Will you be my Valentine!?

Days leading up to Valentine's Day, 2014

(Who am I kidding?  What we thought would take one afternoon took maybe 3 afternoons.)

Living away from our family (especially Maria and Malan's cousins) has helped us to appreciate and look forward to getting/sending mail from/to, making visits to, and Skyping with our family in UT, MA and MO.  Maria, my little party planner, really wanted to send Valentines to her cousins, and had grand ideas to make bracelets for her classmates.  There was a lot of encouraging and 'One more Maria, you are doing great' that went on during the Valentine production line, but she was very proud of the Valentines that she (and Malan, kind of) made for her 23 cousins and multiple friends and classmates. 

(I was quite sick of the braiding I had to do to make the friendship bracelets after Maria begged to learned to braid so she could make them herself.  5 year olds and braiding don't exactly know each other very well yet.)