Decompressing

At this moment I feel relief as I take a moment to decompress.  Valentine's Day has been a bit stressful.  Added to a lengthy field trip from yesterday, packing up Britt and Austin and throwing together a Singing Time on Sunday, full-day preparation for the Open House on Friday and Saturday, drape sewing Monday through Thursday, a long drive home from Utah LAST Sunday, and a wedding and reception LAST Saturday, I am lucky to still be standing.  Or sitting, as the case may be.

But before I head down to the comforts of the basement to start catching up on weeks of past episodes of Top Chef Texas, American Idol, and whatever else has been taped for such a time as this, I thought I would quickly share the Valentine's Day solutions Mar and I came up with yesterday.

First, the box.

This cute mailbox was sent to us a few years back by my dear MIL.  She frequently sends fun holiday packages to the kids, and I believe she sent us this for Valentine's Day.  My kids (and the Primary kids, since I used it for Singing Time on Sunday, too, minus Mar's name) think that perhaps it's a Christmas mailbox... either way, it suited our needs perfectly.

Mar added a few lights to personalize it a bit.

We were able to shorten the post to make it desk-friendly, since it was actually two pieces screwed together.  How perfect is that?  {Perfect.}  (If you are wondering what that pink thing is on the floor, initially I thought it might be a dirty sock, since they are prevalent on the floors of my home.  I couldn't be sure, so I went to check.  Just as I had suspected, the item is still in that exact location, 8 hours later.  It is a pair of mittens, inside-out, one inside of the other.  FYI.)

I even had enough ambition and energy this morning to try something fancy with Mauri's hair, from a tutorial on Pinterest.  It turned out pretty decent, considering I pulled it off in about 5 minutes.

Not quite as neat and tidy as the original, but pretty darn fancy nonetheless.  I figured this would probably be the last year she would let me do something like this before she becomes too mature for a mommy hair-do.

And her Valentines?  Recycled, reused, repurposed.  They started out like this:

and turned into this:

After sending her out the door, I started working on the class party.  Oh yes.  I was in charge.  I hadn't planned anything prior to today, and figured I would fly by the seat of my pants.  Which I did.

I made crepes for the treat.  I had made some Sunday morning in an effort to use some of the extra milk we had sitting in more than one refrigerator from the Open House (more on that another day), but I still have lots and lots left over... and crepes can be made well in advance... and served at room temp... they worked out perfectly.  (Except that they take a while to crank out, especially when you are cooking for 36.  You read correctly.  34 students in Mar's class, a teacher, and a student teacher.)  I also put together a craft project for the class, another find on Pinterest:  Felt fortune cookies.

In the frenzy of the party there was no time for pictures, so I snapped a couple of Mar's when she got home.  She plans to add a little tissue paper to her take-out box and give them to her Daddy-o with a note that says "I am so fortunate to have a great dad like you!"  I can't take credit for the idea, but they DID turn out cute.  Trying to help 34 kids make them at the same time was a little challenging, though.  I truly appreciated the help from the two moms that came to assist.

The good news:  I made it.

Happy Valentine's Day!