World Book Day

The children's school is very big on the arts and literature, as well as sports. Some time you find that it's all about sports and the other areas get left out. This year for Book Week, they brought in two illustrators and an author to draw with the kids and read them stories. Everyone was very excited and came home with signed books by the Celebrity of their choice. Our kids chose Korky Paul.

Winnie the Witch books are but a few of the many that are illustrated by him. Avery, 1st class or grade, had Korky in the room during Art and she was asked to come up and draw with him. She was thrilled. Korky is known for monsters and quirky characters, so that's what they drew. Not Avery's favourite subject, but when asked to draw, she will.

So the costume that she chose for school was Wilbur the cat from Winnie in Winter. Poor Wilbur is always getting stepped on, but never leaves the witches side. So, Avery the animal lover, wants to be the cat.

Happy World Book Day to one and all. Curl up with the book of your choice and read a bit. You could even wear a costume if the mood strikes!

Learning to Sew

Daughter Avery came home on Monday and said, "I need a costume to wear to school on Thursday. I want to be Wilbur the cat." "It's Book Day and we're dressing up as our favourite character. " WHOA!! First, who is Wilbur the cat. I thought he was a pig! Next, a cat costume in two days, due to the fact that the only 3 fabric stores in Dublin close nightly at 5:30ish and it's now 4:30. OK, breath in and out. You can do this. Let's look in the house (or closet) of Fabric I have upstairs. Certainly we can salvage something from the costume boxes in the children's rooms.

We have ninja, dalmatian, pirate, Dracula, princess-o-rama and a whole host of other sparkly items, but no cat. Keep breathing... Oh look, here's some black fabric from the ninja. We found a black shirt. Black trousers from Dracula (a bit big for the peanut) but they'll have to do. Let's start with ears. Got the black hair band. Let get sewing. "Can you teach me to sew???" Sure I can. We cut out the ears and pink insides. Stitch pink down. Then sew together the ears. Stuff and sew onto hairband. She's a cat! Now, onto the tail, must have a curl at the end. Done. "Mama, the trousers are to big. Can you make me some smaller ones?" No problem. They take longer to cut out than sew together. Basic PJ kind of pants. Done. So at 6ish this morning she was wide awake, dressed and ready to leave the house. Again, WHOA!!!

Best of all, my daughter wants to learn to sew at the same age I stared. She also started knitting Monday night!! My girl!