Punky's Cluttered Mind: Valentine's Day

I know...Valentine's Day?? Wasn't it like a century ago already?
I am insanely behind on all my blog posts that I "write" in my head!!! I wonder if anyone else is like me? :) I have so many ideas and thoughts, and I simply do. not. have. enough. time. to blog about them. Oh well. Someday, someday...

As for Valentine's Day....it's not really a big holiday in our household. I mean, yeah, when my hubs and I were dating, there were red roses, romantic gifts, and fancy outings...But then we kinda slowly departed from the whole commercialized V-day propaganda and agreed to NOT get cheesy cards, to NOT buy red roses, and to NOT go out. What a couple of sour-puss losers, one might think. Hey, that's us!!! :)

{My NON-traditional Valentine flowers}

My hubs has the hardest time looking for NON-red flowers on Valentine's Day...No, I do not like red roses...I appreciate their beauty and elegance, I can stare at them and marvel for hours, but I just don't like getting them for myself. My hubs, being the "rebellious" one, still gets me flowers...I don't argue about this one...I mean, what woman would protest getting a lovely bouquet, such as this one??? :)

I know I'm braggin', but just a little bit :)
I, in return, make a handmade card for him. We both "break" the rules, but just enough to still stay true to our protest of this Hallmark holiday.

Now, when our oldest son started pre-school last year, things had to change a little around here. Obviously, now we talk more about Valentine's Day, and my little boy knows all too well that on that day he'll be getting lots of candy!
But for us the rule remains--nothing store-bought!!! Of course, there are exceptions, such as craft supplies and a piece of candy or a small gift for the classmates, but the general idea is that we make our own pre-school Valentines, and my son has to actually sign his "love notes".

Last year, he stamped the heart-shaped valentines with the letters of his classmates' names along with the cute stamped messages, like "Be Mine" or "U Rock".
This year, my big boy was able to actually write his name all by himself!!! Not only that, but he also did so 30 times!!!!! I mean, I was beyond impressed! He never sits at the table with a crayon for more than 5 minutes at a time. But he did so well! And of course, afterwords he declared that his favorite letter is N...and I....and maybe C....and K. LOL!! Of course, why not? :)

{N-I-C-K}

This year, we (ok, I) decided that we'll do something more interactive than just a note and a candy. I'd searched the Internet for some ideas, and one of them just stuck with me. It was easy to do and assemble, and it was unique and a fun activity, too!

A Secret Love Message!

It's written with a white crayon, and then you use CoolAid drink and a paint brush to reveal what it says! Here's the post where I spotted the idea. Heather from Creative Homemakers replaced the paint (that was originally in a BHG version) with CoolAid, which was brilliant, I thought!

We gathered our supplies and got to work.

{supplies}

After Nick finished signing all his Valentines (with white crayon on white paper--hats off to him!), I wrote the rest of the message, which was quite simple:

{"Secret Message" Valentines}

Then, everything (a lollipop, a CoolAid single pack, and a paint brush) was glued together with a double-sided tape and attached to the Valentine note, which was then scrolled up and tied with a pretty red ribbon. Vo-a-la!