made by morgan

By Morgan Sprigler

The thought of sending my firstborn off to preschool in a few short weeks has me feeling all the feels. For two mornings a week, she will be in someone else’ s care, learning and growing without me, making new friends and becoming her own little person( cue the ugly cry). I am equally as excited as I am terrified at the idea. For those of you with several years of sending your children off to school under your belt, I commend you. So, for the woman who will bear the weight of schooling my toddler( who, up until this point in her life, has been the boss), we have made you a vase out of pencils. Same, Same?

Step One – Glue

Choose a vase that is the same height as a pencil or a bit shorter. Begin adhering pencils around your vase with a line of hot glue, alternating the direction each time. Genevieve participated by handing the pencils to me once I laid each line of glue. Be sure that your pencils are even at the bottom to keep your vase level.

Step Two – Jazz It Up

Genevieve chose a burlap / lace ribbon and a pretty ivory fabric flower to wrap around the center of our vase( like mother, like daughter). Have fun with this part. The options are endless! Simply glue the ribbon around the center of your pencil vase and adhere your flower in the center.

MATERIAL LIST

• Smooth, round vase

• Pencils

• Glue gun

• Glue sticks

• Ribbon

• Fabric flower

• Letter to teacher

• Envelope

• Scissors

• Floral sticks

• Floral tape

• Faux apple

• Card holder

Step Three – Type a Letter

The letter we composed to Genevieve’ s teacher, Mrs. Jamie, will come in handy throughout the year because we gave her a little bit of homework by asking her to fill out a few questions about her favorite things. Her answers will help me surprise her with gifts of thanks during the school year. We used the same ribbon we chose for our vase to decorate the envelope, and finished off the back with a cute little button.

104 EXTOL • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2017