This year, I began masterminding my plan for "best-treats-ever-handed-out-by-a-2-year-old-who-doesn't-quite-grasp-the-concept" soon after Christmas. 

I hit up the Valentine's Day aisle at Target alone on a Saturday afternoon while Faith napped (because as much as I try to involve her in the process of things like this, she'd rather be performing for an imaginary audience of hundreds).

I found some small crayon packages and notebooks on sale (even though I thought about this right after Christmas, I didn't actually DO anything about it until mid February). I arrived home and proudly showed Rob my/Faith's practical Valentines. "No candy?" he questioned. Great. Now I would have to dip into my personal stash of Laughy Taffy to add to the bag. Also, I hadn't thought about how the kids/parents would know who these Valentines were from? 

That said, Faith and I had to make a quick run to the store the Tuesday before Valentine's Day to get the rest of the goods. Trying to involve her in the process, I asked her which Valentines to get her friends..her response(s): "Where's mine?" "I'm so hung-a-ry!" and "Can you read this book to me?" Yeah, OK, I'll go with the puppies and kittens then. Since I wasn't sure I had enough taffy, I also purchased a box of 36 fruit rollups, too. Add it all up and I probably spent more on these Valentines than my actual Valentine.

We all sat down the night before Valentine's day to assemble them and let me just tell you, Henry Ford was on to something with that line he created. Rob and I would been fired from the factory fairly quickly. There was lots of "Where's Ethan's Valentine?" "Is Adrian a boy or a girl?" and "Oh crap, we have an extra fruit rollup." Way too much double checking each other's work.

Faith helped for a little while....



And then she decided to create a little assembly line of her own with cuties and the Laughy Taffy I decided to keep for myself. (Those kids don't need THAT much sugar.)


Eventually, the job got done. I remembered the treats the next day and Faith successfully handed them out. They weren't exactly the Valentines to end all Valentines, but there's always next year.

As for what I got my Valentines, I went with the Want (princess purse), Need (silverware), Wear (heart socks from the $1 Spot), Read (Fancy Nancy Valentine book) theme. Here's Faith's basket.


I used the same theme for Mr. Lindquist. Here's his want. It's a guitar pick punch. You can use old gift cards, expired credit cards, etc. and turn them into guitar picks.


For his need, I got him some dorky Valentine's Day underwear, because who doesn't need those? And for his wear, I got him some new cologne, which is really like a present to me. Last but not least, I wrote him this blog post for his read. Sorry it's a week late, my love. Happy belated Valentine's Day!