Simply June

Happy 3rd Birthday Owen!

My dear friend's son is turning 3 tomorrow and I have been having fun with his favorite thing - trains! Kolya is also into trains and is a lucky boy as he has a train that goes right behind his house! Every time a train goes by (which is quite often), Kolya runs to the window and pulls his whistle - choo choo! Before, Kolya I had honestly gotten so used to the train that I didn't even hear it anymore, but now I have my little "conductor" to announce its arrival. Back to the birthday boy... Owen just started Pre-School this year, so I decided to pull from this theme too. In high school, I spent a summer living in Germany with a wonderful family, who really made my summer special and unique. My exchange was set up through an organization called Youth For Understanding. I hope that some day when Kolya is a bit older, we can welcome a student to our home. Anyway, while I was there one of the souvenirs I brought home was a Schultuete. This is given to each child in Germany by their families on the first day of school. Families fill the cones with sweets and school supplies and other goodies. I found this great Schultuete at The Magic Cabin. What a fun tradition. Owen's Schultuete is filled with a coloring pad, special homemade multi-color crayons, Train Bookplates and a train shirt. I made the crayons based on a project on Martha Stewart.com. They remind me of the Clowny crayons that were popular when I was young. I thought I might be the only one who actually remembered them, but I did a Google search and there seems to be somewhat of a "cult" Clowny following. The T-shirt uses some of my Michael Miller stash. I even utilized the "School Time" if you look closely. I on the other hand am much fonder of "Bed Time"... Ahh...Zzzzzz...