Labor of Love.

 So, as a homeschooler I sometimes have felt like my kids are missing out on some aspects of public school.  One such being class parties.  But now that I have a kid in public school, I'm surprisingly apathetic towards them.  They don't really seem that valuable to me...however, the kids enjoy them and nobody's going to end school parties because of my apathy, so carry on.

This Tuesday was Nathan Valentine's party.  This was our first party that required at home effort: creating "the box".

He was told he could bring it Monday or Tuesday, but all weekend long no one even thought about it.  It was not high on my priority list, and apparently not on Nathan's either.

Then, of course, Sunday evening comes.  Nathan declares he's been thinking about his box and he thinks he would like it to look like Gandalf (from Lord of the Rings).

Alrighty I say.  I'm not going to stress about it.  But, I do realize that I also volunteered to bring some candy to the Valentine's party and Nathan doesn't actually have any Valentines to pass out yet.  So, Monday we picked up Nathan, stopped at Target for said Valentine's "necessities" and headed home about 4:00.

This gave Nathan two hours to create his Gandalf box before dinner.  After which he had Bible study and wouldn't be home until 9:00.

So, as soon as we entered the house it was game time.  I told Nathan he needed a plan. 

[By the way, I could find nothing on the internet for Gandalf Valentine's box, not even on Pinterest...shocking!]

This is what he came up with:

(I'm not sure if they were helpful or not)

I then told him find a box or two.  So, he brought up ten.  I helped him get started, but I had to work on dinner.  He was on his own, and I didn't have a whole lot of expectations for what Gandalf was going to look like when completed.

When he left for Bible study, he had a good start.  However, the hat wasn't quite finished and he hadn't started his beard.  Personally I felt like these were the two distinguishing characteristics, and so must be completed.  Nathan's idea was that I finished his box while he went to Bible study...right.

Obviously, I didn't do that.  

But, when Nathan got home at 9:00 he wrote out his Valentines cards to his classmates while I shredded paper.  Then Matt and I hot glued the paper on for his beard and hot glued the top of his hat to the brim.  It wasn't perfect, but it was finished...and Nathan headed to bed at 10:00.

Nathan was actually so pleased with the final result that he spontaneously gave me a hug and kiss and told me thank you.  It made every hot glue burn worth it!

So, here's Nathan and Gandalf, all ready to leave for school the next morning.

He thought he was going to win the prize for "coolest Valentine's box", but some kid came in late with an even cooler box and won that prize.  I guess there was also some confusion as some kids thought it was the wizard from Harry Potter.  But Nathan was still glad.  He told me there were even 5th graders that wanted to see his box.  I'm guessing the custodial staff was not as pleased since Gandalf was also a bit of a shedder...

I was able to volunteer an help with the party.  It seemed it was a success...kids exchanged cards, played games, and ate too much sugar.  Nathan did however describe it as "the worst party he's ever been to".  I can't win with this kid!

With all the cardboard lying around, Ella also decided to whip up a Valentine's box Monday afternoon.  

 

It's a unicorn!

She had plans too, though I couldn't find them to take a picture.  She worked very independently and finished it before dinner Monday evening.  I love it.