Happy Tuesday folks! We are finally digging out of the disaster that happens when a family of ten all get a multi-day stomach bug within a three day period. Oh, the laundry!  It will be the last to go. My poor washer will never recover from the continuous use it saw this past weekend. As soon as the last remnants are cleaned up, I’ll be calling the carpet cleaners to come refresh the poor abused carpet. 😉


So, my pinterest feed (yes, I finally gave in and signed up. I’m just too visual person to keep up with my bookmarks anymore) is exploding with adorable valentines for my sweet angel children to exchange with their classmates, and I want to know: do you make or buy your valentines?

In our household, the homemade valentines for classroom exchange were abandoned long ago in favor of the cheap but yummy fun dip, ring pops, etc., that only require names be written in them and they’re good to go.  I tried for several years to make adorable yet cheap valentines for my sweet little oldest boys until I realized...they did not care. I even offered to make them when my oldest daughter started school thinking she’s a girl, she would appreciate them.  But sadly, it was not to be. They don’t even want the cute character card with their favorite candy taped to them. Just the candy folks. Frankly, to be honest, I’m trying to sneak most of those cute cards into the rubbish bin before the day is over anyway. **Clutter is everywhere. Especially, on holidays. And they’ll have eaten their way through most of it before they even get home from school. (Can you say sugar rush?)  And thats on top of the class valentine’s party.  Why do we do this to ouselves?
So this year, with #5 in kindergarten and three of them in elementary school, I’ve got it down to a science. I’m not even taking the darlings to the store, so they can hem and haw over “maybe I want this one, no I want the Elsa ones. Can I get a big heart for my friend. I want some gum. Can I have my own gum?”  Nope, I took a picture of the classroom candy on my last trip to tar-jay, and showed them.
 

These are the choices people. If you don’t pick one of these, I will pick for you. Then I will throw a few boxes of cheap candy in my cart along with a couple of fresh sharpies for the name writing and put a mental check mark on my list.  Don’t worry, my kids think it’s great, so it’s a win-win. And they’ll have the cutest handmade valentine boxes you ever saw for all that sugary loot. 😉

So, do you, or don’t you? 🙂

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