Ez's 1st Valentine Card Swap

One thing I really love about the blogging world is that you other mamas always motivate and inspire me to get into the holiday spirit. I'd like to think that I make an effort to make holidays extra special for Ez. I know my mom did and still does go out of her way to make us all kinds of holiday treats, and I look forward to getting those holiday packages in the mail even now that I'm in my 30s. That's definitely a tradition I want to carry on for Ez and this other little guy in my belly. But when it comes to Valentine's day, the most exciting thing as a kid was always making and exchanging Valentine's with all my classmates at school. Ez isn't in school, so I was thinking Valentine's Day would kind of pass unnoticed by him. 

So imagine how excited I was when Chrissy from Simple Joys Blog and Emma from Harper & Will organized a Valentine card swap so all the younger, pre-pre-school kids could get in on the fun too. Such a great idea! Ez and I had so much fun making Valentines to send out, and then checking the mailbox everyday for cards from our blogger friends. 

Be sure to drop by and check out everyone's cards:

Elin

Harper & Will

Elijah & Sage

Cash

Mac & Mim

Harper

Owen

Ashlynn & Kenley

Aria

Waverly Maye

Getting the hang of this whole "opening cards" thing

Gummy worms!

#reasonsmysoniscrying - Mommy did not unwrap the crayons fast enough.

Pretending to eat the crayons...Yum!

Ez absolutely loved opening up his Valentine's. I was super impressed with how creative everyone was. No two cards were alike! Ez was pretty obsessed with the crayons he received, and after taste-testing them and deciding they weren't that yummy, he carried around one in each hand for the rest of the afternoon.

When it came to our card-making, I wanted to keep things fun and simple. Anything with scissors is pretty much out at this age. I've had minimal success with hand and footprint crafts. Ez isn't a fan of letting me cover him in paint. He prefers to do that himself ;) So I decided to take a new kitchen sponge we had sitting under our sink, cut it into three different-sized hearts, and then let Ez go at some plain white card stock paper with red, pink, silver, and purple paint. This is pretty much the same technique we used when making our Valentine mailbox. Originally I thought I'd do different color schemes, like maybe some blue, silver, and green Valentines, but Ez started losing interest with the card stock and painting his legs and shoes halfway through, which I took as my cue to wrap things up.

The finished product.

Posing with his masterpieces.

Once he was done painting, and we had let the cards dry, I was going to have Ez put some Valentine's stickers on the cards. Quite a few of those wound up on the wall, the table, the carpet, and his clothes before I took over that task. When I was in school I always added chocolate hearts to my valentines, but I wasn't sure how well those would transport in the mail, and some of the recipients are a little too young for chocolate, so we skipped that this year. Instead I slipped a little sheet of stickers into each card, (so all you other mamas can have nicely decorated, festive furniture too - you're welcome!). 

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!