Happy Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day! I love sparkles and bows, pink and red, hearts and candy. I love the gaudiness of glitter and the excessive use of ribbons.  I even like preparing Wesley's Valentine treats! I mean I bought her present back on January 10th!

So each year, I first have to decide on a theme. Her first year in school (2yr old) I did felt conversation heart lollipop holders, that took FOR-EV-ER, and she only had 12 kids in her class that year! So  I vowed to take it down a notch the next year. And I did. For 2012 I did a fish theme. I made her a cute little fishy love shirt and Matt designed fishy valentines and we gave goldfish cracker snacks.

This year I let Wesley pick her own theme. It was hard for me to give up control, but I want to instill the importance of following a theme early, so I figured it was time. I showed her the blog post from last year, and asked her what kind of valentines she would want to give out this year. I was so sure we would be doing My Little Pony or fairies or princesses. But she quickly decided she wanted to do birds!

I started scanning Pinterest and my embroidery blogs for bird valentine ideas and we went with the tag line "How tweet it is to be loved by you!" And I bought a monogram design for her Valentine shirt.

This was back in January btw.

Oh how the time escaped me. This past Saturday I realized I have to actually act on all the "tweet" planning. So I started with her giveaway treats. I had decided to do heart shaped bird seed cakes. I mean what 4 year old needs more candy right? So I got heart shaped silicone muffin pans, bird seed and clear gelatin.

First you melt 2 packs of gelatin in one cup of water, as soon as it dissolves you can turn off the heat and stir in 2 cups of bird seed. I double this recipe and it filled 12 hearts. After you fill your hearts, stick a piece of a drinking straw through the top to punch a hole for the string you will tie in later to hang it on a tree branch. Then you put them in the fridge to set for 2 hours.

Here is my first batch.

You can kinda see the little heart imprint on the bottom.

I did a little less bird seed the second time around, because the tops of my heart crumbled a little in the first batch and I wanted more gelatin to seed ratio. And the second batch did turn out a little more "solid"

Adorbs, right?!?!

I was so proud of myself for getting it all done. After all 24 were completely hard I popped them into plastic bags to prepare to staple the valentine on top.

Then it was Sunday, church..nap..Grizzlies Game...prepare for work week...etc. So I kinda forgot to do any other preparing.

Then, in a blink, it was Tuesday night. And it hit me. Wesley's class was having a "Sweetheart Ball" on Thursday (V-Day) so she couldn't wear her shirt on Thursday, she needed to have it by Wednesday. Which at that point was 4 hours away. So after bedtime routine, I headed to the sewing machine. Only I had forgotten 1. I had not bought a shirt to sew on and b. all my thread was in the guest room where guests were sleeping. Mom FAIL. I started digging through my blank tee shirt reserves to see if I had anything that could work ( and would just sneak very very quietly for thread later) and guess what I found.

The Lord provided a bird themed Valentine dress! My sweet mother had found it at good will years ago  and it just had a few ripped seams (hence being in my sewing box). I stitched the seams up and ironed that sucker. Bird outfit, done!

I headed back downstairs to tie strings on the bird seed cakes and staple the bags closed. So pleased with myself for already finishing them days before. Oh the pride before the fall.

I went to get the bowl of hearts and this is what I found.

They had MOLDED!!! And SPROUTED!!! GROSS!! 

In three short days, there was just enough moisture in the jello and heat in the plastic bags for my hard work to spoil. 

I was so very depressed. By now it was almost 9pm and it took 4 hours to make 24 hearts, and I would need to go buy more gelatin :( I just couldn't do it. I was too tired. And scared it would only happen again overnight. So I threw all my hard work out, to the birds (literally) and instead bagged up plain old birdseed for the kids to spread at home.

Whomp, Whomp :( Mom Fail number 2!

None the less, Wesley took birdy Valentines, and wore a bird love dress to school the next day to prepare for Thursday.

And last night we played fashion show to pick just the right "ball gown" and put in our soft curlers to prepare for the big dance today.

And this morning she woke to find sweet treats, a Valentine unicorn, and sweet blonde curly hairs. 

And all is right with the world, with or without heart shaped bird seed cakes and homemade Valentine shirts!