In a desperate effort to entertain The Dormouse when she was home sick last week, I initiated Mission: Valentines' Day Crafts. I have a ton of scrapbook paper in the house and most colors and designs are duplicates of ones that I have used extensively in one place or another and don't care to see again. The overages have just been sitting around for... well, years.

There's usually a party at her preschool for Valentines' Day and the kids do the typical Give a Card to Each One in the Class, so I had this fantastic idea to make these paper heart baskets out of the leftover paper and put a few pieces of candy in them for each friend, thereby getting rid of clutter in my house, saving money on the inevitable box of cards I would have to buy, and getting her to leave me alone while I was trying to work -- a la vez!

Well.

Let me just say that while The Dormouse was excited about it, I learned that weaving is just a tad bit over a four year old's head. She did really well with the first couple but needed some pretty extensive help from me, and that was like the opposite of what I wanted. After two, she started to get frustrated and I gave her the job of cutting them out only, which began to bore her after two more. Then, when she started another rendition of the Ghostbusters Theme, I let her watch TV. (Hey -- you listen to this a few times and see how quickly you want to turn on the television.) I ended up making twenty-five of these myself.


The real question is: should I tell her teachers that she made them or just let them think that I have waaay too much time on my hands and wonder why I'm never available to come in and participate in the classroom activities if that's all I'm doing with my day?

This was more her style:


In other news, I caught myself explaining the scientific method to my four-year-old in the car on the way to preschool this morning. I have officially become one of THOSE mothers.