Love is in the Air

Our love for all the crafty items Michael's sells, that is.

Caroline brought home a note from school last week, suggesting the kids decorate a box to hold the copious amounts of valentines they'll be receiving next Monday during their party allotted time in which they'll pass out valentines. 

Because I love a good craft project as much as the next person, and I certainly jump at any chance to go to Michael's, Caroline and I went yesterday to purchase necessary embellishment supplies.

And what do you get when you're busy covering an unsightly orange Nike shoebox with pink and red?

Why, you get a mess, of course.

You also get one of these:

Every mailbox needs a flag, right?

Ah, happy love.

Aren't these stickers cute?  A youngish woman overheard the two of us discussing our Valentine decoration options in the scrapbook paper aisle at Michael's and couldn't help but point out these stickers. 

I'm glad she did.

We like converstation hearts around here.  In fact, as I waited for photos to upload, I remembered Caroline's 100th Day of School poster she we made in first grade.  Since the 100th day of school was February 12th that year, we made a valentine themed poster, complete with 100 hot glued conversation hearts.

Appropros of nothing, the day Caroline and I made this poster, Craig was out running in DC, as a part of the training he did for the National Half Marathon.  He took a wrong turn somewhere along the way and got lost.  I remember talking to him on the phone, trying to figure out where he was on a map and hot glue conversation hearts all at once. 

How's that for multi tasking?

Anyway, I think Caroline's box this year turned out pretty cute.  I helped cover the box with felt and I also manned the hot glue gun, because she's a little liberal with the force she puts upon the trigger, which yields lots of hot, sticky glue all over the counter and her fingers. Otherwise, Caroline did most of the work.  I try not to be 'that' mom.  You know the type.

As a control freak, it's hard to stand back, but I held strong.

I think this year's valentine keeper is much more festive than last year's brown paper bag version.





I guess third graders are expected to be extra festive...and, not to mention, to spell Valentine correctly.

In other unrelated news, Caroline asked me to take a picture of the gigantic tent she built with her friend Alayna, and post it on the blog so Craig could see it.

Um, yep,  It's a big tent.  It was built on Saturday and I'm sort of ashamed to admit that it's still up today. 

I'll get to it soon.  But first, I have to scrape hot glue blobs off the counter.