A Penguin Penny Purse

I really did have grand plans to do some Cinco de Mayo projects with Sydney. I even made Jeremy save the plastic container than the shredded Parmesan cheese comes in, thinking it would make a good maraca. But we got sidetracked by the penguin penny purse project.

This is how the story goes (and the story does involve some backtracking):

Remember how much Sydney liked the penguins at Moody Gardens? Well, our neighbor Barbie has a ceramic penguin who lives at the top of her driveway, right by her garage door. It turns out that Barbie's mother, who is in a nursing home here in town, collected penguins and some of her collection had made it's way to Barbie's house.

Every time we go for a walk in the neighborhood, Sydney has to stop and visit with that ceramic penguin. In fact, the very first time she saw it, I thought she was making it up. We were walking down the street and she started yelling, "pean-gin, pean-gin." I told her there weren't any penguins on our street ('cause why would there be?) and then I realized her eagle eyes had spotted this two foot high ceramic bird from two houses down.

Fast forward to last weekend: Sydney and I went to Target looking for a coin purse for pennies (to throw in the waters, to make a splash, as Sydney would say). Target did not have any coin purses, but we did run into Barbie. When Barbie heard that Sydney wanted a coin purse, she immediately said, "oh, I have one she would like!" Barbie then offers to give Sydney a coin purse that had belonged to her mother. This, of course, means that the coin purse has penguins on it. Barbie even arranged for the coin purse to be sitting next to the ceramic penguin on our next visit, as though the ceramic penguin had a gift for Sydney.

I knew right away that I wanted to help Sydney make a thank you card for Barbie (and her mother). But I also wanted to take several pictures of Sydney and her penguin and the penguin penny purse, thinking that Barbie might like to take the pictures up to her mother, to show her that her old coin purse has made another penguin loving chick very happy.

Between the painting the card, taking the pictures (which did involve cleaning up the painted child and putting her into new clothes), and going to the outlet mall to throw pennies in the waters, to make a splash, I was just too tired to celebrate anything but bedtime.

But I am thrilled with the thank you card and the awesome pictures I got. Not to mention the alliteration of Sydney having a penguin penny purse.