Blow Me Away

Doh! I knew Valentine's day was coming up but I completely forgot what comes along with it when you have children in school. I'm not going to debate the merits of giving Valentines to a couple dozen people. Frankly, I like to give gifts when I feel inspired to do so. Luckily, I got a little inspiration just in the knick of time this year. 

When I dropped my kid off at preschool I checked our "school mailbox" and found a note with all of the children's names on it and instructions to provide something for each child. I suspect it was just an invitation...certainly not a mandate. Knowing that Michaels had a 50% entire purchase event last Sunday I suspected that the Valentine's day stuff would be in small supply today. I was right but I was also looking for something mechanically interesting to give (in lieu of candy). What I found delighted me. 

In the party favors section of the store I found 18 bubble wands and tubes by Creatology. Somehow "You Blow Me Away" occurred to me as a cheesy-enough Valentine wish and our Preschool Engineering Valentines were born. The are mechanically interesting, not candy, and easy enough to put together.

Bubbles!

My child can barely write his name so I knew mass production would be the way to go. And since all the mass produced cards were gone, we'll have to mass produce ourselves. I printed labels saying "You Blow Me Away!" and adhered them to some red construction paper. (Sticking stickers is something a child could help with but I wanted to get a picture of one for you ASAP.) I punched a hole in the paper, embellished with a sparkly heart sticker, and strung it up together with a bubble tube using gift ribbon. Voila! A bubble tube/You Blow Me Away/Preschool Engineering necklace Valentine...

You Block Me Away Valentine

...Eighteen necklaces for the low price of $5 plus some elbow grease.

p.s. Slinkys were also on my list but there weren't any affordable choices in the store. Maybe next year I'll order ahead...