Birthday Ravioli

For Hannah's sixth birthday we served homemade ravioli. I worked up 3 varieties of ravioli including beef, cheese, and a special chicken marsala. Hannah loved the chicken marsala so much that for her seventh birthday she requested ravioli again, but only her new favorite this time.

The girls have been "helping" me make the pasta for a couple of years now, mainly helping to fill the ravioli and ensure that flour is covering every inch of the counter and floor.

Recently Hannah has taken part in the process of making the dough. This method is called the well method and she has been giving me a hand during the messiest parts. She really likes it when the dough is mushy and she can get in and work it. Those little arms don't have a lot of muscle however, and I usually take over when the serious kneading is required.

This weekend we started the pasta for her eighth birthday party and I told Hannah that she was pretty much on her own. I helped her get the items out that she needed and quizzed her to make sure she knew the number of cups of flour, eggs, etc. She really did quite well, only turning it over to me for the final bit of kneading.

She also assisted in making the filling. I had suggested that someone who is 8 could do some knife work as well, so she assisted in cutting the parsley. She enjoyed the part where we used the food processor to grind the filling into a uniform consistency but felt bad that Maggie ran to the other room seeking cover when the machine kicked in.

Overall she did a great job of helping and I know she'll enjoy telling everyone that she made the pasta. While my mantra throughout the day was "less play, more work", I know we both had a lot of fun!

Locks of Love

Hannah has been thinking for some time that she would like to donate her hair to locks of love. She first heard of it when one of her school friends did it and I believe that she then used this as a reason to not get her hair cut for the next couple of years.

Her bluff was recently called when Briana, a close family friend and sometimes babysitter decided to have a locks of love day while she interned at a local sytlist. Each senior at Woodstock HS selects a project that has something to do with their future employment and Briana would like to become a stylist. She asked Hannah if she would be willing to donate her hair, along with herself, her mother, her sister and several of her friends.

After a few gentle reminders the day arrived and we all headed out to the stylist to make the donation. He-hee and the Rea's all showed up to lend Hannah some much needed moral support. After a little "gentle prodding" from Dad, she sat down for the cut. 10 inches of hair is the minimum donation and the cut brought her hair to just below her shoulders.

We were all very proud of Hannah for supporting such a nobel cause as well as keeping her promise to Briana!

The stylist commented that she could tell Hannah's hair had been curly when she was young. I thought her hair looked awesome after it was trimmed up and evened out and told her so many times in the next week that I soon got "that face" each time I made a reference to it.