The Day we Made the Valentine Box

Ian had to make a box for Valentine's day at school. It was due Friday. Thursday was the last day to get it done! First, I make sure we have supplies to make a box that is cute, yet not too feminine:

old shoe box...check
wrapping paper...check, we've got some red wrapping paper left over from Christmas
tape...check, three rolls!
decorations...we have tons of foam shapes, including hearts!

I do a little celebration dance inside my head for NOT having to go to the store.
"As soon as daddy gets home we will make your box, Ian," I say to my son. He has been bugging me for a week. He hasn't figured out that I am procrastinator yet. I have to wait until the husband gets home so he can take care of Kate. She's in that "seek and destroy" stage.
Husband calls at about 5:53pm.
"Umh, I have a lot to do at work with my project being due and I didn't get it all done...blah...bu-blah...blah...I'm not coming home until later."
I HATE these calls.
"How much later?" I ask.
"Probably after bed time." (The KIDS' bed time...this means I have to get them ready for bed and put them down by myself.)
I start formulating a plan for the BOX. We have to get it done...TONIGHT. Kate had a late nap because we went to Disneyland so she's in no way ready to go to sleep. In fact, she is in SUPER seek and destroy mode.
"Okay," I think, "If I put a show on for Kate, she'll just sit and watch that (Jacob, too) and Ian and I can get started on the box."
I get out the tape, the box, and run upstairs to get the paper and scissors.
I come back and the tape looks like this:



Thank you Kate! Now go and watch your show. However, she's no longer interested in Elmo.
I tell Jacob to play with Kate and keep her out of our way. I go to get more tape. I come back and the boys have unrolled paper across the room AND smashed it up! It's unusable. I trash it.



My blood pressure goes up. I remind myself it's just a Valentine's box. No need to get upset. Exhale... Luckily it's a long roll of paper. We get started on covering the box. We discover the shoe box has a FLIP lid. I failed to notice this little detail while giddily checking off my list of supplies. We don't have another box. I refuse to go to the store to get another box!!! I try numerous configurations before coming up with something that will work. By this point, I'm not letting Ian anywhere near the paper or the box. I put him in charge of the tape. Jacob wants to help with the tape. Jacob pulls off a gigantic piece of tape and of course, he scrunches it. The bright side: we're not out of tape yet tape and Kate is back into Elmo.
We get the thing wrapped, cut a slit in the top without too much ado. It's a pretty ugly box. Martha would cringe at my wrapping job. We begin to decorate. I'm actually letting Ian do it, too! We are glueing foam shapes on the box and monster baby comes back and wants to help.
"Heeya go, heeya go..." (she says things over and over until she gets what she wants) ...she's handing us shapes at an alarming rate. She's smashing them on the box. I try to put her down, she's kicking and screaming and the entire *huge* edition container of foam shapes falls on the floor. I let her play with them because it is keeping her out of my way. She sticks one in her nose. (Wish I had a picture, but I was BUSY!) The shapes are all over the house in a matter of seconds. How do things get messed up so fast! We found these after cleaning up.


In the end, we did it. It was a stressful hour or so...looking back, I could have planned it better, done it differently, but I'm glad to say it's over. The box is not great but it will do! Mission accomplished.