valentine boxes

flowers from my Sweetie.  I do love to get flowers!

 It's no secret that I don't really care for Valentines day.  I don't DISlike it, I just don't care about it.  With the exception of creating the boxes.  I had the boys start brainstorming ideas.  Brennen was happy with just about anything but William knew right away he wanted a shark. This was kind of a busy time for us so I left the boxes to the night before.  I wasn't stressed though, we had plenty of recyclables on hand and with my mad skills I knew I could knock them out in a matter of minutes.  I wanted the boys to help as much as possible so for Brennen I built the structure and then let him decorate it. It was so simple I think it only took 20 minutes from start to finish, and that included finding all the materials.  We put a little flag in his that said Tank you for the Valentines.  He was pleased as punch.
For Williams shark I actually had 2 attempts.  The first was much more complex with an inner support system but it was just too big and not working exactly as I wanted.  So I ditched the first one and pulled out a spare poster board rolled it into a cone shape stapled it then taped it.  For the fins and tail I used the spare poster board that I cut off.  The teeth we just a paper plate that I cut then taped onto the edge for the mouth.  I let William paint it all himself hence the blood but he was happy with it.  We thought it needed just a little something more so we came up with the surfboard idea.  He was so proud.  When he came home from school that day he informed me that he won "coolest" Valentines box.
For the Valentines they gave to their classes I usually come up with something cute and quite homemade.  This year I caved into Scott's request of making my life simpler and just bought Ring Pop's we stapled a not that said "I think you are a gem." I have to say this store bought stuff is definitely easier.