Happy Heart Day

Olivia insisted on making valentines for her class. "Are you sure?" I asked her knowing that 18 valentines is a lot for one little girl. Just asking her to write her name 18 times was going to be enough of a challenge. She looked at me and said, "Umm. Yes. I can make that many," she answered. She had this look on her face like "how else are we going to do it? Buy them? NEVER!" I can't blame her. She gets it from me.
She was so excited to do it and came up with her own idea. Her pictures were getting really sloppy because she had to make so many of them. I kept telling her to slow down so that they would look nice. I was watching and hoping that the kids in her class weren't going to make fun of her little drawings of lopsided hearts. When Joey came home, he looked at them and noted the rushed look of the drawings. "You don't think the kids will make fun of them because they're not some cool valentine?" But this is what Olivia had her heart set on.
I helped at her class party today and as the kids were looking at their valentines so many kids were shouting out. "Wow, Olivia! You drew me!" and "Olivia made me a picture!" and "Thanks for the picture Olivia!" Others were just holding them in their hands and smiling. I was touched the kids felt so special receiving something that a little girl put her heart into. Hers were the only handmade valentines and she did them all herself. (I did help cut them out.) I'm glad that I didn't talk her into buying something else. After I looked at them all together, they really did look cute.