My Complicated Valentines

Lizzy and I saw these felt fortune cookies in Martha Stewart and thought they would be fun Valentine's for her class. They are filled with two chocolate kisses and a slip of paper which reads: You will have a sweet year--Elizabeth. Pretty cool, huh? Except they were impossible to put together and once we did the kisses kept slipping out. After I spent most of my afternoon into the evening helping kids with Valentines the table was littered with felt and glue and the scraps of paper. I said I'm not going to do this again. Next year we are going to be like normal people and buy valentines from the store. Then Lizzy pointed out that next year she won't be doing valentines anymore. She will be in middle school. Suddenly, it didn't seem like such an onerous project. And Lizzy did do most of them herself and she modified Martha's project and improved it with an ingenius use of pipecleaner. Still, I will spare you all directions for the felt cookies. If you want such insanity in your life you will have to seek it on your own.

On another day Lizzy helped John get his Valentines together for preschool. They made red playdough and cut it out in thick heart shapes. The note said: I am putty in your hands. I thought this was a bit much but Lizzy and John did all the work and most of the clean up. And I really didn't have to worry about his Valentines at all. I think have an oldest daughter is beginning to pay off. I asked Bill if he would have made play dough Valentines for his younger brother and he just laughed.