Blog a la Cart

Oh the things we do for our children! We’ve been in full on craft mode chez Cart in preparation for both holiday gift giving to the girls’ teachers and loved ones, and for various activities at school. Last week, we found ourselves crafting interpretive Ginger Bread people representative of the Cart family for Courtland’s school project complete with ribbon and glitter and sequins and fabric and yarn and… let’s be honest, James and I were probably more into it than the kids.

This week, we were asked to come into Sunny’s classroom to talk about one of our family’s holiday traditions. Sunny insisted that James share our family’s “squirrel tradition,” which began during his father’s childhood. For whatever reason, each of the Cart kids have a toy squirrel that they hide deep in the Christmas tree every year. The goal is for other members of the family to find your squirrel. It’s a silly, simple game, but one of which Sunny is particularly fond. To accompany said explanation, we decided to make each kid in the class their own squirrels. On Sunday, we went on a hike through a local forest for acorns and mini-pine cones (great fun for Sunny and Kaki), and then James and I laboriously hot glued 20 squirrels for the kids in preparation for today’s visit to the classroom. The first graders’ contribution was to draw faces on their respective squirrels. They didn’t seem to mind the excessive glue.

And so here is our squirrel army pre-visit to the elementary school. I know that I am going to miss this stage in my life so very much one day, however silly and trite it may seem. These are the kinds of moments and experiences that I’ll carry with me and cherish long after my children require help with a hot glue gun.