UR GR8. For realz.

Did you know Valentine's Day is coming up?  It is.  It's coming up and there's going to be some festivities at Hadley's school.  I was supposed to be a helper on that day, but I'm not allowed to bring the Harps.  It's OK because in all honesty, Harper would destroy the classroom and probably scare all the kids.

But I was in charge of getting white bags with handles on them along with Valentine's Day stickers.  This is so the kids can decorate their bags to hold their Valentine's that they get from each other.  This will be the end of their "sharing" unit, and all the kids are bringing in Valentine's for their classmates.

So I got the bags and stickers with little to no stress, but it's the Valentine's that caused a mild panic attack this week.  Were they always so tacky?  Oh, and the things they say on them!  "U R GR8."  Is it so hard to write the words out?  And also, who am I allowing my kid to say "U R GR8" too?   I'm sure all of Hadley's classmates are "GR8" indeed, but while I'm still in charge of what she can and can't write I'm taking advantage of this responsibility.

I know I wasn't the only one who thought the Valentine selections left something to be desired.  When I was at Target on Tuesday, this aisle was the most crowded aisle in the store.  All of us mothers were crammed in reaching for boxes and putting them back.  At one point I looked at the others' faces and I'm pretty sure I was displaying the same scrunched up face as they were. 

I decided I'd have Hadley make her own.

I'm really nervous about my decision.  What if Hadley gets to school the day of the party and sees everyone elses princess, Dora, Mickey Mouse,what-have-you Valentines, and then looks at hers and thinks, "THESE ARE SOOOOOO LAME!"  Case in point: I cannot STAND those light up shoes.  I hate them.  And yet, Hadley has a pair.  Why?  Because when she saw them in the store, and I saw her face as she tried them on and watched them "sparkle" (as she said), I had to get them for her.  They are so incredibly tacky, but she loves them and so I got them for her. What if she thinks those other Valentine's are super cool and she hates the ones she made?  I've single handedly ruined her very first Valentine's Day party because I made her make her own Valentine's cards.

This is my train of thought as I drove home from Target.

But we made them anyway.  I cut out hearts and glued them on some red notecards (with matching red envelopes), and wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" on each of them.  Then I got out some pens for Hadley to write her name and do some doodling on each one.

Look at those cute hands. 

And look how proud!

My mom is going to contemplate disowning me for writing this, but there's this scene in Eddie Murphy's "Delirious" (I can hear her now, "OH Callie, don't talk about that!") where the neighborhood kids are eating burgers.  I think they're from McDonalds.  Little Eddie wants a burger too, and his mom says she can make one for him.  So she makes him a hamburger and it's nothing like the one from McDonalds.  It's huge and there's grease running down his arm and I think he starts to cry.  This is what I'm imagining is going to happen when Hadley passes out her Valentine's to the kids.  They're like three times bigger then the ones that were in Target.  Will that upset her?  Will she think her pictures are dumb?  Will she wish I got her the ones with princesses on them?  Should I stop writing this post and head back to Target and get the "UR GR8" ones?

Hadley loved making her cards, and she can't wait to give them to her classmates, so I'm just going to not worry about it and eat cupcakes instead.

U R GR8.  For real.