Easy Homemade Valentines

When Neal was in preschool, I completely forgot about Valentines Day. Utah Dad dropped him off at school that morning and noticed the other children arriving with their special Valentines to give to their classmates. Oops! I got a frantic call that morning from Utah Dad reminiscent of the call I received on Halloween morning when I didn't dress Neal in his costume. I was definitely after the "Mother of the Year" award that year. I kicked it in high gear; pulled out all my scrap booking supplies and whipped up a bunch of pretty darn cute Valentines for Neal's classmates. I arrived at his school just in time for him to hand them out. Phew!

Anyway, since then, I've been determined not to be such a mother-failure again. Each year, we have a little Valentine making party on the day before the party at school. I design an easy card (one that the kids can make mostly by themselves). We get out the (really dirty) art table cover and then we're free to cut, glue and color special Valentine cards for their classmates and friends.

Today, I made a quick card in Microsoft Word and printed it out. Thomas and I cut the white paper and background black card stock before the other kids got home from school. When Neal and Amberly got home we got busy. They glued the cards together and wrote their names and the names of their classmates. I punched a heart on each card with my Sizzix heart punchy thing (it requires a hammer and is really noisy. Utah Dad, who was working, was not thrilled) and then a small hole below it. We threaded a sucker through the holes. Voila!

While we worked, we munched on RedVines and the kids talked about which boys and girls they "like" in their classes. And they were quick to point out that "like" and "love" are very different (duh). They made a few extra Valentines since the kids they really "LIKE" are not in their classes at school. I suppose we'll have to make a few special deliveries this weekend.