Valentine Decisions

The weeks before Valentine’s Day rolls around we usually take a much anticipated trip to Walmart or Target and look through all the valentines for the style that each kid likes the best.  Traditionally, Maddie picked cute or funny animals, Ben looked for the Lego ones or maybe Spongebob, and Jack got whatever cartoon character struck his fancy the most that year.  After that, we’d head to the candy aisle where each of them would pick out a bag of candy so they’d have something to attach to their valentines.  Also, I would get a bag of red cherry juju hearts because they are awesome.

This year I found two ideas on Pinterest that I really liked, and I showed them to the boys (Maddie’s in middle school and they don’t exchange valentines anymore.  Pout.)  For one valentine, you take a picture of your child wearing a fake mustache, and then bling it up in Picasa (or some photo editing site) to say, “I mustache you a question….Will You Be My Valentine?”  It was very cute, but no one liked it. (You can click on my Pinterest button on the right, and then click on my Valentine Board to see both ideas by the way).

Jack decided he liked the other design, and I reminded him that if we went with this one, he would not be picking out valentines at Walmart this year.  I wanted that to be very clear, that once we made these valentines, he was locked in, baby.  He nodded his assent and signed a three page document that I had notarized.  Ben, by the way, still wanted to pick his out at Walmart.

Last Saturday, Jack and I went out in the backyard and took this photo:

And then I went to Picasa (which is free photo editing and storage---which is very convenient, by the way,  in that every time you open it up, it automatically uploads any new photos on your computer to its site.  I like that my photos are backed up somewhere else…just in case) and Jack and I made this using Picnik in Picasa:

Which probably still doesn’t make sense to you.  But check this out:

He’s holding the lollipop in his hand!  So cute.  The example on Pinterest had the child holding a Tootsie Pop which definitely would have worked better, as this lollipop covers up the words at the top and a little bit of his face, but he wanted the Jolly Ranchers, so that’s what we got.

By the way, after the boys and I picked up the pictures at the Walmart photo center, we headed over to the Valentine section so that Ben could pick out his valentines, and I’m not kidding, they had Angry Bird valentines which offered a bonus poster and Angry Bird sticker set, which Jack immediately decided he wanted instead.  As I was standing there holding the pack of photos we had just had printed out.

I pulled out the notarized Valentine Contract, reminded him of our agreement, suggested I would not be against suing him for damages (both monetary and personal anguish) and then I told him he could buy the Angry Bird valentines with his own money if he really wanted them, and he did.

When he got them home he decided he would give them to friends who were not in his classroom, like cousins, neighbors, and his Sunday School class.  So I did not have to sue him for mental anguish after all, which was a relief.

Ben picked out lovely Mad Lib valentines with Nerds to go along with them, which was very nice, except a few days later he made his own valentines with gun-toting army guys on them, printed them out in black and white, and told me he had decided to use his instead.  Which is fine except that I’m totally bugged by the fact that he printed them out in black and white! 

Will the mental anguish never end?!