Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Today was the bicentennial anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday! We did a little celebrating today by making Mock Penny Rugs and a Lincoln Log. What's a penny rug, you ask?
From this website:
Penny rugs are not actual rugs for the floor, but decorative coverings for beds, tables and mantles. They were even used as wall hangings. They seemed to have started around the time of the civil war in the United States. They are made out of felted wool scraps that are appliquéd with a blanket stitch to a wool background. Some designs feature circles (or pennies). Coins such as pennies were used as templates for the circle appliqués, thus the name penny rug.

So, while I would have loved to sit and teach my girls to stitch together tiny pieces of felt to make our own penny rugs, we opted for a modern version. I found a 1 1/4 inch circle paper punch and a 3/4 inch circle paper punch at the craft store and went to town punching circles from my stash of pretty paper. A black paper table cloth provided a nice neutral backing and a glue stick made the work go much quicker than needle and thread would have.
We read the story of Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers and ate Carrot Coins and Lanky Celery Sticks with our dinner. Dessert was our own snow covered Lincoln Log that was proclaimed a great success. I thought the filling was a bit soft. I usually like to use some sort of cream cheese filling for a cake roll but only had a box of white chocolate pudding and Cool Whip on hand. Nobody seemed to mind!
And for Mom's viewing pleasure only (language warning!) Victor Garber singing the part of John Wilkes Booth in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. That man can SING!

Rabbits at the Post Office?

Well, actually it was a rabbit trail that we stumbled upon during a trip to the local post office. I am not sure who coined the phrase "rabbit trail" but I have seen it used by some amazing women and I love it! Hop, hop, hop. It's how my brain works naturally!

My children (whose capacity to remember the tiniest details is rivaled only by their inability to remember to put their clothes in the hamper every night) surprised me again by asking the nice lady at the counter which stamp won the contest. You know... THE CONTEST!

I had to explain to the obviously intelligent just very confused woman that my children were referring to the online Star Wars Stamp contest that was the talk of the blog world last Spring. She kindly told them that she had no idea which stamp won the contest, but that you could purchase a sheet with all of the stamps for $6.15, which we did. I owed her something for the brief terrified moments when she looked as though we were all going to sprout third eyes right there at her window.

On our way back to the car, the girls asked what we could do with the stamps we bought, The Professor asked if we could look for the winner on the Internet and BigBoy asked if we were going to the zoo. Oh look... is that a fluffy little tail I see disappearing around the corner?


The winner of the contest is...


announced here and apparently first prize is getting a whole sheet to itself sometime this Fall.

In the meantime, we have all of these really cool Star Wars stamps... way too cool to put on the return envelope for the electricity bill. Maybe we should start a stamp collection? Do you smell carrots?

The postal service actually came up with a fun way to help kids get started. This Curious George Stamp and Sticker book would entice even a grownup like me. Amazon offers this boxed set for beginners. The USPS also offers a mini collecting book which looks like something you could easily make on your own. But that variety wants you to lick and stick your stamp to the page. Is that the best way to display the stamps we collect?

Well, let's see... excuse me, could you move your ears? I can't see the keyboard. I think we would need to talk to a philatelist. This UK site has the most complete list of resources, but some of the links were dead. This site gives you lots of excellent information. Stamps 4 Kids really is for kids and offers wonderful information like how to make your own stamp album, getting started and a truly amazing page on "selvedge art". Do wait for all the pictures to load! They are totally worth it!

That page got me thinking about stamps as works of art. Did you know there is a National Postal Museum? I didn't. And did you know that the USPS created an award winning game for children to "have fun learning about the USA in this unique educational trivia game that features stamp art to tell the American story". Snowball... get off the computer desk.

Speaking of stories... how about books on the postal service or just mail in general? Here is a list of books for the preschool crowd and this one covers the 5-9 age range. I am sure there are many others that our friendly neighborhood librarian could help us discover. Hmmmmm... libraries? Dewey decimal system? Card catalogs out, computer terminals in. WOAH!As you can see, the ideas are multiplying like well...rabbits... around here. Come on Floppy! Let's go.