Valentine's Day Cards!

Happy (nearly) Valentine's Day! I love celebrating Valentine's Day with my people. I know that some people really dislike the commercial aspects of it and I get that. There are no diamonds being purchased from our household! But I also think that life's too short to not take some extra time occasionally to love on the people we love!

C's doesn't actually have school tomorrow because it is round up day for the school's preschool and kindergarten. Kind of a bummer for the teachers I am sure, but they celebrated today with a red/pink party and a valentines exchange.

Once upon a time, when my youngest brother who is 8 years younger than me started kindergarten, there was a girl in his class named Gabrielle. Her dad is a graphic designer and he created the most beautiful valentine cards. Every year of my brother's elementary school years I would get super excited if Gabrielle was in his class because without a doubt she had the best valentines. Well then I went and grew up and married my very own graphic designer.

What I am saying is I took C's valentine exchange very seriously. I spent hours one Saturday perusing Pinterest trying to find a clever not overdone valentine that we could recreate or tweak. Though I actually wound up finding the same 25 things on Pinterest over and over again. So I switched to Etsy.

And I found my jumping off point and gave Husband some specific directions and then I stepped back and let him be creative. (Side note: when working with graphic designers telling them to "work their magic" or "do their thing" is about the least helpful and most eye rolling thing you can say.)

We bought the snack pack box of 20 which is perfect because that's how many kids are in his class. (Including him.) His class wanted the Valentines addressed with names so the kids could practice name recognition during their delivery so we incorporated the names into the designs. 

The Teddy Grahams (both Honey and Chocolate) say: Have a Beary good Valentine's Day Leo! 

The Chips Ahoy say: Ahoy! A treat for my Valentine's Matey Ellie! 

The Animal Crackers say: Have a Wild Valentine's Day Joe! 

And then on the back of all of them there is a printed from and he wrote his name out by hand in red Sharpie. He did them over three days so it wasn't overwhelming. Then we stapled the card piece to the cookies. 

Husband also designed the teacher's cards for his three teachers. (Teacher, assistant and aide.) 

Then inside the cards we put a $5 Starbucks card. 

I love that we were able to incorporate C's favorite things (walrus, polar bear, penguin and well he likes all animals so lions aren't things he dislikes.) in a cute way that aren't overly mushy. I am NOT anti commercial valentine cards because my favorite thing was going to Walgreen's and picking out which ones I would give out. I am just trying to channel my inner "Gabrielle's Dad" hoping C's cards bring someone the excitement that those cards brought me. They sure make me giddy so hopefully it's contagious. 

He LOVED the party today and really liked looking through his bag of cards when he got home from school. They also had heart cookies and cups/napkins with hearts on them. And they played some games and had a good time wearing pink and red. 

Happy Valentine's Day to you my friends, I hope that you have a wonderful day tomorrow and you can find a way to celebrate love of someone.