Legos and love

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I love the day for showing appreciation for our friends, family, teachers and colleagues. It's not really a day of red-hot love (sorry, Jer) and, anyways, I'm thankful for a husband who shows his love in thoughtful ways here and there throughout the year, rather than saving it for February 14. (Though I never mind a nice bit of chocolate or some bubbles...)

My blog is a little bit of everything as I chronicle life with two small children, a loving husband and one fat cat, living, working and playing in Chicago.  So that said, I present to you: Jack's valentines project.

After Jossie's birthday bash, Maria offered to help Jack with his valentines. I was grateful for the break from being crafty. And then I pushed myself into the scene in typical me style.

Maria made Lego-themed valentines with Jack, and God bless her patience for gluing all of those itty-bitty hearts onto the cards. We found creative sayings online.

(Gratuitous Pinterest moment.) Then I threw in the Lego-shaped crayons idea. I have five years' worth of crayons from restaurants, and I bought a Lego mold. A silicon mold is key to this project.

Before we go any further, I might suggest you step away from the crayons and call me, and let's get a drink instead. I'll go grab my purse.

You're still here? Okay onward to the project.

After the painful task of peeling the wrappers off of the crayons and chopping them up into uniform sizes (no one ever tells you what a pain this task is and how you're probably going to ruin your cutting board), we filled up our molds. Jossie loved helping with this, with her chubby little fingers. I adore those chubby little fingers.

Put the mold on a baking sheet and bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes or so. Let stand for a few hours and then peel the silicon mold away from the crayon. I found little treat bags for the crayons and used my new love - paper (or washi) tape - to affix them to the little red envelopes. And voila! Jack's classmates can now give me the stink eye for giving them crayons instead of candy this Valentine's Day...

XOXO