Halloween this year started about a month ago. Even though Lilly didn't trick or treat last year, she seemed more educated than ever about the holiday. She is generally a very enthusiastic child and she absolutely shares Lori's creativity and imagination.
Halloween started when Lilly received a beautiful Belle dress in the mail from Laura and Rich Magyar (Thank YOU!). She barely got it out of the box before she immediately proclaimed that she was going to be Belle for Halloween, click here to see it. That dress stayed on her from sunrise to sunset. It was the first thing she put on in the morning, even on school days, before mean Daddy made her get dressed for school and was the last thing she took off at night before mean Daddy made her put on her jammy's.
After a week or two of this, Lilly told me that she didn't want to be Belle for Halloween. She said we needed to go to target to find a new costume. Since I guess I didn't really expect the Belle dress to last a month, we headed out to the store. For those who know Lilly well enough, you know that when Lilly makes up her mind about something, particularly clothes, there is no changing it. Well, costumes are no different. The store was still well stocked with a large variety of fun costumes, but one in particular caught her eye. She saw it and as much as I tried to get her to change her mind, she wouldn't budge. She was going to be Hannah Montana for Halloween.
The problem I had was that even though the picture on the package resembled Hannah Montana, the costume was just a dress. Several times I tried to explain to her that the costume did not include the Pink Hat, the Pink Guitar, the Pink Microphone or the Pink Boots. This did not change Lilly's mind. She wanted the Pink sequenced dress. She saw herself as Hannah Montana while I saw her as a five year old girl in a skimpy pink sequenced dress.
For the next week, Lilly sported the Pink Sequenced Dress. While she danced and sang her way around the house, I picked up pink sequences from the floor. But I had to stand my ground when Lilly wanted to wear the dress to the pumpkin patch. I said, "Lilly, I don't care what you put on, but you are not wearing that dress." Let's face it, I am still learning my way through parenthood. You can see the choice of outfit here. She really taught me a lesson as she wore pink fairy tights under a patterned skirt along with her green crabby shirt.
About two weeks ago when I got home from work, Lilly excitedly told me, "Daddy, I have a great idea."
"What's that Lilly?" She is notorious at five years old for her great ideas.
"For Halloween, I can dress like Boo Boo and YOU and dress like Yogi". All smiles with this great idea of hers for which I quickly said, "Yeah, that's a good idea, but that's not happening." Much to my surprise, she didn't push it.
So that brings us to two weeks before Halloween and another "great idea". Lilly decided that she was going to be a scarecrow! Even though we had nothing to make a scarecrow costume, that didn't stop Lilly. I watched in amazement as scrounged through her playroom and finally reappeared wearing the Jessie Costume (which was given to her by Shannon. Thanks Shannon!). Jessie from Toy Story is a cowgirl. So I can sort of see the connection to the scarecrow. But this wasn't good enough for Lilly. She next brought out three of her princess dresses from the playroom. Three frilly little dresses. So what did she do? She started to stick the first dress up the sleeve of her cowgirl outfit so that when she was done, only the frills stuck out of the sleeve. Just like a scarecrow. The second dress went up the other sleeve and the third dress was carefully placed over her head while she carefully pulled a flowered hat over the top. Just like a scarecrow. Here is a picture of Lilly sitting down in her chair next to her scarecrow friend.
Cute? Yes. Practical for Halloween? No. Surely she will get over this. Right? Thirteen days before Halloween... Scarecrow. Twelve days.... Scarecrow. Eleven, Ten, Nine.... Scarecrow. I started to make plans to buy some straw to help her out, but decided to wait until the weekend of, guessing she would still change her mind. Eight, Seven, Six, Five... Still Scarecrow. Then, with three days left, I pulled out a box that held our old Halloween Costumes, mostly given to us by Colleen. (Thanks Coll!).
Lilly tried on her old Elmo costume. As much as she tried, it didn't fit. Lilly tried on a bumble bee costume. Still too small. She tried on a witch, no interest. A bunny, a candy kiss, a flower. No interest. And then there was the Fairy Wand. Only part of the fairy costume was still intact, but the wand, the wand was a fully operational fairy wand.
Lilly ran off into the house and within minutes was standing in front of me wearing her Princess and the Frog Dress and Waving the Fairy Wand. Loudly and proudly Lilly grabbed my attention. "Daddy! I can be Princess Tiana the Fairy!"
"You know what Lilly?"
"What?"
"I think that is a great idea!"