Keeping the love alive.

At a loss for energy and blogging fodder these past few days, so, to start, here are a couple of pictures that I came across while poking around in last February's pictures:  the door of the local Lutheran church, which has since been replaced, hardware and all, by a gaudy carved door.  A barn north of town.

And, from this year:

Valentine's morning, E asked for a pair of wings so he could be "Cupid, the love angel".  how could I not indulge a request like that??  Pinched for time before leaving for a Valentine's party, he agreed to a quick pair cut from a cardboard box.  Add a halo (the first made with beads and yarn himself, and this one made by his brother of pipe cleaners), a broken toy bow fixed with duct tape and Red Heart acrylic yarn, and a bamboo garden stake and he was ready to go.  Of course, shooting "love arrows" has a tendency to quickly disintigrate into mass warfare play.  I'm sure the bow shooting part of playing Cupid holds a lot of the appeal for him, although he is a sweetheart through and through.  Here he is, still at it, this afternoon, four days past Valentine's Day.

Paper, scissors (or, in this case cardboard and a box knife), glue, and a little bit of time and imagination.  These are the things that hold a lot of the appeal of Valentine's Day itself for me.

Perler bead style hearts, only they're the IKEA ones we've been using for several years now and still we're only about half way through the jug of beads.  I'm pretty sure (Yarnstorm) Jane posted a similar picture a few years back.

The party was with a couple of friends and their children who homeschool, too.  I can't imagine pulling this off for a classroom of 20 or more!  No wonder people buy boxes of valentines.

There was a fair amount of coersion persuasion involved, towards the end at least, in trying to pull off enough Valentines for 10+ friends, grandparents, and eachother, and all the out of town ones were sent out late, as seems to be the norm these days.

Comments

[Ellen]

How adorable. Love the corrugated wings.

[Cynthia]

Love the wings! When my kiddo wakes up he might demand a pair, too.

Public school sure does suck the joy out of a holiday! We couldn't finish enough homemade valentines for everyone -- and honestly he isn't great pals with all of them, so he can't see the point of the effort. Next year, though, we'll make one great one and duplicate it ourselves.

Another sad thing -- my son is six and already his classmates are saying that love is for girls, not boys. Fortunately he was not persuaded. But it makes me want to yank him out of there!

[Carrie]

My son's daycare sent home lists of all the kids for valentines. There are about 30 kids in his class, so 29 sets of parents went out and bought those cheesy valentines, signed them for their kids (the kids are TWO) and brought them in. We opted out of that little farce.
Sadly, no homemade goodies either - they're prohibited by the state regulatory agency. o.0

[kaetlyn]

what an adorable cupid you have there! he is really a darling to ask to be a love angel...that memory will warm your heart for years and years and years...

[Allison]

You are right, that type of request can never be turned down... I hope my son will want to be a 'love angel' one day - that's how I think of him now.