Gumdrop Cookie Flowers

Before my mother-in-law left town, she talked me out of my intended Valentine's project with Ernie- have you seen the hershey kisses-on-a-stick "chocolate rose buds"?? They're darling, and I used to make them for my friends when I was in high school, but they're just a tad advanced for a kindergartner!

These flowers, though, are not. Nana left a stash of supplies on my kitchen counter. A stick, two gum drop, and a chocolate cookie and you're good to go. Ernie whipped out a bouquet of these Sunday afternoon to hand out to family members that evening. Funny thing, she handed out flowers to my little sister's friends too, with the intention of making more the next day to hand out to the family members HERE in this house. Alas, she never made the extra two flowers, and so only she and Mimi got Valentines Flowers that evening, and Daddy and I got a promise that she'd make us some later :) Serves us right, though! My sister and I had a little Valentine party for the kids Monday morning, and I pulled out all the Valentine candy I'd squirreled away, so the kids could decorate their sugar cookies...which means I had nothing to hand out on Monday evening, which means an earnest-faced Ernie wanted to know "Why didn't you and Daddy give me a Valentine?" My party excuse sounded lame even to me, so this will just have to go down as the year I gave everyone a baby instead of Valentine's Day cards. I should have grabbed some leftover candy and put it in an envelope with a note, but if wishes were fishes, we'd all be pescatarians! (No, I'm not sure what that means either, but I say it to Ernie a LOT :)