Nonnie's Beach Bag

Dear Em,
Remember the canvas tote bags we painted for your teachers for Christmas? Your Nonnie helped us make them & loved them. She remarked that she would like her very own bag, & I stored that in my brain for later. In the days that led up to Nonnie's birthday, I was excited for us to do something special for her. She always makes us feel so special for our birthdays. I planned to make Nonnie her very own bag, but I wanted to make a unique one just for her.

A few things about Nonnie. First, she is a beach bum. A perfect day for Nonnie is a whole day with her family at the beach. We pack up snacks & spend the whole day in the sunshine. We spalsh in the water. We go for long walks. We have a picnic. We play in the sand. We take lots of pictures. Nonnie is who I get my beachbumness from & who I hope you will get yours from.

If you ask Nonnie what her favorite color is, she doesn't have just one. Colors remind Nonnie of people. Purple is your Aunt Jennie's favorite, & when Nonnie is thinking of her she fills her home with purple. Pink is Aunt Gina's favorite, & pink always reminds Nonnie of her (pink is also your favorite & you will be fighting Aunt Gina because you are 2 & believe only one person can own a favorite color). Yellow is my favorite, & I love to dress you in yellow (a lot of people say yellow is your color). That's why when Nonnie sees the sun or bright daffodils, she thinks of us.

A sunshiney beach-bag is just what would be perfect for Nonnie, & we were going to make her just that. You get excited anytime I say the word paint. So, that was just a bonus. We used your handprints to make sunshines, & I wrote the words to a song that Nonnie loves to sing to you. I painted Nonnie's name so everyone knows it's her special bag.

When you saw the "E" at the end of "NONNIE," you said "E for Emma, let's write Emma too." I painted "LOVE, EMMA" on the back so Nonnie would always know who made her special sunshiney beach-bag.

I used a paint brush to fill in any spots that needed to be filled in & smooth out any globs. Since Nonnie couldn't help to make her own beach bag, Daddy helped washed you up while I dried each side with a blow drier before starting the next (& get the bathtub ready since you somehow got paint in your hair). We've gotten a lot better since last time (this time we had covered the table & were ready with paper towels), but it's still a three person job.

We ordered the bag from Amazon & already had the yellow craft paint (& your cute little hands). The whole project cost less than $15, & Nonnie has a wicked cute beach-bag to take on all of her beach trips this summer. We hope a lot of those beach-trips will be with us.

I'm kind of a crushing on Nonnie's sunshiney beach-bag. I kind of think I want one too. Good thing I have a daughter with the cutest little hands for sunshines.

I love you so,

Mommy