Tac(t) boards

Next Monday is the first day of school. Right on the heels of the mad jig of joy I break into every time I think of that comes a sort of sick feeling. I'm sorry to be a buzz kill, but there's just no denying it any longer : summer is drawing to a close.

Overall, I think it was a pretty good summer (all things considered...). Émilie has accumulated quite a few mementos of the summer months, various little bits and bobs that have special meaning at the time she receives them but that turn into, well... miscellaneous crap when left lying around the house for weeks on end. (Which wouldn't happen if I were the sort of mother who had keepsake albums and scrapbooks for my kids, I suppose, but that's a guilt trip for another day.)

These little things - the patch she got from the Red Cross after she completed the Junior 2 level in her swim lesson, the ribbon she got at horseback riding camp - could all go on the traditional Family Accomplishment Display Area (aka the refrigerator door), but that just didn't feel right. These are her treasures. They should be displayed in her room.

I was pondering this last weekend when I remembered a tutorial for a pin board frame I found on One Pretty Thing a while back. It seemed simple enough, so when Émilie had a friend over on Sunday, I got all the stuff and let the girls go crazy creating their own personalized pin boards.



Émilie personalized hers, writing her name in foam stickers and adding the occasional monkey face and flower. No sooner was it deemed "done" then she had pinned the various tokens of her summer's accomplishments to it and demanded that we hang it up in her room.


Émilie's friend proudly announced that she was going to use her board to display pictures of "My Best Friend", and proceeded to spell out said BFFs name in big capital letters across the bottom of the frame: Anne-Sophie

Also known as: NOT MY FRICKIN' KID!!!

*Snort* Wonder if they'll teach TACT in second grade?

Happy Making, Everyone!