Mommy, Won't you be my Valentine?....Factory?

So a long time ago, lets call it 5 years or so, I forgot that Ella needed to take valentines to school, and as it was during the "I would rather pull my fingernails off one-by-one with pliers than go to the store by myself at night with 3 kids" phase of life, i decided we would just whip up some home made cards.
Having recently celebrated Chinese New Year, we had an excess of beautiful red and gold envelopes to use as raw materials, so Ella happily cut out hearts and other shapes and glued them on construction paper,....and she was happy.

Many years we have purchase the boxed valentines and happily sent them off, but many other years my very particular children want very particular things, things that don't exist for purchase, or at least not in my price point. 2014 was such a year, all 5 wanted very specific, very different things.

Ella wanted Harry Potter valentines, we almost went with "I love you more than Dobby loves Socks". but being 11 she was wary of using the word "love" when planning to give it to BOYS.
Happily she has a fondness for all things "mustache", so we went with the trendy
"I mustache you to have a Happy Valentine's Day"
(30 mustached lollipops)

Liana wanted to make elastic loom bracelets for all her friends, she had it all planned out, including the wording, "Valentine you loom my life up!" when I asked her what it meant and she couldn't answer i suggested we do some of those and then borrowing from Pinterest also made some that said "Let's BAND together and be friends" and others that said "Valentine, I'm so glad you are a part of my band of friends!"  Side note she said most of the boys in class said their favorite color was pink, (which was good because the craft store was OUT of red a week before Valentines day),  so we made most of them pink and white, and a few others purple and white, no two exactly alike.
(25 fishtail bracelets, mostly mom made in the evening hours)

Nina saw me attempting to melt crayons into star shapes, (mostly because I had a million old crayons and a nice little star shaped mold) and when I melted the ice cube tray, she was delighted to find I had a heart shaped mold that was indeed silicone and therefore oven safe, we came up with a rainbow of sayings, "Valentine you are the RED in my Rainbow!" (Orange, Yellow, blue, etc.) "Valentine you color my world" I am now down to only "good crayons" in my house, that will last at least a week right?
(24 heart shaped multicolored crayons)

Amalia had received a sugar cookie mix for her birthday and had been hounding me to bake her cookies, she was so excited to "Be in charge of my own cookies." so we baked them and she decorated them with M&Ms smarties, and love (fingerprints) When it came time to write up the cards she did not hesitate, she knew exactly what it should say and had one of her sisters check my typing to make sure I hadn't altered it, (so little trust from a 4 year old)
"I hope you like these flower cookies, I made them with my whole family and I hope you like them for my Valentines sweet!                       
  Love Amalia"

The only deviation she allowed was for one classmate with an egg allergy, we put a mandarin orange in the bag and the words "Happy Valentines Day, You are a real CUTIE!" Which she said was OK because "He really is so very cutish"

(14 cookies in 7 bags)

AJ didn't care what the valentines were as long as they were "with superheroes but not spiderman or hulk"  Pinterest to the rescue, though technically I was supposed to cover the lollipops in colored tissue first, Superman logos on top (I used someone else's cupcake topper printable) and the words "I hope you have a SUPER Valentines day!" on the bottom, I eyeballed the shape and size of the first one and used it as a pattern for the rest.

(7 superpops)

Eddie and the kids got handwritten notes, gummy candies, and exploding expressions of my love for them, my creative juice and free time ran out, but we still had fun a fun start to our day, which as a gift from the District was a day off of school, so we went to Arcadia, to Moffat's Chicken Pie Shoppe for lunch  they opened the same year Eddie was born, I don't think they have redecorated since, and I'm glad they havent messed with the recipes, Eddie's Grandfather used to take him there, often walking there and back, the pot pies and bread were delicious, superseded only by the boysenberry pie which was perfection.  

As a bonus, we got to have dinner with Eddie's parents and Sister Tammy & family (lots of cousins), not the "Romantic" event the corporate sponsors were looking for, but a lot less headache and logistics, and a lot more fun.

I hope your Valentines Day was fabulous, and thanks to Growing up Hui for the shout out call to action.