She's Crafty!

Oooooh la la! I bet you are thinking that this little crafty Halloween owl cookie lollipop delicacy is the work of my creative direction. You are dead wrong. Carly brought this little gem home from preschool today, only further reinforcing my insecurities in the area of all things crafty. So, it is really no surprise that Halloween costumes stress me out. On one hand, I love the idea of spending hours putting the perfect finishing touches on a simple (yet brilliant!) homemade idea. On the other hand, who needs to spend $75 on materials and then spend hours sewing or, in my case stapling, an ugly outfit together.

The Halloween excitement began early this year. I blame the ghost display at the library, but it just as easily could have been the candy corn I was forced to rescue from CVS right after Labor Day. In any case, we have been discussing Halloween costumes every time Carly gets knee deep into her dress-up clothes, which is daily. Of course, she doesn't think any of her dress-up clothes are good enough to be Halloween costumes, so this has been a hot topic. About three weeks ago, I began to get nervous. Old Navy costumes were selling out in her size and we had no concrete concepts. Dr. Carly Quinn Medicine Woman? No. Ga? No. Super Carly? Definitely not. But, then one evening before bed, she finally announced that she wanted to be a monkey. Sweet! Ahh, not so fast...the next morning, she declared that she would be a butterfly. At this point, the important thing was that I knew she had a vision of herself as a successful trick-or-treater buried deep within. We were moving in the right direction.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, when I decided it was action time. I began trying to get a final answer out of her, which was tough. Finally, one morning while getting ready for preschool, I told her it was time to make a decision. I needed to put the wheels in motion. After much deliberation, she announced that 2009's Halloween costume would be......a butterfly! Off to school she went, and off to find wings I went. I scored. I found $6 wings and came up with an idea for creating a fuzzy butterfly body and antennae. As a bonus, the butterfly wings came with a butterfly wand. We were good to go.

That is, until I picked up Carly from school. When I announced that I had wings in the car, a major meltdown ensued. MAJOR. "I want to be a monkey!!! I am goooooing to be a MONKEY MOMMY!!! NOT. A. BUTTERFLY!!". As the temper tantrum escalated, I decided to sweeten the deal by bringing out the butterfly wand. I could see the temptation in her eyes...the girl wanted to play with the wand. I mean, who wouldn't? It had streamers, sparkles, and a sweet little butterfly at the end! She grabbed the wand and I brilliantly suggested that she could be a magic butterfly for Halloween! No dice. A butterfly magician!? Not happening. So, I did what I had to do: I sent her to her room to calm the sobbing and I went downstairs with Teddy to reevaluate.

So, about 10 minutes passed and slowly I heard the crying and hysterics come to an end. There was some shuffling in her room. Then I heard the pit-pat of feet coming down the stairs. Carly confidently walked into the living room, grabbed her wand, and announced, "I know what to do mommy. I'm going to take my magic wand and I will turn my butterfly costume into a monkey costume!". Round one: Carly.

to be continued...