Psh, like I can talk ... since that banana pun was my son's Valentine giveaway last year. Haha!
Well, given that opening, I suppose you know what time it is!!
Let's get right into what my son brought to "school" this year as his Valentine's Day giveaway item:
Yep, another fruit pun. I guess I can't really help it, though.
First of all, you know I hate gifting candy at holidays like this. It's already bad enough that everyone ends up with the crappy sugary stuff like candy hearts, tiny boxes of Nerds, bad chocolate poured in the shape of hearts and lips, or those weird red suckers that try to pretend they're Jolly Ranchers when they're not.
But second of all, I hate to waste money on some plastic novelty toy that will just end up broken and in a landfill before the day is done.
So ... an apple. Makes 100% sense at Valentine's Day, right? Not really, I suppose. Which means I'm sure you're asking: how did this all come to be?
Well, right around Christmas, I started working with Shelly at Shell's Creations to whip up a bushel or so of apples. (Is 15 apples enough to make a bushel? I don't even know!) Being that my son so loved bananas last year, I figured the natural progression from a banana would be an apple.
And much like last year, I figured that this pretend food item would fit well into any child's existing play kitchen and actually become a usable toy worthy of escaping the landfill a day or two after Valentine's Day has passed (or if said child didn't have a play kitchen, I figured they could still have imaginative play with just a single piece of fruit. Why not?!)
After a little back and forth with Shelly, who was ever so sweet and friendly, I had a prototype approved ... complete with a gift tag. Then, much to my amazement ... within a matter of a few weeks later, I had these photos in my inbox:
Bing - bang - boom! Shelly shipped, the apples are already pre-tagged ... I'm done, right?!
Well ... if you read my previous post about Lunar New Year, you'll already know that there were some communication errors between my son's daycare staff and me regarding class headcount. On February 1st, I found out - SURPRISE - my son's age group class segment was 14 kids, but the entire preschool room comes together for parties, and that's 25 kids.
Knowing that there was no way Shelly could crochet another 10 apples and get them shipped from Illinois to me within one week's time, I called my sister's etsy shop on speed dial for some help ASAP. (I had avoided bothering her with this project up to this point, as I knew she was busy transitioning to a new job and various family things over the holidays).
Since I had found the original apple crochet pattern for Shelly, I showed my sister that same pattern, and within 3-4 days I had the apples I was short. Phew! Thanks seester!!
With the apple crisis averted, it was time to refocus on organizing the last half of my son's Valentine's Day gifting - teacher presents!! Since he enjoyed helping me wrap his teacher's gifts for Lunar New Year, I recruited his help stuffing glittery heart purses with lip balms, face masks, and fuzzy key chains (which he was quite mad about giving up, btw):
Then he helped me hold ribbons while I wrapped the bags in tissues, and it all came together to look a little something like this:
With everything packed up the night before, my son seemed excited for his upcoming party. But I can't help to admit: for several days previous, I was feeling very guilty.
You see, my son is at a tipping point where he is transitioning from a baby (where adults made all his decisions for him) to a child (where he should have some flexibility to make some decisions for himself). In beginning to plan his apple Valentine, it never occurred to me that I should take him shopping and let him pick his Valentine himself.
It wasn't until about a week or so ago that I was talking to a friend of mine who's son was born the week after mine. She mentioned that he wanted to pick out a Lightening McQueen cake for his birthday ... and then I was like:
But at that point, the apples were already a done deal, and I didn't want to let all that handiwork go to waste.
Thankfully, my son still loves his play kitchen, so he was pretty excited when he saw the apples the night before. And I knew he was very excited to give them out the next day ... as evidence to him singing "apples, apples, apples" the entire time he got dressed to go in the morning, and the ENTIRE ride in as well.
Lucky for me, my husband was on driving duty that morning. Heh!
Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment