Last, last, last, last-minute Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's not like I didn't know WEEKS ago what our plan for class valentines was, but in typical Angie fashion, we were finishing them up in the car on our way to school this morning.

Yes, I could've taken the pictures WEEKS ago when we decided what this year's valentines would be.  But instead, the pictures were taken last night around 5:30.

Off I sent them to walgreens.com.  They'd be ready in an hour, but since I had a hot date last night, I thought it'd be no problem to pick them up on our way home.  And that would've been fine... if the store was open that late.  The darkened entrance was a dead give away that my lack of planning skills had once again done me no favors.

Walgreens opened at 8:00 this morning.  School starts at 8:30.  Uhh, no problem.  I scrambled to get four kids and myself ready this morning in order to be there when the doors opened, but we got there at 8:15 instead.  With the tape dispenser in the back seat and the girls' hands working furiously to finish their Valentines, we drove the one block to school and Emma dashed inside, just a few minutes late, but with adorable Valentines in hand.  Addie finished hers in the car on the way to school after MOPS while eating her lunch.  Some may call it rushed and bad planning, I call it teaching the the life skill of multi-tasking.

It looks like I don't need to worry about valentines for another 364 days!  Whew.

Last year their valentines looked like this:

In case you want to plan ahead and make similar ones for next year (you could start now!), they're a breeze to make.  I just hung up a sheet/blanket as a backdrop (optional). Then I took a picture of the girls with outstretched arms.

Next I uploaded the picture to picnik.com to add the text and hearts, uploaded it to walgreens.com to get them printed, attached the candy, and voila!  Adorable valentines that are cheap, super easy, and totally cute.
 

Yesterday I was ready to wimp out and do the traditional perforated valentines, but the girls insisted on these.  I'm glad!  The scramble and the effort are worth it.

Maybe I should start next year's valentines tonight.  Brody will be in school and I'll have three sets to worry about.  Oy.

I Am A Material Girl

Even though the Broncos aren't playing, if I think hard enough, I can probably name the two teams that are playing.  But I can tell you who's performing at halftime in a nanosecond.

Madonna is set to take the halftime stage at the Superbowl later today, and I admit, I'm excited to watch.  I feel a kinship of sorts with Madonna.  You might not know it, but I was in the Material Girl video.

Well, okay, it was a remake.

A long time ago when MTV was barely born, my 2nd grade music teacher, Mr. Dennis,  had us break into groups to create music videos.  There was a catchy new song out called, "Material Girl," and Jessica, Kristen and I were going to nail it.  

We had a couple of days to choreograph and plan our big video debut.  We'd lip synced our song a hundred times, our hair was perfectly crimped and teased, and our neon leg warmers were in place.

I'm absolutely certain we had no idea what the song was about.  Madonna's message of living an affluent, extravagant life was lost on us 7-year-olds.  I'd never seen the video and it was probably many years later when I finally saw it for the first time.  And maybe that's when it hit me:  our version of Material Girl was so... different.

For a solid four minutes, my innocent 2nd grade friends and I traipsed around our music room, bobbing our heads, dancing, and flinging brightly colored fabric strips.

Fabric strips.  You know, material.

It's a version you won't see Madonna perform at the Super Bowl show today.  But as I sit and watch her perform today with some like-minded crafty friends, it seems appropriate that a bunch of material girls would be cheering on the Material Girl.  

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!