In lieu of a birthday party...(glass blowing, anyone?!)

K's 7th birthday was last week. It fell on a school day so they celebrated it in class. C, Little L and I  were invited to partake in the event. It's quite a bit different in the grades than it is in kindergarten. Short and simple yet perfect - It brings tears to the eyes.

The class went outside to play afterwards and I snuck in K's classroom to place a little birthday muffin with a beeswax number 7 on top in her lunch. We also decorated K's locker as a surprise with C scrunching up her nose and whispering 'sneaky, sneaky' as we did it.

We also celebrated in our usual fashion at home (You can see how we celebrate birthdays here) and let her pick the meals - she chose pumpkin soup for dinner and a lemon cake as her birthday cake (recipe to follow soon!) She melted my heart when she asked me to relight her birthday candles after she blew them out  so that C and Little L could have a turn, too.

She received some much needed shoes and rain/winter boots from the grandparents (thank you!!), this sweet book and then her handmade gifts. Her Juan Diego medicine pouch was a hit and she has been wearing it every day since! She wore one of her birthday sweaters with her birthday skirt to school that day (no pictures of that today - maybe for KCCO) and then the other one (pictured above) when she got home. I modified the pattern I used a bit for that sweater. Notes can be found  here. That's the one that matches her doll's sweater. I actually planned on using that rainbow yarn on a sweater for C, but K fell in love with it.




















In lieu of a party this year we decided to provide a little learning experience we knew she would love.  Over the summer she became a bit obsessed with glass and asked us where it comes from. We told her and it seemed to add fuel to her fire. She was really interested in learning all about how sand can become glass. She just couldn't fathom how that could be true. I love child-led learning like this. I want to foster it and help it grow as much as I can. I asked some friends, did some investigating and came up with a glass blowing shop that was willing to teach young children. We set up a session and surprised her with it over the weekend. I think we could have knocked her over with a feather upon hearing the news.

She chose two of her favorite colors to make her very own Oregon coast glass float (check out the history on those. Pretty cool.) Her teacher was great and explained more about how glass is made without being too crazy scientific or over her head. She finished her float and then we were told to come back the following day to pick it up (so it could cool down). Afterwards we stopped at a chocolate shop for a sweet treat (not FOK at all but I figure once in a blue moon won't hurt us). K talked about glass blowing the rest of the day, even calling people and taking orders for future projects. We may have found a new passion of hers...










She could barely contain her excitement during Mass on Sunday knowing that we were picking up her float afterwards. I think you can see that she was proud of her work. We came home and promptly displayed it on the piano (what we thought was the safest place in the house from cats, dogs and little hands). Little L let us know that we need to find a new location, and fast!

Phew that was a long post! Thanks for sticking with me through it all! Happy 7th birthday to my sweet little girl!!
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In lieu of a birthday party...(glass blowing, anyone?!)