St Rose of Lima

Sweetpea's class was responsible for the All Saints Mass today. Part of this event involved dressing up as the Saint of your choice. Sweetpea (and 3 other little girls) chose St Rose of Lima. St Rose was the first saint from the Americas and is often represented wearing a crown of roses (which she used to hide the metal spiked crown underneath).

I assumed it would be easy for me to make a costume for this event. She just needed to be dressed like a nun with some roses on her head. Off I went to the local fabric store where I bought a pattern for religious costumes (nativity set type) since I think I will have a lot of use for this in the future. I also bought some brown and cream fabric. Now I was beginning to think I was in over my head in this endeavor (I only had 2 days of time left). My sewing experience is very limited, even though I own a sewing machine, I have never had the occasion to make something with sleeves. I went home and promptly made the easiest part, the crown of roses. Check, one task down and off to bed.

Thursday has arrived and Sweetpea is worried that she will be going to mass naked with just a crown on her head. I assured her that I would get her costume finished or at least pin material to her body. I set out cutting and sewing, piecing bits of pattern together and just winging it for the veil since the right type of veil wasn't included in my pattern.

I am happy to say that I was not up to 3 am sewing and that it only took me 3 hours from start to finish(including dinner and numerous interruptions) to make this simple nun outfit. I think it turned out great and Sweetpea was just beautiful!

Is it a conspiracy?

So just about everything you buy today is from a foreign country. I'm not one to particularly care where something originated from but with the numerous cases of lead from China, I do like to watch the labels.
As the new school year started, we began the search for a lunchbox. After examining every lunch box on the shelves, Sweetpea picked an adorable panda bear lunchbox. Attached was a large tag indicating it was "LEAD FREE". Oh good, at least I don't have to worry about that and we took it home with us.
That evening while I was removing all of the tags I turned the cute fuzzy lunch box around to find this...

Okay, is it just me or do you find these Fun Facts a bit upsetting? I'm all for sharing educational tidbits about pandas but did they have to make ALL the S's backwards? Isn't it hard enough for most children to learn the proper direction for letters to face? Why would you go and put something intentionally incorrect just to be "cute". I would assume the target audience for these are not adults who know better, but children who learn from what they see.

So is this an evil ploy to disrupt the American educational system? Probably not. I did write a letter of concern to the parent company though. I'm not sure I'll get a response though. They may not be able to read it with all of my letters facing the proper way!

The voice of an angel

I wasn't sure what to call this post. It was a toss up between "The next American Idol winner" or "The voice of an angel". Considering the response elicited by this sweet voice, I had to go with angel.
Last night was Sweet Pea's Christmas recital at school. We had the traditional yelling of songs from K, 1st, and 2nd grades along with a few mumbled songs from 3rd and 4th. There was also a very nice violin solo from a 6th grade boy and several songs on the chimes and recorders. The most outstanding part of the evening was when a small un-assuming little 5th grade girl walked up on stage to sing her solo.
This small girl had the only solo of the night. Her song was "Mary did you know?" and when she started to sing the entire room broke out in tears. The depth and beauty of her voice was amazing and the feeling she brought to that song was incredible. If you could have seen her and then heard this voice you wouldn't believe it came from her. Every person in the room was weeping as she sang of the wonders Jesus would do in his life. I even saw teenagers, who I'm sure were forced to be there, crying as she sang. When she was finished she gave a quick tiny "Thank you" and ducked off the stage. We all immediately stood and clapped as loudly as possible and this sweet girl burst into tears in her Principal's arms. She was so nervous to sing and she did a wonderful job.
I can only imagine where the years will take her and I am feel blessed just to have heard her this one time. I hope God continues to bless her and that her voice continues to touch people the way she did last night.

and the Honors begin to accumulate

Ok so I can't help but brag about my Sweetpea. If you don't like bragging stop reading now.........Ok for those who care (or are just nosey) Sweetpea has been awarded the Star Student of the Month Award. Yes, that's right, her first official month of school and she is already bringing home awards. She is one of 4 students in the ENTIRE school (that's right all 9 grades (K-8)) to receive this award. Her award was given to her for "outstanding service to others". So what did she do to receive this tremendous award that gets her name put on the bulletin board for all to see you ask? She gave up her seat in music class to another little girl. As the story goes, all the kids ran over to sit at the tables and once Sweetpea was sitting down there was one seat left. Another little girl (K) was coming over to sit there when a faster kid swept in and plopped in the chair. K was of course upset and began to cry so Sweetpea got up and gave her the chair she was using. Sweetpea then went and sat at a different table. Yes, apparently every now and then, little acts of kindness do get recognized (and miracles happen when kids remember to be kind). So I am writing this now so the next time she does something mean and nasty (not that my angel ever would) I have someplace to point to and say but look she can be nice too!

Elected to office already

Today is a proud moment. My Sweetpea has just been elected as class representative for her kindergarten class. That means she will attend monthly meetings with all the other class representatives to make all of those important school decisions like what kind of Popsicles to have at lunch. I can't wait to hear the details of the intricate workings of student government from the kindergarten level. I'm sure this is only the beginning of a long and prestigious political career. Look out presidency...here she comes.