Little fact about myself. I’m not a big fan of projects that involve crafts and thinking outside the box. Creativity isn’t my strong suit. This is something I can improve upon and having kids has taught me this. One of the greatest positives about the internet is that nowadays you can do a quick Google search and find someone, somewhere that’s made something similar to what you’re looking for.
That would be the case with Thomas’s Valentine box. For school, they’re supposed to make a box to put all their Valentine’s stuff in. This entire concept of creating a box irks me a bit. He’s still not old enough to do a project like that by himself so naturally it could become more of a parent-driven project, which I’m also not a fan of.
Our conversations went like this for a week or two:
“Thomas, what kind of box do you want to make?”
“I don’t know.”
I’d show him a few options I found online or offer a couple of suggestions. “Thomas, what about a football field?”
“I’d like to do that.” Followed a few minutes later by him insisting he wanted to make a snake.
“How do you want to make a snake?”
“I don’t know.”
He’s still in a phase of loving snakes. And if you Google “snake Valentine box,” guess what? Not a whole lot of options will you find. But this one was a keeper! It was super easy to assemble, and Thomas loved getting to use the spray paint. This snake turned out so cute and it was something different from the standard fare of Valentine boxes.
He was very excited to take it to school on Monday in anticipation for his party later in the week.
Arthur’s little party was on Tuesday, so we spent some of the afternoon Monday working on his treat bags for his little friends. On Wednesday it was Thomas’s turn for Valentine fun. My mom was in town and watched JL while Arthur and I joined Thomas at his school.
After those two days, candy and goodies were spilled out onto the kitchen table and looked through many times. After a few days of that, being the Scrooge’s we are, they’re allowed to pick a few pieces to save as a treat and the rest goes to the garbage. Although, they’re used to the routine by now. The same thing happens at practically every holiday and they know they’ll be saying goodbye to most of the candy.
Each of the boys made a special Valentine that’s a sweet keepsake.
The weekend before Tom and I had a very non-traditional Valentine’s date. Tom’s mom came for a few hours to watch the kids while we took a short drive to a Starting Strength coach close to us. We spent a few hours working on form and refreshing on a few things. It ended up being a perfect date. We had a while in the car just us to talk, which doesn’t happen very often. And got to work out together, which also doesn’t happen that often. We’re usually hitting the gym at different times of the day, outside of the rare occasion that we go as a family once on the weekend.
After all the fun and excitement of celebrating on Valentine’s day, I was awakened by Arthur coming into our room sick during the night. Unfortunately we were on our way to a stomach virus that would take most of us out of commission for a few day. Never a dull moment!
