oh mercy. the things we do to give our kids a thrill. no, seriously.

i'm a part of this great blogging group full of super, amazing moms. someone threw out the idea of a valentine exchange this year...and since i had never done any sort of exchange before, i was THRILLED to get the opportunity. i knew it was going to be so much fun for kaye...and sawyer...kind of sawyer.

so i signed up. picked the valentines i was going to send. ordered my supplies. i was ready.

well, after the supplies came, i personalized the graphic (more on that down below), and practiced my calligraphy skills on the envelopes...my valentines were ready to be dropped in the mail.

i packed all 26 valentines into a bag and walked into the post office...super proud. my valentines  sawyer and kaye's valentines looked so so cute.

that's when the postman punched me in the gut

ma'am. your valentines won't post for the standard rate. they are too thick. 

 so instead of paying 78 cents to mail 26 valentines...i paid $2.43. each. i about shit myself right then and there. i was like...you have got to be effing kidding me. no seriously...that's what i said to the postman.

long story long - i ended up paying over $60 to mail those valentines. do you know what i could have purchased with $60? yeah.

the silver lining to the story is - i've  my gals have received so many valentines from all over the country. i opened our mailbox one day to overflowing tiny packages decorated with sticker hearts and red marker. it was WONDERFUL.

i'm collecting all those tiny packages in a bag for the girls to be opened on v-day. i'm so so...so so excited. and i know kaye will be too. maybe sawyer.

and that's how their valentines day is going to go so so right.

but how is my valentines going to be so so right? hmmm...that is the question of the hour. come on farmer, don't let me down!

regardless...i'm here to show you how we made cute valentine's that were supposed to be ridiculously budget friendly...that ended up costing $100. ie. fancier than my wedding invitations.

i found our valentines on pinterest (obvs.) here. they were so simple and i knew i could personalize them in adobe illustrator. so i did.

i just changed the fonts, added the girls names, and enlarged them, so i could print two to a page...instead of four.


next, it was as easy as cutting each card out and taping the crayons to it.


guys - we're totally working on our cutting skills. i'm just surprised no blood was spilled.

for the crayons i just went on amazon and purchased four packs of crayola. i guess i could have bought a mega box of crayons, but i didn't want to have to deal with greys and browns = lame.

before i inserted the crayons // coloring cards i addressed all the envelopes. i'm not sure what got into me, but i thought it the perfect opportunity to practice my calligraphy. in hindsight, they didn't turn out too terribly, but it did take extra time, that's for sure!

#momoftheyear (or so i kept telling myself)

all my farmer kept saying was, "shouldn't kaye and sawyer be doing this?" and "is this how you're going to do their homework when they are in school?"

i'd like to say i responded sweetly.

so after calligraphy-ing the envelopes and then going back over each name in an attempt to make them look better...they were ready to head to the post office to see how much each would cost to mail.

i knew it was going to be more than standard rate...i was mailing three crayons p / envelope.

but when that man told me it was going to be over $2 p / envelope i nearly jumped across the counter. that's highway robbery! i was mailing children's valentines! good god.

what's done is done. i'm happy with the end result and i'm so so happy knowing that my gals will be beyond loved on february 14th. we can't WAIT to open all the little valentine packages the gals received!

a very happy valentine's day to all!

ps. i took off my gal's names in case anyone wanted to personalize this cute color by numbers valentine! just click here for the full PDF download!
if you would like to check out all the other gals i participated in this exchange with...i strongly encourage. #overachievers #putmetoshame

Tawnya, Scarlett, & Bodhi // All of Life's Little Adventures 
 Jennifer & Hattie // And Hattie Makes Three 
 Ashley, Waverly & Avalon // Being Brickner 
 Jess & Abbie // Being Mrs. Beer 
 Elizabeth & Mason // Chasin' Mason 
 Liz & Jude // Ellie and Addie 
 Crystal & Mason // Hall Around Texas 
 Desiree, Marcus, & Julia // Macke Monologues 
 Natalie & Blair // Nat Your Average Girl 
 Sara, Mac & Mim // Running From the Law
 Jess, Cameron, & Louise // Scott Family of Maine 
 Jessica, Cameron & Emerson // Secrets of a Stay at Home Mom 
 Sarah, Brantley & Holden // Seeing All Sides 
 Karli, Kaye & Sawyer // September Farm 
 Chrissy & Elin // Simple Joys Blog 
 Courtney & Aria // Sweet Turtle Soup 
 Meghan & Noah // The Adventure Starts Here 
 Stephanie & Connor // Wife Mommy Me 
 Whitney, Kinsey & Brielana // Work It Mommy