She's the Expert ...

Did you know Libby's the Strawberry Shortcake Expert?  :)  Her sweet little preschool has all the kids pick a subject on which they are the "expert".  Or "epsert" as Libby says.  :)  On the night of the open house when we were to choose, she was a little on the spot & rattled off "trains".  I thought "I'm certain one of the boys will pick that one" & that it was a little random [very out of the blue for her] ... so along the same lines, I thought "oh how about airplanes?" [dad's a pilot, after all]. She was coolio with that.  Until ... there was a Dora expert.  And a Princess expert.

So last week, I got a note explaining "Expert Week" & telling me it was Libby's turn next.  But ... the note also explained that  "Libby suggests she is an expert on Princesses or Strawberry Shortcake" & that it was okay if she wanted to change [from airplanes].  So, knowing someone had just done Princesses ... we went with Strawberry Shortcake.  She was so excited ... we went around the house & collected stuff.

I saw her little pink straw hat that she used for dress-ups & remembered it was in need of some TLC already.  So I said "Hey Libby!  Do you want to turn this into Strawberry Shortcake's hat?"  She loved the idea.  And when I had my back turned ... zipppppppppp.  About 3 feet more of the pink straw hat was unstitched & unwound.  I think she was trying to fix it.  But it looked like a bowl.  So ... instead of a quick tuck with some glue [like I was going to do before the mishap], I got out the sewing machine, set it on a zig zag stitch & went round & round reconstructing the Target $1 bin hat.  She & I then went through my ribbons together.  She loved the one with the hearts that looked like strawberries [so did I]!  I was sure to run everything by her before it was set in stone.  I've been around enough little kiddies to know that it's best if you ask them how it should look & what's missing, than you assuming you know it all [3rd kid is the charm, I tell ya].  So she finalized every detail ... right down to the big puffy strawberry.

She had her bag packed all weekend by the front door & even wore her hat to her brothers' soccer games.  :)  Her teacher told me yesterday she never took the hat off once.  :) She had so much fun ... and last night I asked her one more time how it felt to be the Strawberry Shortcake Expert & she said "EET-citing!" with a little giggle [wish I could have been a fly on the wall in her classroom!].  I think with a little more tweaking this just might be a Halloween costume ... hopefully the hat will last another month & a 1/2!