First Day

Here's my little girl going off to her first day at school. I had fretted over this moment for the past two weeks, afraid I would breakdown and cry. I imagined myself pulling over afterwards sobbing into my steering wheel while seasoned moms honked for me to move on. The truth was she didn't shed a tear and barely looked back as she walked away from me to meet her new awaiting classmates. As for Mom, there was no crying I was too filled with pride at my brave little girl to do anything but smile and watch her bounce off. This week we are only going partial days to get used to all the newness, develop positive routines and get acquainted with the whole school thing.

It seemed I barely had time to get home, drink a cup of coffee down and it was time to go get her. When I got to school I queued up with the other cars and waited my turn to pick up my pumpkin. Her new teacher walked her out to the car and helped her buckle up. As she was seeing to Tess's car seat straps the teacher said to me, "You have one sweet sweet little girl here". I smiled ear to ear so glad she made a positive impression but even more glad that she was back with me safe & sound.

I had worked it out with Dad that he would work from home and watch baby brother so that after pick up I could take Tess for a special Mommy & big girl cupcake. I was barely able to contain myself I wanted to know EVERYTHING about her day. Over the cupcake I tried to pull out as much info about what she did in her new environment. I guess I had thought I was going to get this great download but she was much more interested in having a conversation with her cupcake icing than me. Oh well. I guess that's how it's going to be from now on - Moms on a need to know basis.

Noodle Necklace

Today as I was cooking up T a big freezable batch of homemade spagettio's I starting wondering if she would be to young for some good old noodle jewelry making. I took a handful of the noodles I was using and got out some watered down paints and set her up for some pasta painting. She had such a great time. She put all the noodles on a metal skewer which was a great exercise for her fine motor skills and used a small paintbrush to color the noodles. After drying she applied glitter glue to some and she finished off the project by stringing them on some pink nylon cord. She was so proud of her necklace and I was so impressed that she tackled this project all by herself and the result was just adorable.

Noodle Necklace Materials:
Pasta Noodles
Water based paints
Glitter Glue
Nylon Thread

Homemade Spagetti O's
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup pasta rings
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cut fine diced or pureed carrots
1/2 can drained and finely chopped garbanzo beans
1/4 tsp garlic powder
dash salt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 grated cheese

In a sauce pan combine tomato sauce, veggie broth, carrot puree, salt, garlic powder stir until combined and hot. Add cooked pasta, beans, milk and cheese cook until heated through. Can increase recipe to make big freezer batches holds up and is good in freezer for 2 months.

Boy Toy

I'm trying to get a few more Theo posts up - but that little guy is hard to get a picture of. He's a fast one and always on the move, moreover any time he sees the camera or any other electronic device he beelines right for it. Anyway I managed to capture him with his newest little softie friend. It's really the first dolly I've made for him but I promise that he won't go without for much longer. Tess starts school and he is just starting to nap for longer stretches. When school starts you can bet I will have that sewing machine out and working double time. Here's a quick little guy I made for Theo. I used the pattern from the book "Softies Only a Mother Could Love". I modified the design to include an all felt face with machine sew details and a second side. The original is a single sided cosmonaut and I thought how lonely to be a space man without a buddy. So on the second side I added a one eyed spotted alien and now the two are best friends.