I believe our little family has reached the stage or phase at which various "suggested" assignments become opportunities for the competitive nature of Mommy and Daddy to emerge.

Case in point: Brooklyn's Mother's Day Out had a Valentine's party last week and encouraged the children (ok, we all know they mean PARENTS) to prepare and bring a Valentine's box in which to deposit the various and sundry paper squares to which are affixed small bits of candy and suckers, etc. I know this is done by mommies (and let's abandon all pretexts that the kids at this age even KNOW what Valentine's are...) and for mommies. Plus, when we got home from the party, all B was interested in was the candy - she can't read, so the culling through paper cards fell to me. And I can also verify for those wondering that the big players in this year's Valentine's Day lineup are Tinkerbell, GI Joe, and Dr. Seuss. We went the Dr. Seuss route ourselves. Literature over floufy every time.

Back to the box. There was mention of a competition in the box department, which set the combined creative/competitive antennas of Kyle and I twitching in anticipation. There were no guidelines or rules set forth. The playing field was wide open.

We brainstormed seriously for several days. And ultimately chose the medium: an empty Huggies box. I remember when I used to have extra boxes of shoes....sigh...

We tossed and discarded ideas like confetti. And settled on this:

The idea was that B's Love Shack would be a happening place to which all her favorite characters (Annie and Sandy, Madeline, Fancy Nancy, Clifford, Alexander, August, Curious George, Bob & Larry, etc) would be arriving to celebrate the Big Day. We decorated it with colored pipe cleaners, Mardi Gras beads, wrapping paper, fancy little shiny things and pictures. The cards would be cleverly dropped in an opening between the two roof panels. We were proud of ourselves. And sure we would emerge victorious in the competition!!!!

Let me tell you that Kyle and Ashley had a rude awakening coming. We are seriously new to this game and clearly underestimated the boredom level in certain households during the week which happened to include a snowstorm. These people were crazy.

The winning box was - and I kid you not - a cardboard constructed TORNADO with little candy hearts spinning up into the box which was perched on the top of the tornado. I have to hand it to them. It was unique and awesome. There were several impressive feats of flower-beds (gag) and some wizardry involving rhinestones and a clutch....I still think we deserved SOMETHING!!!!! Maybe the grooviness level was just too out of their reach. Hard to say.

Lesson learned. These people have experience. It's on.

Oh and Happy Valentine's Day.