Valentine's Day 2010

I had fun making the valentines for the kids' classmates this year, though at one point I was tempted to tape a boxed valentine to a pencil and call it a night! To be honest, I did most of the work after the kids were in bed, so I was tired. And, I didn't get Mister J started on the writing soon enough. However, I did had fun picking out papers that looked 'feather-ish'! And I was SO excited when Mister J saw what I was making, recognized it as an owl, and got the corny play on words that I'd made up for the back (Happy V-owl-entine's Day). There were others, but that's my original creation.

The ones on the top are for Mister J's class - they looked more like something a boy would pick out, I though. The brighter ones are for Miss M's class - I still have a hard time giving anything with pink on it to a boy, even on Valentine's Day.

Miss M's class doesn't allow food/candy treats due to the number of food allergies. I'm not a big fan anyway, so we usually give pencils, crayons, of similar. I did give a coupon for a free Icedream from Chick-Fil-A one time. Since it's not food in the classroom, and at the discretion of the parent, I do think these (or the free doughnut coupons from Krispy Kreme!) are a fun choice.

Here are the goodies for their teachers - Miss M has two teachers - which we finished up (gasp!) the morning they were to be delivered. I packed a Target $1 Spot mailbox (red or white) with some dill crackers that I made, used a magnetic photo frame to make a 'chalkboard' card with a handwritten "I (heart) U" and a message on the back, and stuffed it into a gift bag that I decorated with punched tags and curling ribbon. Simple, cute, and inexpensive. This is one of my favorites of teacher gifts I've given.

And here are the lunches I packed that day:

Heart-shaped soybutter and jelly sandwiches, natural cheetos (a rare snack), half clemetine, carrots and dip, and another special treat - a Clif fruit twist. I put the colorful napkin in the box to keep the jelly from oozing on to the Cheetos, so I put a 'regular' one in for them to (hopefully) use to wipe their hands and faces.

Fast forward to Sunday.... It was time to give our kids their gifts from Mommy and Daddy! I was SO excited about this, since I'd wanted to get these particular items for them since last year. I ended up finding them ON SALE, rode them around in the back of my minivan for quite a while owing to the number of snow days we had, and then finally managed to wrap them up (individually) in a large, black, plastic table cover to get them in the house. I had to walk them right past the kids (due to them being home for snow days!), and just told them I had a 'bag of stuff to take upstairs.'

We really don't make a huge deal out of Valentine's Day goodies. The kids usually get a book, a CD, or some other small-ish gift. This gift still fell within what I feel is a reasonable dollar amount, but is a much more sizeable item than usual. Without making you wait any longer - photos of their beanbags!

I was thrilled to find these so I could create a reading corner in each of their rooms. I was super excited that I found them in 'valentine' colors, but that was just a bonus. I thought I might have been just a tiny bit more excited than the kids until Miss M dragged hers downstairs all by herself to read in the den!

Oh - how could I not mention this? Big J and I got a date night on Saturday night and went out for an adults-only dinner! Appetizer, salads, dinners, and dessert! It was delicious, and we didn't talk about the children for an entire meal! Yay, us! And thanks to Grandma RL, our babysitter for the evening!