Shining Stars Valentine's Party

I'm pretty sure my preschool parties didn't look like THIS when I was a tot: 

My cute friend, Shannon Magnotta, is the Party Mom for the Monday/Wednesday class and this girl goes ALL out.  It helps that she is an event planner in real life.  Every party, the kids walk into a magical wonderland and have a blast.  Memories that will last a lifetime.  

Two of my favorite Park City ladies, Lindsey Hampton (Olivia's Mama) and Nicole LaBore (Beck's Mama.)

Liam hands a homemade Valentine to his self-professed future wife, Paizly Van der Veur.  

She reciprocates.  They truly love each other.  And we love her parents, Tami and Shem.  

Valentine fishing!  The kids got to match the fish's lip color to the heart on the prize bags.  So darling.

Liam's first musical chairs experience!  

Fun times at Shining Stars!  

Shining Stars Winter Program

In February, we witnessed Liam's big performance, the Shining Stars Winter Program.  It was short and sweet: they sang a few songs and then we had some refreshments.  And of course, my Liam thought all of the silly songs about snowmen were for ninnies, so he protested and was noticeably the only child not doing the hand motions.  That a boy.  

It was lovely to share some of Liam's preschool experience with friends and family.  

He may not have felt like showing off (dance, monkey!), but he did have a few boogies to extract...

Liam gravitates toward Koreans, just like his mom and Uncle Daniel.  I just like them!  I'm not racist!  

After the program, Grammy presented Liam with a pirate hook for doing SUCH a great job and for his excellent behavior of the past few days.  Thanks for the bribery positive reinforcement, Mom!  

Brotherly Love: A Visual Essay

A Valentine's Day play-by-play:  Aiden approaches Liam's play city and observes quietly.  

Aiden knocks over one very key tower.  

Liam chastises Aiden and pokes him in the face.  

Aiden is crushed.  

Liam plays innocent; Aiden plays victim.  

All if forgiven.  Let the re-build commence. 

Conclude the evening sitting together watching videos of themselves playing in the bath.  

We played.  We cried.  We loved.  Happy Valentine's Day!  

Midway Ice Castles

Only in a couple of places in the world can you experience these incredible hand-made ice castles, made from nearly 20,000,000 pounds of ice right in your backyard.  We're pretty lucky.  I love our little family's adventures.  

Liam had just recently seen Frozen, and I can only imagine what was going on in his little brain when we visited a real-life version of Queen Elsa's ice castle!  Aiden just kept repeating "ice!" over and over...

Magical, and totally worth the long lines.