of short days later, it was Valentine's Day. We have done all the traditional things over the years - cards, poems, flowers, chocolates, dinner out, etc. However, we decided to try something different this year - couples yoga. Yep, you read that right. We celebrated Valentine's Day by doing yoga. Neither of us has ever taken more than a few yoga classes, so we weren't sure what to expect. The room was full of couples, most of who had a wife/girlfriend who was a yoga enthusiast who drug brought along their partner. The hour was spent doing poses and stretches together while connecting physically. There was a lot of good-natured laughter, including Ward and me, as we tried to get into the various poses. We both enjoyed it more than we had anticipated. Afterward, they had a huge cookie and chocolates for each couple. I'd say that the class was a success and a fun way to celebrate. I don't have any pictures. I'm not sure that Ward and I contorting ourselves into various positions is something you'd want to see, anyway.

Until next time...

Happy Valentine's Day

 Hope everyone gets a chance to think about something or someone they love today. Among other things, I'm thinking about how much I love the Lindor dark chocolate truffles that showed up this morning--the breakfast of champions, she says, hoping that a sugar crash doesn't come while she's at work. :)

In honor of Valentine's Day, I rerunning a post from the past when I described one of Wally's Valentine parties at school. It was initially part of a series of posts about girls vs. boys.

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Boys vs. Girls--Wally's Valentine Party

Boys vs. Girls—You Choose 

 Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual and didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of the experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, to not bias you, I'm going to let you guess who are the boys in the stories and who are the girls.

 Today's Story 

The Event: Wally's Third Grade Valentine Party

The Scene: The kids were seated around tables and had naturally grouped themselves into two groups, with all boys on one side and all girls on the other side.

The Action: One group read each Valentine carefully and talked about who liked whom. The other group saw how many Red Hot cinnamon candies they could stuff in their mouth before their mouth burned too much. 

You choose: Which group was the boys and which were the girls?

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm going to rerun a post I did several years ago about a Valentine party I went to when Wally was in 3rd grade. It was one of a series of posts of observations about different behaviors between boys and girls. I enjoy the stories involved, so I think I'll run the series again. Here's the first installment.

Boys vs. Girls--Wally's Valentine Party

Boys vs. Girls—You Choose 

 Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as to not bias you, I'm going to let you guess, who are the boys in the stories and who are the girls.

 Today's Story 

The Event: Wally's Third Grade Valentine Party

The Scene: The kids were seated around tables and had naturally grouped themselves into two groups with all boys on one side and all girls on the other side.

The Action: One group was carefully reading each Valentine and talking about who liked whom. The other group was seeing how many Red Hot cinnamon candies they could stuff in their mouth before their mouth burned too much. 

You choose: Which group was the boys and which was the girls?