Okay, so before I talk about this year’s Valentines which I am super proud of, let me tell you about last year. Last year, on Valentine’s Day, I sent my 6 year-old off to school with her store-bought Valentines and nothing else. I should mention here that last year was was our first year at a new school. Prior to that all three kids were at a daycare together. A daycare where it was the norm to send your kids in with store-bought Valentines and nothing else. Was this the norm because all the parents there were working? Perhaps. Or maybe it was just one of those weird things where this is just what always had been done here.

So anyways, I mistakenly thought assembling these little store-bought Valentines once again and making sure they were all addressed appropriately (for three children) was more than enough work for a sane person to put into this holiday. I sent her on her way to school that day feeling great, until I got home and opened up Facebook.

There they were. Pictures of Valentines. Many pictures of Valentines from moms at this new school. Now, I certainly don’t need to tell you that you do not post pictures of store-bought Valentines on Facebook. Why would you? These posts were of clever Valentines, with attached accessories and candy. There were sunglasses, glow sticks, candy necklaces, baggies full of candy assortments, etc.

What had I sent my daughter to school with? Nothing but a piece of paper with some character. No candy or trinkets or even stickers. The horror (note sarcasm).

So we all know social media can make you feel like a total jerk sometimes and we all know that we shouldn’t let that happen but I immediately called a friend that morning, and I am embarrassed to say it (although I think it was mostly hormonally induced), but I was in tears about how embarrassing my daughter’s Valentines were compared to the others. There wasn’t any “object” with them. They were not creative. They were really really small. I knew my daughter would absolutely notice when she came home with “stuff” from everyone else (which she did) and I felt like I had failed this Valentine’s Day.

Lucky for me, my friend immediately talked some much needed sense into me, and yes, I now realize how ridiculous I was being, and yes I know I’m the grand scheme of things this isn’t a problem at all.

Fast-forward to this year. Now both of my older kids are in this school and want clever Valentines. But here’s the dilemma- I am not crafty or clever when it comes to these things nor do I have any free time to be creating Valentines. Let’s be honest, even if I did have some free time, I wouldn’t spend it on Valentines.

So what did I do? Two words – FREE PRINTABLES. Did you know you could just type on “Free Valentines Printables” in your Pinterest search bar and you’ll get hundreds of clever and best of all FREE Valentines. I let my kids pick the ones they liked best, and they were super excited about it.

The icing on the cake? They were EASY. Just download, hit print, and voila. I was amazed, and still am. My kids cut them out and addressed them. My daughter assembled hers and I helped my son and did the baby’s. I feel like a Valentine’s Day superstar – and it was so much easier than I ever imagined.

I am sharing the links with you not because there is anything wrong with store-bought Valentines (in fact, I like them the best because of the convenience), but because it is actually super easy to do these if it’s something your kid wants and you are looking for something that is actually easy.

We found these Pop-Rock Valentines from Hip2save.com, link here. My daughter could assemble these herself, simply stapling the card to the candy package.

Then my son picked out these bear ones, link here, from Ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com. I hole punched the package, and tied on these tags with this festive string I found at Target.

Because these two were so easy, I made these absolutely adorable ones for my youngest. I hole punched the top and inserted the lollipops. They are from thecardswedrew.com and can be found here.

You can find instructions for all of these on the sites via the links above. I hope this post helps a busy mom out there somewhere, and secretly, for the first time ever, I am the mom that is super proud of her Valentines ❤️❤️❤️