This afternoon Luke was finishing up his valentines for his class. It suddenly dawned on me that this was the last time we would be doing this. Once they reach 5th grade there are no longer Valentine’s Day parties. 

Ben and I have never made a big deal out of the day. In fact the only real present exchange I remember was our very first one about 16 years ago. I gave him a still life drawing I had done in my art class and he took me out to experience authentic Japanese food. His birthday is a week after so it’s more important to celebrate that. 

I really want to make Valentine’s Day more about how we show love and kindness to each other as a family (we all, especially me, really need reminders on this). Or how much our friends mean to us than just about whether or not someone’s got a boyfriend or girlfriend.  And in turn how those relationships make our hearts happy.

The picture tutorials are of the teacher valentines Luke will be giving out tomorrow. He pleaded with me this morning that he wanted something special for his teachers (and only just mentioned he has 3 student teachers, guess I can crank out some heart shaped headbands. )

I spent the day ummm…… I mean my downtime at work searching for the perfect pattern. I have ended up combining all my results into a final pattern that is 1) quick and 2) not too big. 

Round 1:   10sc in magic circle. ss to join.
Round 2:   5dc in 1st st.  1dc in next 3 sts.  1yr.  1dc in next 3 sts.  5dc in nevt st.  ss to join in last st. 
Round 3:    ch1.  sc into next st.  2sc in next 3 sts.  1sc in next 4 sts.  3sc in bottom point.  1sc in next 4sts.  2sc in each of next 3sts.  1sc in next st. ss to close.

I sewed on pin backs. They could be glued but I have this OCD bit about not mixing my glue and sewing. Oh, I’ll do it in a rush but I prefer to sew them on.  I then printed a great quote about teachers on to some card stock and let Luke sign them. Voila. Instant special!