Fixing the long name curse - at least for Valentine's Day

My boys are like night and day - their interests, their coloring, the length of their names...  Ean was blessed with three easy letters, they fit easily just about anywhere.  Nathanael on the other hand - and no, he's not a Nate or Nathan, don't even try - has nine letters.  For a four-year-old trying to write that nine lettered name on valentines, that's a new kind of torture ... for us, too!

So I've fixed it so that mistakes can be made and I don't have to run to the drugstore to buy another pack of valentines.

Clear mailing labels, address size.  Godsend.  Clear really is best for this because whatever your child sticks the sticker on top of will still be able to be seen.

Take a sheet of labels ... lightly with pencil write your child's name.

He knows all capitals best right now, so we ran with those.

Then let your child trace his/her name with whatever color crayon works for the color paper s/he'll be applying it to (don't use yellow crayon for a yellow paper - we learned that is a no-go).

Then peel it off.

And stick it onto the valentine!  

We did learn with certain paper (the glossy, probably not great for the environment store-bought valentines that are being delivered this year) that the labels will pull back up to be rearranged or to get bumps and bubbles out.  This isn't guaranteed on all kinds of paper, but that glossy stuff sure allowed for multiple rearrangement of the labels, quite easily, too - since it was the four-year-old who did it!

Hopefully I've posted this so that all of the other parents who have long-named kids can run to their office supply store and pick up some clear mailing labels tomorrow during lunch and get those valentines done tomorrow night before the big day!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a blessed week!

~Nicole