Nora Evelyn

We’ve been reading “Little House in the Big Woods” lately and Nora was absolutely fascinated by the idea that someone might somehow make butter. So today we decided to do it. We had some whipping cream left over from her birthday cake (bought a quart, needed 2 T) and a mixer so it was far, far easier for us than the manual procedure described in the book: (1) milk the cow (2) churn the butter (3) add orange from a carrot for color (4) churn the butter some more until your arms fall off (5) apply butter to chapped, raw hands.

1. Put on your princess dress and pour the cream into the mixer

I forgot to take a picture of this part. Imagine, if you will, a little girl pouring cream into a stand mixer.

2. Run the mixer for a long time

Making butter is exactly like failing to make whipped cream. You whip the cream until it turns into beautiful, perfect whipped cream and then you keep mixing until it’s utterly and completely ruined and then you keep whipping.

3. Drain and rinse your butter

This step is important because otherwise you don’t get to drain and rinse your butter.

4. Show off your jeweled bracelet

5. Enjoy your new butter

Nora talks with her hands.

To be honest, I don’t think a girl should have to do any cleaning on her birthday, but Miss Renee runs a pretty tight ship and even the birthday girl has to pull a little Cinderella duty.

At Nora’s new school kids bring in cupcakes for their birthday, parents get to come in and celebrate with them, everyone sings, it’s awesome. Here are some pictures of Nora (in her super fancy baking outfit) helping us make the cupcakes for Nora’s fourth birthday. 125,795,704 seconds on Earth surely deserves chocolate cake and fluffy pink frosting. Don’t you agree?

Here’s a drawing Nora and I recently did of, she explains, a mermaid. I added the eyeballs and drew the hands, but it was all under her strict artistic control.

We went to Nora’s class Thanksgiving feast today. The teachers asked each of the children about the Thanksgiving turkey: where you buy one, how you cook it, what you eat with it. They compiled the responses in books for us; here’s Nora’s recipe:

(“sticker work” means playing with stickers in Montessori speak. She’s suggesting that Miss Melissa get an adhesive-backed paper turkey for her Thanksgiving dinner)

Turkey a la Nora:

Nora: Get a turkey from the sticker work!
Miss Melissa: But what if I want a real turkey?
Nora: I don’t know where you get one because I’m a plant eater.
Miss Melissa: So what will you eat on Thanksgiving?
Nora: Macaroni.
Miss Melissa: Okay, how do you make the macaroni?
Nora: I watch my mommy and daddy make it. First get some water and wait til it’s bubbly. Then put the macaroni in. When it’s done, add cheese. Serve broccoli and that’s all. Me and mommy drink milk. Daddy drinks water. Probably candy or chocolate ice cream for dessert.

Nora got her third professional haircut today (and only her fourth haircut ever) at a place that specializes in haircuts for kids. The place had computers next to each station to show the kids videos, brightly colored everything, toys for sale, a cool fishie apron to keep hairs off clothes, etc. We think they did a great job on the cut, but the glitter is a bit much and we’re all just about ill from the cotton candy hairspray(?!) they added to her head at the end.

We’re not quite sure why, but Nora insisted at least a month ago that this year she wanted to be Little Red Riding hood for Halloween this year. So her Granny made her this awesome red riding hood, we got her some ruby slippers (because they’re sparkly, that’s why), and a basket. What do you think?

As an aside, do you know how many cases there have ever been in the U.S. of strangers poisoning candy and giving it out to kids on Halloween? How many cases of razor blades in Halloween candy or in apples or whatever? None. Zilch. Zero. Nada. So let’s get out there, watch for cars (because that really _is_ a danger), and have some fun!

There are a lot of characters to meet at Disney World: