Valentine's Day 2024

My Valentine from Billy came a while before the actual day.  Sometime in mid-January I found a flour mill!!! It was $8, but considering how expensive they are new, I was not sad at all.

I was really excited to get it home and use it.  I washed it, and dried it, then fed through some dried rice to clean it out.  Sadly, it was only putting out ground sized grains.  I tightened it several times, and then called Billy over to help me.  Sadly, when he used a tool to get it even tighter, the metal frame snapped in two. = ((((((

Well, once that happened, I finally knew what I wanted for Valentine's Day!  So, Billy spent time researching and reading reviews, and finally settled on this lovely flour mill, and it was even red!  So, Happy Valentine's Day to me! = )

Grace decided to make her own Valentine cards this year, so she painted some rocks (seriously, rocks are perfect for every occasion!) and added each student's first initial. = )  She then added some kisses into a black foam container. I'm going to try to recreate it next week, so that I can include a picture here, but if I forget, just know that it was cute!

{{edit 3-27-24:  She recreated it!!!  Super cute. = )

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Juliet also gave out kisses, but used some of the cards from the stash I've been collecting since Alice's preschool years!

For Billy's Valentine, I used some cardboard and box board that was in the recycling cart at Aldi to make a large heart box.  I ordered some Valentine Reeses from BJs, but they gave me Easter eggs instead. = (

At least they taste the same!

I ended up using quite a bit of tape, but made some good headway in my audio book Happy-Go-Lucky while creating it!  At the time of writing this, I've stashed it away in the Valentine's Day tub to use again next year. = )

Grace and Juliet received some sweet Valentine wishes from their Sunday School Class.

I signed up to bring some 'simple' treats for the twins' class celebration: Cute little tic-tac-toe boards, and smiley face pancakes!

Breaking the graham crackers went well!

But the icing claimed one of my whisks, by pulling out the tines. = (  It was a little thick, so my hands and arms were really tired by the time I finished the lines, and completely done when it was time to stick on the hearts!

But, they came out really, really cute!

The pancakes were easy peasy, 

but the oreos kept crumbling when I tried to cut the mouths. = (

After fighting the oreos for 30 minutes or so, and destroying more than ones that I could use, I thought I'd try to soften them by using some bread.

It worked really well!  I was able to fill my container, and then some!  

I assembled two samples at the top of the pan*, so that the students would know what to do with the candies and cookies, but sent the candies and semi-circular cookie pieces separately.

On Valentine's morning, which fell on a Wednesday this year, everyone had a box** of Aldi Chocolates, a roblox card, and a McDonald's squishmallow from us, and a card with duck or slinky from Avia. = )

When Sarah sent a picture of her Valentine, Archie, I of course had to recreate the photo with my Valentine! = )

And all of my cute handmade Valentines from the kids. = )

It was a fairly lowkey day, but we missed having my mom around, since historically she is with me (wherever that may be!)  Maybe we'll have her again next year.

later days

 *I was really excited to get a second life out of the cake walk pans the kids got at the snowball dance!

**I also kept these boxes to refill next year!

3-2-24 edit: backdated for continuity.