My baby girl graduated from high school. That’s really hard for me to accept. Being the competitive, hard-working creature she is, she graduated at the top of her class. Being the creative, Disney-loving creature she is, she asked me to make a Disney-themed mortar board to commemorate the event.

Since we’re deep in the thick of COVID-19, graduation was nontraditional. The ceremony itself was all online, and my daughter gave a great (pre-recorded) speech. Then we rushed to the school to our designated little patch of asphalt, where we set up an outdoor shrine to her accomplishments. Basically the whole town turned up, driving past, honking and waving and even throwing candy as everyone congratulated the graduates in a socially distant way.

My sons wore their graduation caps right out of the bag, completely unadorned. My daughter, on the other hand, started planning her mortar board design at he beginning of the school year, considering and discarding various themes and concepts until she found one she loved. Then she came to me.

“A Disney mortar board?” I said. “Don’t people usually use a Sharpie or electrical tape?”

That got me an eye-roll.

“This is what I want,” she said, holding up her phone. “Only better.”

It was Cinderella’s castle from Disney World. “Yeah, I can do that,” I told her.

“Why’s called a mortar board, anyway?”

That one was easy. Graduation caps—or “Oxford caps,” as they’re sometimes called—get their name from their resemblance to the tool used by masons to hold the mortar that cements bricks together. A mason’s mortar board is flat to make it easier to scrape with a trowel. My understanding is that there’s also a tie-in to masonic rituals as well.

My daughter’s Disney mortar board took me a couple of hours to complete. The satin really soaked up the paint, so I had to do multiple coats. After the paint-work, she added some sequins and shiny letters and a pretty white bow. We were both thrilled at how well it turned out!