Too Cool For School

Valentine's Day is nearly here which means several things, the least of which is that Chloe needs some things for the party at school. In the past there has been a ban on any type of homemade goodies but they sent home a note saying that the ban had been lifted so I could either bake something or buy something. My immediate thought was to make rolled sugar cookies but then I thought about the fact that it's a bit of a chore and I was feeling like I didn't want to do that for her class. Last year I had to do a craft for her kindergarten class and so I made hand painted cards for them to decorate. It was a simple little thing but kindergarteners do not appreciate hand painted things. *Then* I thought about Chloe and how she *lives* for holidays and special occasions and decided we'd make rolled sugar cookies. I didn't realize that her teacher was going to tell me what to make so thankfully she asked for sugar cookies- heart shaped or round. Heart shaped? Of course that was in my master plan. I don't actually own one (do I? Nope, I checked. How can I have 30 cookie cutters and not 1 heart shape?) so I figured I'd pick one up when I stopped at Target. Well, I figured wrong. The only heart shaped cookie cutter they had was tied to a bag of sugar cookie mix which completely defeats the purpose of making homemade sugar cookies. I might have purchased the bag but it was $7 and that's way too much to spend on a cookie cutter that comes with something else that I'll probably throw away. Besides I'd seen a super-cool heart shaped cookie cutter at Kroger a few days before. Why, oh, why did I decide I'd get it later? Anyway, it was gone and all they had out of my two options was the circle. It seems kind of ridiculous to buy a *circle* cookie cutter since any old (washed) tin can would do but, remember, this is a special occasion and *must* include a purchase of some sort to make is "super-special".


So the plan for the night was to fill out all her Valentine cards, decorate her box to receive Valentines, and make sugar cookies. We got most of that done. The Valentines were a breeze because once I showed Chloe how to do it, she filled them out. It's really nice that she can read and write. Then came the cookies. Then the box. Then the cookies again but that's another story.


I thought that instead of doing a box that was just covered by a few sheets of construction paper that was all the same color, we should do a collage. It took more time but Chloe loved it. I mean, what good is it to have a bunch of acid free, lignin free scrap booking papers around if you can't rip them up and decorate a box with them (since I'm not scrapbooking these days)? OK, I only used the papers from Michaels (and one Creative Memories scrap paper) because the CM ones are too expensive to rip up. She got a bit bored at the end with all of the ripping and gluing and was super-antsy to put the stickers on. So here it is all finished. We sent her cards and box to school with one whole day to spare. That.never.happens.here. But I'm going to be out tonight and tomorrow night and am a bit concerned about getting the cookies baked. I could do them myself during the daytime but that leaves Chloe out of it and she got a really pouty face when I suggested that. Maybe after school tomorrow. I'll figure it out. Happy Valentines' Day to all of you. I hope you have a great time. I get to go here with Trav- I'm sooo excited.