Sending a "heart attack"

I saw this idea on Pinterest - "Sending a heart attack" and loved it.

Valentine's Heart Attack

What a cute idea, right?  Send a box full of hearts to show how much you love the receiver?  Matt's birthday had been coming up and I knew that I wanted to incorporate something like this idea in his birthday box.  This birthday was the big one (the big 3-0) for Matt and I was really sad that we couldn't spend it together.  We (kind of) had a party for him while he was here and we DID get to have a Thanksgiving in August, so I hope that helped a little.  But I would have really loved to hug and kiss him and tell him how happy I am that he was born.

Instead, I cut out 30 hearts and wrote love messages on them.  Some of them were from me and some were from the kids.  We all wrote why we love him and happy birthday.  The kids really liked coloring and scribbling on the different size hearts.  And then we scattered them throughout the box and hid them underneath the other contents.  

Matt's birthday box

It went over really well.  He said that he really loved reading through the messages and didn't even realize how many there were until I told him one for every year.  Even though we couldn't be there, I am glad that we were able to make him feel loved on his special day.

Here are some other deployed dad ideas:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/25403185370779811/

*This one just had a picture with the caption - "Deployment ideas for kids- I covered a cereal box with paper, and I'll attach it to the wall and my kids can draw pictures or write notes to Daddy. Whenever I mail out something to him, I'll collect whatever is in the box too. It's a great way for kids to sort thru the emotions of deployment."

Send a Hug

*Even though this is originally planned for sending to a grandparent, I can totally see this being sent to a Dad that is overseas.  How cool!  And an awesome way for him to see how much the kids grow!

*We did a countdown too.  One chocolate chip per kid until Dad comes home.  We started it in the last 30 days because otherwise, that's a LOT of chocolate chips.  But you could always send an empty plastic jar (think empty Parmesan cheese shaker) full of some candy (M&M's, Skittles, Reese's Pieces) to Dad to help with his side of the countdown.

It is crazy how much you can fit in those flat rate boxes!  What other things have you mailed?

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