Valentine's Day

We had a fun Valentine's party with the DeMartinis on Monday to celebrate this holiday of love.  We had heart shaped pizza, salad with red stuff in, fruit, and pink punch, then decorated sugar cookies with lots of pink frosting and sprinkles.  It was great to be together; the kids played, the adults talked, we all ate cookies.  It was LOVE-ly.  I took a picture of Blythe decorating her cookies, none of Brandt.  He slapped frosting on his cookies, then ate them immediately, before I was even aware he had done it.

A couple of weeks ago, just as February began, Blythe came to me and said she wanted to make a Pusheen the Cat valentine's box.  I had no idea who or what Pusheen the Cat was, but she checked a book out of the library and read it to me.  Pusheen is a very fat, gray cat who likes to eat and be fancy.  

She wanted her Pusheen to have a fabric tail, a hole near the bum for her to retrieve her valentines through, and a pink tutu.  How on earth she wanted to achieve this was almost more than I could imagine, but when Blythe has a vision, she is relentless in making it happen.  I just get swept up in the tide of action.  I suggested we make a papier-mâché body (as finding a round box is really impossible), paint it gray, use some crêpe paper to make the tutu, and perhaps attach a fabric tail.  That part was going to be tricky.  

We began ten days ago to do the body, using a balloon, lots of torn up newspaper, and modge podge, a pre-mixed glue-ish stuff.  We did a double layer, then left it to dry between water pitchers and under books so that the balloon would dry with a flat bottom so it could sit on her desk, and not be too pointy at the top.  It worked great, except we discovered we hadn't used enough newspaper and needed another double layer, at least.  So after two days, when it had dried completely, we did another round of gluing, then hung the thing from the dining room fixture and let it dry another two days.  Then we painted and let dry again. 

Initial layering of newspaper and Modge Podge

Books holding down the balloon which is balanced between two pitchers of water.

 

Very likely the most useful utilization of Handbook of Middle English ever.

The next challenge came in making the round gray ball look cat-like.  We had some gray cardstock, so we cut out ears and feet and just make slits in the body to hold the paper.  Blythe colored gray spots with a pencil, just the right darkness to contrast with the body.  She used a Sharpie to draw the face, and I managed to convince her that a paper tail would be adequate.  We then used the crêpe paper cut in small pieces to make the tutu, gluing them around Pusheen's fat body.  Blythe added a fancy pink bead necklace, and Voila! one Pusheen the Cat Valentine's box.  When I asked if she was pleased, Blythe said, "It's even better than I had hoped!" and squealed in delight.  

Phew!

There was a competition at school to see who had the best, most creative, cutest, or whatever box, and Blythe, who had her heart set on winning, did just that.  I'm not sure the valentines she received actually fit in the hole we had cut in the top, but Blythe was thrilled with the whole thing and proudly showed it off to one and all.  I was pleased that I could help her realize her dream.  

  

You might be wondering what Brandt did for his Valentine's box.  He used the same Cupid Yoda box he's had for four years.  We just store it in the top of his closet and he has reused it year after year.  So easy.  

I had grand plans to make a fancy dinner for the people I love, but I had a Provo School District Foundation meeting until just after 5:00, Kent and Brandt and scouts, and I ran out of time, so we ordered carry out Panda Express and shared Chinese food.  Everyone was fine with that.  Even me.