Make Up Call

When Mitchell was in K-2nd grade, he always made a Valentine's sack at school to put all his valentines in. I thought it was kind of a cop-out. What happened to decorating a shoe box or constructing something hugely creative, like my brother's poster board size Pacman? He came to me last year, the night before the party at school, and said he was supposed to take a shoe box (nothing bigger) for his loot. I had not seen a note about this (I guess they figure 3rd graders are responsible enough to relay messages home), so I didn't know exactly what he was supposed to do. I asked him if he was supposed to decorate it and his reply was "eh, we can if we want". I asked him if he wanted to and his reply was "nah, I'll be okay" (whose kid is this??). Now, we don't buy a lot of shoes in the box (I'm more of a find-a-great-deal-at-TJ Maxx kind of gal), so the chances of me finding a box around the house were pretty slim. I remembered that I had bought a pair of shoes for Addison to grow into (thank you Famous Footwear cousin discount) and they were still in the box up in her closet. I gave the tiny size shoe box to him to take. As I waited for him after school, I watched all the kids exit with their extravagantly-decorated-bigger-than-shoe-boxes-box. I felt like the worst.mom.ever. I managed a craft store for 2 years for crying out loud, and I sent my kid to school with a girl's Esprit box for his valentines? Right then, I vowed to make it up next year. I am usually one of those moms who doesn't do their kid's school stuff (poster's, oral presentation cue cards, etc.) for them. I help them, but I really think it's important that they do it themselves. But I needed a make up call.

I present this year's make up call.

I know, it doesn't have a cord. I'd appreciate you getting off my back about it.


Thank goodness for Pepsi products being on sale last week.



To be fair, he did help, I let him think up the tin foil and cover it.