13 February 2011

Oliver had a Valentine's party at school on Friday. So fun! But, a party on Friday means that, as the parents of a school-attending child, we had homework on Thursday. (Now don't get me wrong - totally not complaining! I like getting to work on things with Oliver and celebrate holidays like we used to back in the day. It's fun! Like going back to school all over again, except this time I know all of the answers - for now at least.)

Aaaaanyway...

The Valentines' party. We were supposed to bring - among other specific snack items - a Valentine for each child in the class. I haven't made Valentines in years so I wasn't sure how folks did them anymore. I was planning to just buy a box of cards at Target and have Oliver sign his name to all of them. But then I found these darling printable produce stickers on Twig & Thistle and voila! A vision was born!

We were initially going to do bananas, apples and oranges, so Oliver and I spent a good long hour with pen to the paper, practicing writing by making a list of the kids in his class and which fruit they would get. When we got to the grocery store it all felt too fruit basket-y so I convinced him that the apples looked the most like hearts and so all the Valentines should be apples.

He agreed. Whew! And the morning of list making wasn't all a waste. We had fun hanging out and he got in some good writing practice. I love how he writes right now - and how he makes sure his E's have plenty of lines in them and some of his letters just come out completely backwards still. His R's are my very favorite. I'm going to miss them when he finally figures them out!

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So, the night before the party Ryan and Oliver sat down to cut out the stickers and stick them on the apples. We decided that just apples with clever produce stickers weren't quite enough - that they needed a little something extra. So, my sister and I sat down to a pile of felt and just sort of stared at it until something came to us. (Yes, even Auntie got involved with Oliver's Valentine's Day assignment.)

We decided on felt leaves for the boys and felt hearts for the girls. We used pinking shears for the edges and sandwiched a toothpick in between two pieces glued together with felt glue.

{Once I got started cutting out the felt I noticed Oliver had abandoned the crafting party so I went to seek his approval on the leaves and hearts idea. He was in Ryan's office playing Rag Doll Blaster on the iPad and nodded his approval before getting back to, um, blasting rag dolls. It was clearly up to Mama and Auntie to wrap this one up and I think we did a pretty stellar job.}

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Also, Oliver's teachers were quite pleased with his fruit offering in class the next day. Brownie points! Er, apple points...?

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So, the first of many Valentine's Day assignments is complete! I'm already looking forward to our next big assignment!

Happy Valentine's Day, all!

13 comments:

Rebecca said...

Happy Valentine's Day, Vert! He is certainly the apple of Bea's eye.

The Morrisons said...

Feeling a bit ridiculous sending in our nerds valentines :) But really, these are awesome!

Erin said...

umm awesome idea.. please re post this next year when my child is in preschool ha ha :) He sure does look proud!

Herrington Photography said...

Absolutely adorable!

Alyssa said...

How stinking cute is that?!?!? Man, I wish I would have found out about this sooner! My son had his party Friday (even though they have school tomorrow- not sure why they celebrated early). This would have been a fun thing to bring on the actual day since they're not celebrating. I guess there's always next year!

SarahBfromMN said...

You have got to be one of the most creative moms I know! I love it!

kristofer and ivy said...

That's an awesome idea! We DIY our own Valentine photo cards. http://skradebaby.blogspot.com/2011/02/little-bit-olove.html

When the kids are older, I plan to make these:
http://www.houseonhillroad.com/my_weblog/2010/02/my-funny-valentines.html

.ivy

Raechel said...

ivy: your DIY valentines are so cute! Also, I've seen the cute sucker holding cards - definitely going to have to try those!

Jenny said...

Those are adorable, of course!!

I can't wait to see what you are cooking up for Hazel's Birthday. My little one is a few weeks older so it you're willing to share any sneak peeks I'd love to see them ;)

Raechel said...

Jenny - I wish I had sneak peeks to share! I totally have to get on this birthday party planning thing! Definitely planning to make her a birthday crown of some kind. And probably there will be a bunting banner. And photos from each month of her first year... man, I need to get on this!

-R

Anonymous said...

Very cute and creative :)

mamaK said...

Wonderful! Love how you got stuck with the crafting while the boys played! Boys!!! Hope you are having a wonderful Valentines Day!
Here is the apple of my eye wearing some of your headbands...loved the tutorial...http://lingeringlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/headbands-and-babies.html just thought I'd share.

Anonymous said...

Those are precious! I feel the urge to go feltify all of my apples. haha. Such a cute idea!