Valentine's Day

Well, today is Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is a bit different here in Germany than in America. In America, the kids celebrate it in school. They have Valentine's Day Parties and every child brings Valentine Cards for all the other kids in the class. Well, they do not do that here in Germany. Valentine's Day is more for the adults here. A reason to go out on a date. The big thing is Chocolate and Flowers.

Well, the kids decided to take Valentine's Day Cards to school today. We spent a couple hours on Sunday and made them, since you can not buy them here. They are pretty simple. A cut out heart with the words, "Frohen Valentins Tag" on them. Then we punched 2 holes and weaved a sucker into them. The kids were VERY excited about this. They know they will not get any cards in return but wanted to do this anyway. I thought it was a fun idea to show them what we do in America.

Well, This morning, Hannah's excited was crushed when one of her teachers said she could not pass them out. Supposedly, there is no sugar allowed at the school. And we had suckers on them. Hannah cried. It took me almost 1/2 an hour to leave. I went from being sympathetic to mad, to furious and angry with Hannah to sympathetic again. Her crying while I am trying to leave drives me crazy. She wanted me to stay with her, and of course, I could not. I have Emma and Ian I have to take care of. I did tell Hannah we could take the suckers off and then give the cards without the suckers. She said no. And I also said we could pass them out in the parking lot after school if she wanted. She did not like that idea either. I felt terrible for her. She was trying to do something nice for all the kids (41 total) and then was told no. All I could do in the end was hold her while she cried.

I hope the other two kids don't have problems passing theirs out like Hannah. Spencer said he was sad for Hannah. I knew how he felt because I felt the same. It really made me want to cry for her.

I think I am more emotional right now because I am lacking sleep. Gardner is gone and for some reason, Ian is not sleeping during the night. And then Emma was up during the night as well. They both started in with colds again yesterday. So it is harder for them to breathe. They are both napping right now, and if I was a smarter mom, I would be too. But instead and I wanted to update my blog and take a shower.

As for the rest of the day, I need to go grocery shopping. And then we are just going to hang out at the house as usual. It is raining, as usual so not much more we can do. I did buy gummy hearts for the kids. They are called Haribo. A big thing here in Germany. They are the makers of gummy bears.

Yesterday was just a marathon of a day. I got up early to take a shower before the kids got up. I knew I would not get one if I did not. It was so stressful in the morning trying to get everyone to school plus getting Emma and Ian ready to be gone all morning. On Tuesday's, there is an English Relief Society in the mornings. I tend to not go due to timing. But I made a special attempt to go yesterday because there is a family (Wade and Eva Riser) who is moving back to America and we had a farewell breakfast. I'm glad I went, but Emma cried the whole time I was there. Afterwards, Spencer and Hannah had friends over to play all afternoon. It is a brother and sister who both are in Spencer's and Hannah's classes. So we had a full day.