Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Superior Valentine

Tuesday was supposed to be Eli’s Valentine’s Party at preschool, and I was ready to do it up! Last year, when we got his Valentines for the preschool party, I wanted to get candy to put with them. Eric said, “No. The last thing the kids need is more candy. I’m sure everyone else will just be passing out regular Valentines.”

Well, apparently, things have changed since 1979. Back then (oh jeez – I’m old enough to say “back then”), you chose your Muppets valentines down at Gibson’s, signed your name and passed them out at school. So that is what we did with Eli.

They do it differently now. Valentines mean candy . . . and lots of it! When Eli brought home his little paper sack last year full of all of his Valentines, it was full of candy. Some had little Valentines taped to candy, and some didn’t even bother with Valentines and just wrote their names on the candy wrapper. Have you seen this? The Valentine candy now actually has "To:" and "From:" on the wrapper.

As you can imagine, I was mortally embarrassed as we were Eli was the only one who just passed out regular Valentines with no candy.

This year, I was not about to let that happen again. Not only was I NOT going to repeat last year’s Valentine’s debacle, but I felt the need to go above and beyond to make up for it. I bought cute little Valentine’s bags for each child, stuffed them full of candy bars and suckers, then taped the Valentines of Eli’s choosing (Backyardigans) to the sack. They were cute and full of sugar. Perfect.

We got them all ready on Monday night, and then went to bed. We woke up Tuesday morning to six inches of snow. School was cancelled. Are you f*cking kidding me?! It’s amazing that steam could still come out of my ears when it was only 2 degrees outside. I was not happy.

Eli goes to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since we didn’t have school on Tuesday, the party would be rescheduled for Wednesday – when he’s NOT there! Yes, he can bring his Valentines on Thursday, but that’s not the point. I don’t want him to miss the party! I He worked hard on those damn Valentines.

Not only that, but the school was also having a mothers’ appreciation day on Tuesday. After we dropped the kids off, we were supposed to go to the community room and enjoy free cookies and coffee. I want my free cookies!!

So, I am planning to take Eli to school on Wednesday anyway, which is not his scheduled day. What are they going to do? Send us home? I would like to see them try. Eric thinks I am taking this a little too seriously. Me? Take something too seriously? Never!

7 comments:

Desert Songbird said...

I SOOOO totally get this! You had me laughing and rolling on the floor with this one!

Yeah, the competition gets really stiff, doesn't it? You're gonna crap when I tell you this one: my kids are in 5th and 2nd grades. This year I HAND MADE (using my best scrapbooking technique) each card for my kids' teachers. Yup. No way any of those snooty moms in my kids' classes were gonna up me on this one!

I picked out the perfect photos and then thought up cute captions to go with each one. Ha! I AM THE QUEEN!

Mwahahahahaha!

Anonymous said...

I don't blame you at all! No mom wants to feel like her kid is going to be talked about badly. And as a former teacher, you go desert songbird! I would really appreciate such a nice gift as a hand made card!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Oh crap. I just PRINTED Valentines at home because I was too lazy to go buy them. And now I'm missing candy too? Guess I'll be THAT mother this year...

Sunrunner said...

You are absolutely NOT taking this too seriously!!! Zachary's daycare not only wants the kids to show up on party days whether or not it's their regular day, they expect them to!!!! I missed their Halloween party because it wasn't one of his regular days, and man I heard about it (in a good way)!!! Have fun!!!

Angie said...

Ha ha, same thing happened to us! I made 65 freakin chocolate suckers of which I could only make 10 suckers at a time since I could only find 2 damn heart sucker molds. Not to mention I had just gone grocery shopping so my fridge was packed and had really no place to put the molds.

Ok, so last night I spent 3 hours bagging each sucker, twisting the twist ties on, and then putting different color ribbon on each one. I have two classrooms to pass suckers out to so each classroom gets a decorated valentine bag to hold all the chocolate.

Lets not forget the arguing with my son about his awful 2nd grade handwriting on each card.....then we ran out of cards. So now Jacob has to beg his sister for 2 of her cards.

My hubby woke me up this morning with a kiss, a happy valentines day and let me know school was canceled because of the weather.

What? I went through all that craziness last night and we could have waited until today?

I missed American Idol for nothing?

Mo and The Purries said...

Hmmm - do you think Desert Songbird is just a BIT competitive???

Neila - you made me laugh out loud with this.
I can empathize. And the part about not getting the free cookies & coffee: scandalous!


mo