permanent love notes

You can tell it's almost time for the boys to fly back to Pennsylvania.  In an effort to step up our efforts to let them know they are loved, we did a project we've been considering since before summer began.

I stumbled across the original idea via Pinterest (but I've since either deleted or moved it to a different board, because I cannot find it).  The concept is that you take a sheet of notebook paper and frame it, and then use a window marker to write a love note every day.  We've been leaving the boys occasional Post-It notes with little gifts (i.e. their favorite gum or snack foods) in their rooms, but we wanted more permanent displays.  Plus, I was home alone keeping an eye on dinner while Alan took the boys to youth group, so I wanted something extra to do.

However, because we don't have any spare/large photo frames, I decided to try sheet protectors on a whim.  It just so happens that we have several 3M adhesive strips and a dry erase marker (and I have more notebook paper than should be legal), so the entire project was free and took about fifteen minutes (mainly because I had to look for a Nerf gun so I could see the logo ... not that finding one around the house was difficult).

I wrote the boys' names on their permanent notes, using crayons in their favorite colors.  For T, our aspiring football player and chef, I made a bottom border with a football silhouette and a repeating fork, knife and spoon motif.  For C, our creative builder and strategist, I made a bottom border of a Lego brick and a Nerf logo (or what sort of looks like a Nerf logo ... if you really use your imagination).

Then, I slipped the notebook paper in the protective sleeves and use the 3M strips to stick them on the wall between their doors.  Alan wrote each of them a personal note and I slipped little letters in the tops--at Barnes & Noble today, C picked up a little Hello Kitty letters set for me, and they both requested that I write notes to them.

When they came home from chapel and saw the notes, they were both very thankful and happy about the projects.  And they requested new notes tomorrow.  We've decided to take photos of each day's note

I also made one for Alan, although I used markers instead of crayons.  Between the time I spent making theirs and starting his, he found the markers I had been looking for earlier.

I think it looks pretty nifty.  The words around his name are from my wedding vows to him. :)