In preparation for Valentine's Day this year, Gage brought home the usual list of students' name in his class to make Valentines for, but there was a bonus this year...the flyer said to bring a decorated box! For the past 2 years Gage has been in school, they have not done Valentine boxes, which is just blasphemous! Making Valentine boxes in elementary school has to be one of my most favorite memories of Valentine's Day. I was crafty and put a lot of effort in to my projects, which probably meant a shoe box decked out in Lisa Frank stickers and paper heart doileys. Legit! So far, Gage has only experienced having a giant heart envelope in class made out of butcher paper with staples up and down the sides. Lame-O. Naturally, I had to teach him about the art of Valentine's Day box making so he'd realize what a fun, big deal it was. I looked up picture ideas for him and let him see how many different things there are to create, and as suspected, he picked the winner I knew would get him giggling. Behold, Gage's Valentine's box he chose...
Now, Jake and I may or may not have ended up staying up until 1 am working on this throne, which obviously meant I ended up taking over the project...as if you didn't suspect that from the start. It was a more complicated project that I estimated, not leaving much for Gage to help with besides wrapping the bucket and gathering supplies for me. I had good intentions of him being Helpy McHelperton but when it got to be 9:45 pm, it was time to get his buns in bed. The next day Gage reported that his class loved his toilet box and it made people laugh. He already wants to use it again next year. I'd say it was royal flush!
On top of making a freakin' cool toilet, I also volunteered to make Gage homemade Valentines instead of having him do store-bought ones...which really, Jake ended up being stuck with to make. (Sorry hunny!) Gage had wanted to do chocolate mustache suckers like we did last year, but I didn't have the time to and instead found a good substitution he was happy with. I came across this fun sucker idea on Pinterest. For ours, we used red foam paper for the lips and brown felt for the mustaches and then attached a "Happy Valentine's Day from Gage Jones" note on the back of each. I think they turned out pretty cute and picturing all the kids eating their suckers makes me laugh. I love that I contribute to Gage being the cool kid in class.
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Next up, Gage's class made it big in the newspaper! For Valentine's Day, not only did his class hand out Valentines for their party and had delicious treats, they also did a few different service projects such as tying quilts for a family shelter, making "I Spy" bags for an orphanage in Haiti, and making cards for school kids in Africa. The big project of the month that's had been on-going was the students doing acts of services at home to earn money to put towards buying a goat for a family in Africa. How adorable! I was tickled with joy that they were giving a goat, and we made sure Gage did chores around the house so he could contribute $5 even though I was tempted just to throw $20 to him. A goat! The Daily Herald in Utah County got word of these service projects and visited Gage's class on Valentine's Day to write their story. Lucky ducky Gage got to be in one of the pictures taken during his card making session, so I snagged the pic and posted it below. I might have to tease him later that he's with a girl in the pic...oh, and those are my my scrapbook scissors I let the class borrow for cards! Anyway, if you are interested in the news story, click HERE. Yes, you are interested.
Though Valentine's Day is not a particular favorite of mine, it was a fun holiday this year and I'm glad I have a hubby to be mine every time! He gave me some great gifts and great mushy kisses. Can that be everyday?!
xoxo
