Love Notes

I was remembering my childhood the other day, and how my mom would sometimes put little love notes in our lunch.  A little encouragement, and "I love you" was such a sweet and easy gesture that really let you know how much you were loved, even when you were far away at school.  I thought, when I'm a mom I'm going to do fun things in my kid's lunches too.  Flash forward to now and almost every time they have a sandwich I will use a fun cookie cutter and make fun shapes out of them.  Who could resist a dog bone shaped sandwich or one made of four puzzle pieces you have to put together before you eat?  Sometimes I will put random fun things they normally don't get in there, popcorn, giant marshmallows, one time I put a bowl, a baggie of cereal and a quarter to buy a milk.  They were thrilled!

So this newfangled notion of all day kindergarten really put me on the spot these last couple of years.  I could write "I love you" or some other simple note on a napkin, but my kindergartener couldn't read just yet.  

So I had the BRIGHT idea one morning to pick up a couple of different party napkins while I was at the grocery store.  They were only a small amount of money and there were so many themes to choose from.  

Just a small assortment of our fun napkin arsenal.  You can always add to it, that's the fun part.

Each day my daughters could open up their lunch and find a surprise face or favorite character to greet them.  They loved it!  I started stocking up, any time after a holiday I'd snag a bunch on clearance.  (Note: I try not to buy any with holiday words on them, I try to keep it generic, so they can be used any time of year).  Now it's been a full year and I have a cute little arsenal of fun napkins to choose from.  Like if we are wishing for a snow day I can toss in a snowflake napkin from last winter's clearance sale.  If it's their birthday I send a happy birthday napkin.  Who wouldn't want to open their lunch to see a friendly Hello Kitty or Minnie Mouse looking back up at you?  Anyway, just thought I'd pass the tip along.  I'm thinking they will be diggin' these surprise napkins notes even long after they can read the real "I love you"