When I was a little girl I had a special friend named Micole-Suzanne!! She would come and visit our family from America. She looked exactly like me but she had a long blonde hair, which looked more like my mums yellow skirt. Unfortunately I dont have any pics of her, we will blame my parents for that!! I loved dressing up as Micole, I got to speak in a funny accent and because she was much older than I was, she could boss people around!! I think she stopped visiting around the time I turned 9, I was sad to let her go, but I figured at 9 my family was starting to suspect she was actually me, and I didnt want to blow her cover!!
Dressing up is a creative outlet, you get to be someone different. With 4 boys I was determined not to have a toy cupboard that was full of guns and swords, and mean looking action figures! Instead we have lots of fisher price toys little people, rescue hero's, lego, blocks, train tracks, cars and 4 tubs of dress-ups!! Of course the boys will make guns out of lego to go with the dress-ups! Occasionally even now, my 11 year old will join in a dress-up game with the other kids! I will even create a reason for them to dress-up, I'll tell the kids to dress as pirates, then I will make up a treasure map leading them around the house, and hide treasure in the garden somewhere. It is always so great to see the kids in the midst of creative play, pretending to save the world from baddies, or rescue princess Sienna from an evil superhero!! Costumes for kids can be made out of old jeans that you cut the legs off, old t-shirts, pieces of cloth for a pirate hat, there are also great costumes to buy. I think spending money on costumes is definately something of value! Toys R us, has great costumes for kids, the other day I got a little raiders of the lost ark dress up for Oli that was $9.00 from Caseys toy world, it was reduced from $49.00 I used the jacket from the costume for a 50's rocker for Halloween so he could match Sienna. Oli has been wearing that jacket everywhere, even to a school presentation where Laith recieved an award!! He thinks he looks really cool in it, and he does!!
I love it when my kids get a new dress-up and never want to take it off, even wearing it to the shops!! Oli also got a pair of donkey ears from my mum for his last birthday, he wore them everywhere for the first few weeks. Noah would often go to the shops dressed in a Robin (from batman) costume grandma made him, when he was 4yrs old. Just the other week I did my grocery shopping with a princess and a giraffe!! We got lots of smiles that day!! If only we could have that same confidence to just wear or do something because we love it, instead of worrying that people are looking at us!! Maybe its time to pull out your dress ups? Or at least go and get some for your kids to enjoy!!!
I miss Micole Suzanne. She was always very interesting at the dinner table. When you were small the favourite things to dress up in were my old clothes and then your imagination would turn them into whatever you wanted to be that day and also whatever you wanted your younger siblings to be as well!! You made magic out of anything!!
ReplyDeleteMicole Suzanne, too funny! Very cute dress-ups, makes me think we need to do more dressing up here at the Riley household! And you know me, I'd love to hear more about OTHER kinds of dress-ups at some point. LOL.
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