Fancy Hair Duds

A friend of mine brought to my attention hairbands that were supposed to be non-slip.  I thought Penguin Girl could use something like that because she always seems to have hair falling into her face, but I was definitely not intrigued enough to spend $20.  I'm way too cheap for that.  My bargain-hunting friend was also not inclined to buy a $20 hairband.  Instead, she purchased a few from an Etsy seller.  Once she received them and described them to me, I decided to try making some myself.

I bought some fancy ribbon from a website that sells really cute fabric and notions.  This was the most extravagant part of the supplies.  Each hairband probably used about $1.50 worth of woven ribbon.

I also bought some black elastic from Etsy.  I got yards and yards for a couple bucks.  I now have enough elastic to make at least 3 dozen headbands.  Supposedly the secret to the non-slippiness is to have a velvet ribbon on the underside of the hairband.  I bought some from another Etsy seller in colors to match the fancy ribbon.  

The only wrinkle in buying the patterned ribbon that I chose is that it is imported from Europe and is made to metric measurements.  The velvet ribbon is domestic and made to English measurements so the widths do not match exactly.  I decided to buy 5/8" velvet ribbon to go with the slightly narrower 15mm woven ribbon.  You can see the color of the velvet along the edges as if there is a border but since the colors coordinate, it looks fine.

I used my sewing machine for this project.  I picked multi-colored metallic embroidery thread for the stitching that shows and used a fine white rayon thread in the bobbin.

I measured Penguin Girl's head and figured that to hide the elastic, I'd need about 14" of ribbon, but I cut an extra half inch to have enough to tuck the raw edge away.  I used 6" of the elastic to have enough extra to sandwich firmly between the ribbon.

I really dig the girl superhero ribbon.  Go Girl Power!

You want to fold the raw edge of the ribbon under to keep it from fraying.

You do the same to the velvet ribbon then put the two together with the wrong sides facing each other.

Then, insert one end of the elastic into the sandwich.

Keeping all the layers together, I ran the end through my sewing machine and went back a forth a few times to  really secure the elastic in there.

Then, I raised the presser foot, gave the ribbon a 90 degree turn, and stitched down the side.  You can use pins to keep the ribbon from slipping from side to side but I'm lazy so I didn't do that.  

When you get to the other end, you have to fold in the edges of the ribbon and insert the other end of the elastic.  The elastic is flat so make sure it's not twisted when you sandwich it between the ribbon.  Do another 90 degree turn and sew the elastic in place.

After you sew the elastic in place, turn another 90 degrees and sew the remaining side of the ribbon.

After you trim off the threads, it's done!  This one ended up being about 19" around which is about what I was aiming for as Penguin Girl's head is a couple inches larger.

The spots where the elastic meets the ribbon is reasonably tidy but it will be hidden by Penguin Girl's hair anyway.

The thin white thread I used for the underside was not too obtrusive on the velvet even though it is a contrasting color.  It sort of disappears into the velvet.

I think the metallic thread worked nicely with the multi-colored ribbon.

I also realized a few days after I finished making the hairbands out of ribbon that I could make my own ribbon with fabric scraps!  I have a little tool that makes bias tape, which comes in very handy for finishing quilts.  I used a bit of cotton fabric to make bias tape that ended up being slightly wider than the 5/8" velvet.  The results were just as pretty but it drops the cost of the hairband down to well under a dollar compared to just over $2 for the ribbon only version.  Much more palatable than $20!

Overall, I'm pleased with the result.  I made five of these for Penguin Girl and now they are the only hair accessories she wears.  Not surprisingly, the one she wears the most often is made from, you guessed it, penguin ribbon.

Piano Recital

Yesterday Penguin Girl attended her first piano recital.  But she did not perform.  Ms. R, her piano teacher, has been trying to get her to agree to perform at a recital for months.  She first suggested it quite a while ago when Penguin Girl finished the first Suzuki book.  Penguin Girl would not agree.  

  

She has now been taking lessons for about a year and she has progressed very quickly.  Ms. R is trying a different strategy.  She invited us to attend a recital at her own piano teacher's house where Penguin Girl could listen to students of all different ages and skill levels, hoping that if Penguin Girl saw what it was like, she would not be so anxious.  However, Penguin Girl being the worrier that she is, was even anxious about going to watch.  She thought we would somehow trick her into playing.

We went, we listened, and we heard lots of music.  Penguin Girl saw that you do not have to play perfectly.  In fact, older students made some mistakes just like younger students and everyone plays at their own pace.  We concluded with a reluctant agreement that she would perform at the next recital on December 5th and Ms. R even suggested that she could choose an easier piece from Book 1.  Stay tuned.

Social Consciousness

I took Penguin Girl shopping over the weekend.  Our mission was to buy gifts for Car Guy's secretary and Mr. Destructo's teachers.  We went to the Body Shop because Car Guy bought a couple of Groupons (spend $20 and get a voucher for $40 of merchandise).  I have always known the Body Shop to promote various social and political issues but I was not aware of one of their current campaigns.

Penguin Girl:  Mom, what's sex trafficking?

Me:  What?  What did you ask?  Where are you looking?  (mind racing, trying to buy time)

Salesgirl:  (whispers) Sorry!

Penguin Girl:  Sex trafficking.  It says sex trafficking up there.  (points to an absolutely massive poster on the wall behind the check out counter where we are standing)

Me:  Well, um, that's when, um, hmmm, bad people kidnap women and children and, uh, do bad things to them.

Penguin Girl:  I would not allow that.  If someone tried to take me, I would say no!  Because you are not supposed to go with strangers . . . (yada-yada, Penguin Girl does not pay any attention to my conversation with the salesgirl)

Salesgirl:  Nice save!  

Me:  Yes, you never picture this happening when you are so happy your kid has learned how to read.

Happy Halloween!

Whew!  What a day!  Lots of excitement since it's also Mr. Destructo's birthday.  Penguin Girl has sort of been enjoying Halloween all month long since we have our Halloween countdown house and there is a little door to open each day to reveal the treat that the Halloween Fairy has left.  This year, the Halloween Fairy has not been as diligent in making sure to leave a treat each night.  She gets distracted because of her new part-time teaching gig.  Sometimes her helpful assistant remembers and other times Car Guy and I have just told Penguin Girl that Mr. Destructo got there first and consumed the treat.

In any event, Penguin Girl been looking forward to trick-or-treating.  I offered to make her a costume so that she could look like a slice of pizza.  She turned me down and opted to wear the purple fairy outfit from her dress up collection.  for the past few years, Penguin Girl has left most of her candy out for the Halloween Fairy.  In exchange, the Halloween Fairy leaves a gift.  This year, Penguin Girl actually considered leaving all her candy because think of how great the present would be.  But, alas, candy is hard to resist.  Penguin Girl ended up choosing 3 candies to keep for herself.

After the kids were in bed, I went to replace the candy with The Black Book of Buried Secrets, the latest in the 39 Clues series.  I saw that Penguin Girl left an envelope in the basket along with the candy.  Inside the envelope were many handmade coupons, goofy doodles, and a note to the Halloween Fairy.  The interesting thing about this note is that you can see my writing on one side.  It is the same note that I wrote to Penguin Girl last year.  She wrote a response on the other side and kept it for this whole year so that she could give it back to the Halloween Fairy.  Car Guy and I roll our eyes all the time about how scattered Penguin Girl can be.  I guess she just chooses to remember the really important stuff.

Scuppernongs and Muscadines

One of my favorite things about the South is getting to eat muscadine and scuppernong grapes at the end of the summer.  They are not available outside of the South and the season is fairly short, September to early October.  I love how the grapes are sweet and fruity and floral at the same time.  Usually, I like the dark purple muscadines the best, but this year, I think the golden green scuppernongs have won me over.  Penguin Girl and I have gone to Lockman Vineyard twice this month to pick the grapes right off the vine.  The first visit, I kept asking Penguin Girl if she was ready to go and she kept saying she wanted to pick more.  By the time she was done, we had almost 20 pounds of grapes!  That took a while to eat.  On our second visit, the grapes were more ripe so there were lots of bees buzzing around the vines.  Penguin Girl was intimidated by the bees so she didn't pick nearly as much.  We took a little over 10 pounds home.  The smaller haul worked out well because we needed to finish them faster since they were more ripe.  I'm hoping to squeeze in one more trip before the season is over.

How did this happen?

I am officially a soccer mom.  However, I'm a slacker soccer mom.  I got Penguin Girl out the door early so that we could get a reasonable parking spot for her 8:30am soccer game.  I was warned by another mom to do this if I didn't want to end up parking at the school next to the park and having a long hike to the field.  Although this is the first year that Penguin Girl is participating in an organized sport, I knew enough to bring a folding lawn chair.  I also brought a book.  I thought, we will be there for almost 90 minutes, I have had a tough week conferencing with each of my students, what a good opportunity to catch up with some leisure reading.  Apparently, that is not part of the program.

I started reading when the girls were warming up.  Right before the game started, I heard the mom next to me call her daughter over and say, "Ok, go have fun and play hard.  Remember, go out and take that ball away.  Don't wait for it to come to you.  You go and get it!  Take it away!"  (The girl did have the sense to ask if she should listen to her mom and try to take the ball from her teammates.)  I did not give Penguin Girl any sort of pep talk.  This woman could be counted on to shout, "Get it!  Get it!" each time her daughter got anywhere near the ball.  I did not cheer.  The mom on the other side of me grabbed my arm at one point to tell me that Penguin Girl just blocked the ball from going into the net.  Super.  It's not that I'm not interested in how my kid is playing.  I just don't need to watch every second she's on the field.  She's having fun whether I am watching or not.

I saw Penguin Girl score a very slick goal and gave her two thumbs up.  She said she scored twice but I think the second time that she's counting may have been when she kicked the ball into an opposing player and it bounced around and then rolled into the net.  Her team, the Fireballs (the girls voted on that), won 8-5.

She got a job!

Today on the way home from school, I took Penguin Girl to mall.  Normally I try to avoid the mall because retail is for chumps.  But I forgot that she's supposed to have some dance slippers for the Chinese dance class that is being offered after school once a week starting tomorrow.  I heard the Payless at the mall carries them.  As soon as we walked into the mall, a woman approached us and asked if Penguin Girl would like to participate in a marketing survey about cartoon characters and earn $7.  I left it up to her.  She said yes and about 10 minutes later, she walked out with $7.  Her first paying job!

I'm taking one of the dollars to put in a frame for her.  How dorky is that!

A Really Big Day

Last summer, Penguin Girl was terrified of the water.  I had Ms. R come three times a week to give Penguin Girl lessons in our neighbor's pool.  It took at least half the summer before she could get through a lesson without breaking out in tears.  This summer, she has come so far that she has been spending a lot of time during lessons learning the breast stroke and butterfly.  Amazing.  Finally, Car Guy convinced Penguin Girl to try to do the swim test at the aquatics center.  To pass the test, you have to swim 25 meters freestyle and then you are rewarded with a blue wrist band.  The band tells the lifeguards that you have passed the test and are entitled to use the giant waterslide that runs into the outdoor pool.  It also lets you use the Olympic sized pool rather than the shallow lap pool where lessons are held, but that's nothing compared to access to the big slide.

Penguin Girl did it!  She passed on her first try.  She was nervous about having to swim in the big pool because it's so deep but she said it was easy to swim the 25 yards.  But now there are only 2 more weekends left when the outdoor pool will be open.  She will have to pack a lot of sliding into that time.

Flower Report

If you recall, we gave square foot gardening a try this summer.  The edible plantings did less than spectacularly.  The squares are wildly overgrown, yet I have only gotten a couple of cherry tomatoes and neither of them was worth eating.  The radishes were way too pungent and spicy and the bell peppers got attacked before I was able to harvest any.  I did get a ton of basil, regular and purple, and I've frozen two gallon bags worth.  Penguin Girl's flowers have done better.  Despite having to re-plant three times because of critters eating the seeds, we now have a few pretty sunflowers.  Her wildflowers also came up.  The morning glory looks like it still needs a little time to get more viney and flowery.

First Day of Second Grade

Another year!  Penguin Girl is starting second grade this year.  We are carpooling with her friend K (the ex-BFF) and K's younger brother.  They will take Penguin Girl Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  I will take them on Tuesday and Thursdays when I have to teach.  On the days I drive, I'll brave the carpool line and pick her up at school also.  The other days she will probably take the bus.  There is a new bus arrangement this year because of budget cuts.  We'll see how that works out.

K's mom wanted to get an early start in case of Back-to-School traffic.  As you can see, the sun is not all the way up yet.  Notice the penguins on her socks?  It's a rare day that my girl is without her penguins.

A Whirlwind of Fun

This was the first time that we have visited my family in New York where Car Guy didn't have to go into Manhattan to work every day.  He had one meeting and that was it!  So we took the kids to do lots of stuff and made use of the reciprocity offered by our local museum membership.  We went to the Long Island Children's Museum . . .

We also went to the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery.  I brought Penguin Girl to this place once when she was about 3 years old.  She fed the fish and we looked at the samples of wildlife in their aquarium.  This time, the kids tried fishing.  You'd think that at a fish hatchery there would be so many fish that they would be practically jumping out at you.  You'd be wrong.  We got set up with 2 fishing poles and some bait.  The bait was a cup full of earthworms.  Eeew.  I told Car Guy in advance that if he wanted to let the kids try fishing, he would be baiting the hooks.  I boycott the touching of creepy crawlies with my bare hands.  Mr. Destructo got tired of the whole fishing things pretty quickly since nothing happened.  That's when I took him to see the aquarium.  We also hit the snack stash in the car.  Snacks always make Mr. Destructo happy.  Penguin Girl, however, was really determined to catch a fish.  Did I mention it was a typical August day in New York?  So, yeah, it was really hot standing around waiting for the fish to bite.  Some people fishing seemed to have great luck.  It was only after about 2 hours that we learned why that was.  They were not using the icky worms as bait.  They were using fancy bait, the kind you buy at a sporting goods store.  They were little, squishy orange beads shaped to look like salmon roe.  You put one of those on your hook and the fish come right away.  Someone took pity on us and gave Penguin Girl a few.  She landed a fish right away.  Car Guy helped her reel it in.  Finally!  A fish!  Now we can take off and enjoy the air conditioned splendor of the car!

We also went to the New York Hall of Science.  Twice.  Hey, it was free with our museum membership!  Mr. Destructo and I played in the preschoolers area.  He was really captivated by the kid-sized grocery store set up.  He made good use of the conveyor belt that was part of the check out stand.  Meanwhile, Penguin Girl roamed the museum with Car Guy.

Of course, a trip back home is not complete without the Peanut Gallery getting together.  All of us including my parents and younger brother will go to have dim sum at least once during our visit.  This time we also made regular visits to my older brother's house so that Penguin Girl could practice piano.  The rule is that all the girls have to get their practicing done before they can run wild.

The visit flew by.  Unfortunately, we could not stay longer.  Penguin Girl had to get ready for school.  Already!  We had to get back home for her grade's Open House so we could haul in the massive load of supplies and meet her teacher.  I hear she's got the stricter of the two teachers, which is good.  Then I start my new part-time gig teaching a legal writing class at the local law school.  Yikes!

Road Tripping

After spending a day at Aunt V's, it was time to hit the road and drive to visit my parents in New York.  The driving alone took over 10 hours.  That's a long, long time for Mr. Destructo to be strapped into his seat.  Thank goodness for McDonald's and their play spaces.  We hit McD's for lunch and dinner.  Makes me queasy just thinking about it but it's hard to pass up a meal the kids will eat quickly combined with a chance for them to run around like mad.  

The Longest Day Ever

Today we were supposed to have gotten on a quick early morning flight to Atlanta with a connection to Detroit, arriving at Aunt V's in plenty of time for lunch.  Instead, we spent most of the day at airports.  We left the house when it was still pitch black dark.  The plane was delayed for a very long time.  Why?  Because the computer was down and the pilot needed some paperwork that only the magic computer could provide.  What this all-important paperwork was, I have no idea.  That was never explained to us.  

Of course when we finally get to Atlanta, our connection had just left.  Super.  The airline bumped us up into first class seat for the flight to Detroit.  Since we had to hang around waiting for that flight, the airline also gave us some food vouchers.  I budgeted them well.  We ate a free meal of some breakfast burritos.  Then we found some nice seats in front of a sunny window.  Penguin Girl read her books and I fell asleep.  Then we went and had a free treat of a couple of giant smoothies.  Then it turned out that our second flight was delayed as well.  We actually got on and left the terminal before they realized the air conditioning was not working in the cabin.  Then we got ferried back to the terminal to wait for another plane.  We did not actually get to Detroit until dinnertime.  We could have driven to Aunt V's and gotten there earlier.  Really.

During all the waiting in Atlanta, they did ask for volunteers to give up their seats and leave the next morning.  The airline would have provided a hotel for the night and 4 round-trip tickets as compensation.  In retrospect, I should have jumped on that deal.  But Penguin Girl really enjoyed her first class experience despite all the waiting.  We were able to partake of the fancy snacks.  Penguin Girl got some sort of potato sticks.  I had kettle chips.  No piddly pretzels for us!

More of Our Staycation

Continuing with the fun while it's just us girls at home, Penguin Girl went to a birthday party while I went and got a facial.  The next day we went to Discovery Place.  Without Mr. Destructo to dictate the pace, we leisurely made our way through all the exhibits and Penguin Girl got to spend as much time as she wanted exploring.  

A couple of days later, we picked up one of her friends and went to the movies.  We saw Ramona and Beezus.  With popcorn, of course.  The movie was as sweet and funny as I remember the Beverly Cleary books were from reading them as a child.  Then we went to have some fro-yo at Pinkberry.  The plain flavor brings back fond memories of going to Bloomingdale's with my mom and getting a treat of frozen yogurt with fresh fruit at the Forty Carrots.

Just Us Girls

Car Guy and Mr. Destructo have departed on a road trip to Aunt V's.  Penguin Girl and I are going to have some fun while they're gone.  We have already had a peaceful trip to the library and a shopping expedition to buy embroidery floss (for friendship bracelets--more on that another time).  I told Penguin Girl we could go out for dinner and gave her the choice of sushi, Vietnamese, or Latin food.  She chose the Latin food at a restaurant owned by a family from El Salvador.  Penguin Girl decided she would have a food adventure so she chose items she had never had before:  a guanabana batido and arepa con todo.  I told her that guanabana just tasted fruity and tropical to me.  She said she thought it was like a combination of passion fruit and coconut.  The arepa con todo was a puffy corn tortilla with beef, pork, and chicken inside topped with lettuce and drizzled with a creamy sauce.  Penguin Girl said she actually liked the lettuce with the sauce on it and she ate all the meat filling.  I'd also told her we could go have frozen yogurt after dinner but she was so full, she could not even finish the tortilla part of her dish.  We'll just have to go another day.

At the Movies

I took Penguin Girl to see Despicable Me.  It was really funny.  We both enjoyed it while sharing a bag of popcorn.  Later in the evening, Car Guy asked Penguin Girl to tell him what the movie was about.  She started talking and minutes later, there was still no summary forthcoming.  Then we explained to her how to summarize and asked her to start over.  She started again and somewhere after she was talking about the three girls, I fell asleep.  I asked Car Guy later if she ever told him what the movie was about.  He still had no idea.

Paint, Paint, Paint

In the spring, I asked Penguin Girl what sort of camps she was interested in for the summer.  Her main interest was in the arts and crafts camps.  This week her camp focused on various painting projects.  Penguin Girl reported to me that the art teacher leading the camp was very talented and that her demonstrations were always beautiful.  I mentioned to Ms. K how much Penguin Girl admired her work.  Ms. K laughed and told me that painting isn't even her area of expertise.  She's actually a weaver.  Regardless, Ms. K had some great ideas for the kids to try and Penguin Girl brought home some cool projects.

The Peanut Gallery

Last week my older brother visited us for the first time with his family.  His girls, H and E, are slightly older and younger than Penguin Girl, respectively, while his son, R, is just a hair older than Mr. Destructo so they make good (and loud) playmates for each other.  We had unseasonably cool weather that made our outings much more enjoyable.

We went to Dan Nicholas Park and the kids partook of many of the little attractions.  Mr. Destructo felt that it was enough of an adventure that he needed his Rescue Pack.

We had two train rides because R loves trains.  We also hit the carousel twice.  

Mr. Destructo sat out the second time because the horses were too scary.  That was a relief for me because the spinning was so fast that it made me motion sick.  Aunt G sat out with us with her bag of snacks.  We also toured the little zoo and visited the small collection of farm animals.  The highlight of the day was the gem mine.  You get buckets of sand with various pretty rocks mixed in and you use a screen in a sluice to reveal your treasures.  

Uncle W herded the Peanut Gallery behind this scene so that I could take this photo.  I can't believe I got a good shot!  It was a super fun afternoon for everyone.

The next day, we went to the Lazy 5 Ranch, which is always a hoot.  We took the horse drawn wagon ride through the park so we could get up close to the animals.

This was probably the first time R got to feed a giraffe.

One evening, we shooed the Peanut Gallery outside with popsicles.  H got a little upset because hers started to melt really fast.

On their last day here, I set up a painting activity.  I ordered some molds for concrete and made a bunch of animals and fairy doors.  The Peanut Gallery went wild with paint.

E did not seem to notice her hair was in the way.

Penguin Girl was very sad to see her cousins go.  Next year we'll need to plan for a longer visit.

Camp Camp and More Camp

I have Penguin Girl going to day camp for most of the summer.  Each camp lasts for one week and generally runs from 9am until noon.  She started off with soccer (It was REALLY hot!) which she's never tried before.  She happened to meet a classmate who was in her group.  Then she had Ooey Gooey Art.  I imagined it was going to be messier but she still had a good time.  She made a sheep with googly eyes out of a balloon and plaster impregnated gauze . . .

. . . and various little creatures out of Crayola Model Magic which were sort of light and foamy after they dried . . .

. . . and prints of penguins using foam.

Last week she went to tennis camp.  After the first day, Penguin Girl reported, "I am TERRIBLE at it!  I did NOT hit the ball."  Of course, I expected this since she has never played before and she is not the most coordinated child.  However, Penguin Girl seemed sort of surprised.  I suppose she thought she'd be able to pick up tennis easily because she started playing games of soccer right away even though she'd never played soccer before.  I explained that tennis is a bit harder to learn to get to the point where you can play a real game with points and such.  They started off with a game called Jail where you got two tries to hit the ball over the net or else you went to jail which was on the opposite side of the court where you had to catch a ball to break out of jail and get back to try hitting again.  How did she do?  "I ALWAYS went to jail and I did NOT catch any balls!"  But by the end of the week, she said she avoided jail at least four times, maybe more, and she broke herself out of jail a couple times by catching the balls that came over.

This week we are hanging around at home.  No camps because this is the week everyone collectively decides is dedicated to vacations related to the 4th of July.  Mr. Destructo is running a high fever so we are watching a lot of tv.  Later today, Penguin Girl will be going back to the dentist for what will hopefully be four more fillings and no extracted teeth.

Bye Buddy

Super Hero Father's Day

I helped Penguin Girl with her Father's Day gift for Car Guy.  I downloaded a template for labels to make a super hero snack kit and we went to the market to buy the goodies for the kit.  One of the items on our list was a candy bar.  We perused the fancy chocolate bars and the two finalists were a chili-chocolate and a bacon-chocolate.  Penguin Girl reasoned that since Dad really likes bacon and also really likes chocolate, that's the one we should get.  We also got chocolate covered toffees, wasabi snack mix, a toffee popcorn mix, and a soda.  

Once I sealed the box, Penguin Girl decorated the outside.  Then on Father's Day, she snuck outside and left it on the porch and rang the doorbell.  Car Guy was surprised to find his delivery from the Super Hero Supply Company but Penguin Girl could not resist and spilled the beans that it really was from us.

Update:  The bacon-chocolate was interesting.  Car Guy is not a fan of chocolate with savory elements.  On the other hand, I really like a little salt like the flavor you get when you cover salted pretzels with chocolate.  But the meatiness of the bacon just made the whole chocolate experience sort of weird.  The kids like it, though.

Whew!

I had been talking to Penguin Girl daily about the whole process of getting fillings.  Although she was nervous, she never got broken up about it.  Until she got into the dentists chair.  Then she started wailing and sobbing.  I actually thought we were going to have to just go home but the dentist and his hygienist talked her down.  It turns out she was really just very anxious about getting the injection of anesthetic.  She bounced back quickly.  She even started snorting like a pig in jest while the dentist was still finishing the injections.  The dentist was very speedy with the whole procedure.  Luckily, he was able to fill even the really cavernous cavity and he was optimistic about being able to do the same to the crater on the opposite side of her mouth in 2 weeks when we return for the second and hopefully last round of fillings.

In other news, Car Guy took himself to the dentist for the first time in 6 years.  And he called from the dentist's chair to inform me that he has no cavities even though he only brushes once a day and rarely flosses.  Superb.

Yikes!

I took Penguin Girl to the dentist a couple of days ago.  It had been about a year since her last cleaning and exam as I had been lax about making the appointment to bring her back.  She got x-rays for the first time since her 6-year molars came in and pressed her teeth close together.  And the x-rays showed eight (EIGHT!) cavities.  Two of them are enormous.  The dentist already warned that there may not be enough tooth left to fill them in which case they would need to be extracted!  She goes back to see him on Monday to get half of them filled.  Meanwhile, we are now brushing and flossing up a storm.

Busy Fingers

A long time ago, I got some modelling beeswax for Penguin Girl.  At the time, I completely underestimated how much strength and dexterity were required to use this particular medium so the box got tucked away for a few years.  I brought it out again and showed Penguin Girl how you warm it up in your hands and then mold it.  She was very pleased with her first try.  That's me and Penguin Girl with our dog, Buddy.

The Magical Bread Machine

I have been wanting to try to make pineapple buns.  This is a Chinese bread that has no pineapple flavor but gets its name from the sort of cross-hatched crust on top.  The only place to buy these buns is a 30 minute drive and they are about $1.50 apiece.  Outrageous!  

I searched the wonderful internet and came up with a few recipes.  I chose one and made some alterations.  Using the bread machine, we made the dough.  We got this bread machine as a wedding present and it still works great although it has not been used in years.  Penguin Girl thought the machine was pretty cool.  I had to shape the buns as the dough turned out too sticky for Penguin Girl to handle.  They looked pretty good with the topping.

I should have made the buns smaller.  They got really big after rising for the final time and baking.  Also, the topping got too soft and spread too much.  The bread was good but on the second day the texture was vastly inferior.  It needed a bit more fat.  Penguin Girl enjoyed them.  No surprise there.  This girl will happily eat anything except veggies.