Reagan's Valentines

I love candy.  I really love candy.  I love candy, perhaps, a bit too much.  All self-control goes out the window when I am in the presence of candy.  So this is why I looked at some other ideas for Valentine's Day treats for Reagan to hand out to her class.  It isn't that I am such a health nut.  I'm not.  But with all the allergies kids have and with the over-abundance of sweets my kids end up with, I tried to do something different for Valentines Day.  Besides, it is pretty fun to take home something that lasts longer than chocolate.  Because chocolate lasts approximately .5 seconds here.

With all this in mind, I came up with the following Reagan-approved ideas for Valentines Day. 

For the girls, we made some flowers out of pretty pencils.  This couldn't be easier.  With a clever tag of "Our friendship is growing!", it was a sweet girly gift.  Reagan was very excited to give these out and was disappointed we didn't have an extra one for her.

For the boys, I bought dinosaurs at Walmart ($.97 a package for 8) and hoped I could come up with some clever idea.  The tag was easy - "You are a DINOmite friend!"  Then the girls and I made a batch of green playdough so that the boys could create their own dinosaur island.  The end product is pretty cute and hopefully the boys will enjoy it.

I don't know if I will always go through this much effort.  Because honestly, yes, it takes some time commitment.  And while part of me really wants to just buy a big bag of candy, the other part of me has fun helping Reagan put these things together.  We like to be creative.  Also, have you SEEN how much a big bag of candy costs nowadays?!  I spent less than $3 on Reagan's Valentines this year and I seriously doubt I could have bought enough candy for her to pass out for less.

We had fun working on this all together (Reagan, Maddie and myself) and Reagan was VERY excited to take her special treats to give to her friends.