The Price of Love

Yesterday, Sammy finally got to his Valentine’s Day party at school, even if it was postponed due to the snowmageddon of last week. I gotta say, school parties are not what they once were, and by that I mean what they were in my day (which is considerably more recent than the Hub’s day – sorry, one last dig, loveyouhoney). Case in point, celebrating Valentine’s Day with your 20 or 30 closest (geographically) friends. I can’t remember any parents showing up, but maybe there was a room mother or two hovering around in the background. Everyone brought those little preprinted cards, which you’d sign and stuff in the box or envelop of each student that was probably an art project earlier in the week. There was probably a treat of some kind (homemade cupcakes delivered by one of those invisible room mothers if we were really lucky), maybe a rousing game of Thumbs Up 7 Up (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you truly missed a formative moment in your childhood), and that was pretty much it. Not too shabby, and not too taxing to the parental units.

This was a preschool party, and because of that, I am very afraid of what will be required in the coming years. I was tasked with bringing party favors. Favors, people. As if having a party wasn’t prize enough (I went with fancy pencils and conversation hearts, by the way, thank you dollar store). No fewer than half of the class’ moms showed up, and we had to run the show. The teachers just kind of sat back and said go. Um, OK, but I thought you were in charge. There was a nutritious snack and a sweet snack, store bought, of course, as is the directive these days. Gone seem to be the days of sending your kid to school with your lovingly handmade confections, at least not without a detailed list of ingredients and process, and a notarized statement that no peanuts, strawberries, wheat, dairy, meat, or actual food was involved in the making of these snacks. Sad. These treats were on top of the morning snack and lunch they’d already had that day. Did I mention this was 1:15 in the afternoon? We packed in a story, the multi-coursed snack (plus drink!), a craft project, and the Valentine exchange all into a 40 minute period. Just enough time for all that sugar to hit their systems at dismissal.

The Valentine Exchange. Well, the art project boxes remain the same (hello, tissue box whose full quantity of tissues I had to sacrifice for this endeavor), and there’s a fresh slate of character-emblazoned cards to hand out, but that isn’t enough these days. They have to be accompanied by lollipops, fun-sized candy bars, pencils, playdoh, or some other trinket that shows how much your kid loves the other kids in his class, even if he can’t always remember their names. Apparently, there is a similar requirement for Halloween, and since when to classmates have to exchange Halloween goodies? Isn’t trick or treat enough? The 3 bags of leftover candy in my freezer say yes.

Still, everything seemed to go smoothly. The kids enjoyed everything, even Sabrina, who was allowed to attend as my guest. She didn’t destroy too much, but her selection of Bob the Builder for the Valentine story sadly was outvoted. The best moment of the day was when the class came back to the room after we’d set it all up, and I don’t know who was more excited, Sammy to see the transformation or Sabrina to see her brother. We all sat down for the story, Sabrina and I just outside the circle, and Sammy reached back to hug his little sister. Cue the aws.

It couldn’t end that easily, tough, could it. After we got home, I was curious to see what Sammy’s haul was, so I started peeking through his box. Inside, I found every last Valentine Sammy (and I) had painstakingly put together. And so Valentine’s Day was extended yet again this morning when he brought them back to try this generosity business again.

As far as I’m concerned, however, it was the best Valentine’s Day ever. How could it not be with a card like this?

(A little Mardi Gras festivity thrown in as well. Sorry, Presidents Day, you get the shaft.)