The Halloween Costume

Olivia puts a lot of effort into her Halloween costumes. This year she somehow conned Matt and I into putting a lot of effort into things we said couldn't be done. She started about October 1 deciding to be Angel from the book Maximum Ride. Well, she probably decided to be Angel earlier but Oct 1 was when she started in on us. She wanted wings. That move. So O.K. I said we could make wings and attach them to her wrists. She looked at me disdainfully and (like I was a moron) explained that attaching wings to your wrist cancels out the benefit of having BOTH arms and wings. DUH.

SOOOO...I told her to forget about it. We could not make wings that move not attached to your arms. And then I passed the problem on to Matt who ignored her for a couple of weeks. Then we all went to JoAnn Fabrics and stood in various isles arguing about the suitability of various materials. We came home with foam core and feathers. And, somehow, with washers and string Matt and Olivia made wings that move when you pull the strings. Thank god she didn't insist on having the controls wired into her brain or something.

Then, as she's getting dressed for her Halloween party, she tells me that she needs to put the harness/wings under a dress so you can see anything but the wings. The wings attach to her body via a harness made out of a bathrobe tie. It's big and soft and it can't go under a dress because the wings need to stick out the back and that would have been a whole other project which we didn't do!! And can't do in 5 min. So I say "tough shit" and she stares at me like I used to stare at her when she was 3 and said "Binky" threw her shoes across the room. (Binky being her imaginary friend.) That somehow (I need to review the tapes so it doesn't happen again) propelled me into figuring out how to make it look like she's wearing a dress in front while she's not in the back. After destroying one dress we settled on this one which has a zipper most of the way down the back. Borrowed some safety pins from a neighbor so the dress doesn't fall off and she's on her way.

Except...She can't fit those wings in the car!!!