Noodle Countdown

Right about the time my birthday rolls around, Ryan and Lucie start asking, "When is it going to be OUR birthday?" They know that their celebration is next in our family, though it's hard for them to understand that it's not the following day, but seven whole weeks away. That's a lot of time in the life of an almost four year old.

Once September hit we began the official countdown with one of their favorite ways to understand the calendar -- stringing pasta noodles. They start by stringing a noodle for each day remaining until the 19th, and then take off one noodle each morning. They love removing a noodle after breakfast each day, and are visually reminded of how quickly their birthday is approaching.

We've used this before to count down days until trips or family visitors, though this time R & L had the idea of painting their noodles before stringing them. Lucie chose a heavy marinara sauce approach, rolling her penne in gobs of purple paint, while Ryan was more of a light olive oil kind of guy, gently coating each penne with a brush of orange. Yum.