What Every Girl Needs

First off, let me just say WOW! Your third grade memories made me laugh, cry and cringe with recognition. I unearthed many more third grade memories while reading yours. Avery spent this morning reading your comments, and has more to catch up on this afternoon. What a wonderful gift your stories have been; if only our parent's friends had packed our imagination with their school experiences while we were in the thick of it. A good dose of perspective goes a long way.

Now onto other gifts. I wanted to make Avery a lip gloss pouch for her birthday. I started using this tutorial, but was derailed when I didn't have the appropriate hardware. My first attempt at the lip gloss case morphed into a Swiss Army knife pouch.



Yes, every eight year old girl needs her own Swiss Army knife, preferably camouflage.

Rather than making a case for just one tube of lip gloss, I decided to make a pouch big enough for all of Avery's lip glosses, or at least a dozen of them.



I once offered to make the kids pencil rolls, but neither of them were interested. Shucks. Hence the lip gloss pouch inspired by the ever popular pencil roll.



I used two fabrics I knew Avery liked; we made a zipper pouch out of the same fabrics earlier this summer. I used orange thread and an orange button, also inspired by Avery's zipper pouch. She has a real knack for combining colors in surprising ways.



Aidan bought Avery an eight pack of Lip Smackers to fill her new pouch. This was both a gift and a replacement; he has eaten several of her Lip Smackers. Apparently they taste as good as they smell.



She loves her lip gloss roll and her new Lip Smackers. Hopefully her Swiss Army knife will come out of its pouch this weekend while we camp. I imagine there will be a marshmallow stick or two to whittle.

Thank you again for sharing your third grade stories. Perhaps I should pitch this post to This American Life. I'd love to hear about Ira Glass's third grade year. Wouldn't you?