I'm a big fan of the kid-made Valentine. Thomas' Valentines for preschool the past couple of years have been simple construction paper red hearts with drawings and stickers on them - very much made by him.
This year I wanted to somehow incorporate his photo. I think that in his class everyone would get a kick of a photo of their friend on it. I was going to do the same type of card as previous years and have him glue wallet-sized photos of himself on them.
What I ended up doing was helping him write 'For you' on a paper heart and held a 30-second photo shoot with him holding it. I just uploaded it to Costco and used a pre-made Valentine border to fancy it up a bit.
On the back (where I was going to attach cute paper, but got lazy), I helped Thomas write everyone's names (and his name - good practice!) and he chose stickers for each one. All in all, cheap, easy, he was very involved, got fine-motor practice, and I think they'll be a big hit!
I made these red fleece bean bags out of fleece left over from the elf hats (they're sitting on the purple playsilk - isn't the mottling cool?). Since I'm room mom for Thomas' class, I have an hour to kill at their class party. So far it's cookie-decorating, paper-bag decorating (to hold everyone's cards), and ... something... with bean bags. Probably just some sort of toss. We'll see! I double-stitched the bean bags to ensure that none of them break when tossed (or chewed) - at least not easily! :) Everyone can take home their beanbags, too.
Valentine's day is hard for Thomas. Last year he was sick, which was fine, because every single card had chocolate (he can't have) or red candy (he can't have) attached to them. Since he didn't really understand the holiday at the time, and his teacher understood his diet, she just tossed them all. This year I'm sending in GFCF approved candy for his teacher to switch on all the cards.
When did the whole 'candy attached to the Valentine' thing become mandatory anyway? Back in the day it was pretty-much cards-only for school, right?
(heh heh - Oh, wait I guess we did a candy one last year for Princess' friends - but, hey - it was darn cute!)