The Replacement Outfit

One of the items I bought for Madeleine this past Christmas is an all-white dress outfit, complete with gold-sequined tutu and white leggings.  The reason behind this purchase was Madeleine's near-daily insistence on wearing her white tennis skirt and white short-sleeved lace tee, in order to look like Emily Binx from "Hocus Pocus."  Since Emily Binx is wearing a white cotton Victorian nightgown in the movie, Madeleine was gung-ho about wearing all white, but as the weather grew colder, her Emily Binx outfit was becoming more and more inappropriate.  So what better present for her than a long-sleeved white dress with long leggings to replace her summery outfit?

Needless to say, Madeleine LOVES her new Christmas gift, and has worn it repeatedly over the past month.  However, she seems to have let go of her determination to actually BE  Emily Binx.

Here she is, all dressed up for church today in her white outfit, compete with purse and microphone:

MADELEINE: Okay, you wanna play "HOCUS POCUS?"  I'll be Ginny the Rock Star!

Yes, let's play "Hocus Pocus."  Great idea, especially seeing as you want to be a character who does not actually exist in "Hocus Pocus."  Just a thought, but maybe we should just play "Ginny the Rock Star" instead.

Madeleine used her microphone the whole way to and from church, singing along to the CD player at amplified volume.  She also made sure to repeatedly hold the microphone too close to her mouth so that it would continually emit an ear-splitting high-pitched squeak. 

Julia had NO tolerance for the microphone.  While I scolded her for not addressing her sister nicely, I can verify that she was speaking for both of us when she snapped, "Madeleine!  STOP DOING THAT.  Right NOW."

Madeleine didn't seem to hold it against Julia, however.  At Sunday school, the kids had to draw a picture of things they're thankful of.

Julia's drawing: me, a hamburger (representing all the food in her life, according to the artist), and our house.

Madeleine's drawing: a balloon, a table, and Julia.


In other art news, Julia has been busy creating Valentines for all the people in her life.  While she has filled out a number of store-bought Valentines for kids in her class, she also got to work on hand-crafting some Valentines for members of our family. 

I think this Valentine might be my favorite:

"You know it, so show it!"

Honestly, was there ever a more apropos Valentine message than that one??  Forget the trite "I love you" messages.  Who needs a Valentine that says something like "For my sweetheart" or "Be mine."  What speaks love more than "you know it, so show it!"??  Julia hit the nail on the head with this one.

I don't know about you, but she has gotten me TOTALLY into the Valentine's Day spirit!  And since I know it, I think I'm gonna show it!