My little 'Madeline'

In an old house in Paris 

that was covered with vines

lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.....

.....the smallest one was Madeline.

She was not afraid of mice--

She loved winter, snow, and ice.

To the tiger in the zoo 

Madeline just said, "Pooh-pooh"......

......and nobody knew so well

how to frighten Miss Clavel her Mum.

This year was Quinn's first time trick-or-treating (we thought she was too young last year).  Madeline is the only story she sort of sits still for; fitting as she's quite the fearless little one just like Madeline herself .  So I assembled my own version of a Madeline costume for her, fully aware that next year she'll have an adamant & definite say in what her Halloween costume will be.  Might as well relish my creative freedom now ;-)  

Quinn wasn't stoked during the costume's trial run the day before Halloween.  She prefers to be naked these days.  On Halloween, either she believed my lie ("You love wearing this!") or she quickly caught on that candy was involved......well, she ended up not minding the ensemble.  Long johns & all.  Why is Halloween always frigid around here?  We went trick-or-treating with a group of wonderful neighbors & Quinn had a blast.  She lasted 7 houses, which was a miracle in my mind.

Also had the first Kit Kat & Twix of her life.  Those are organic, right?  By the look on her face, it was like she had just eaten a rainbow covered in clouds dipped in a sweet hug.  Sort of like how I look when I take that first sip of wine at noon night.

I hesitate to call this a DIY Madeline costume, as there are so many great, handmade ones floating around out there in BlogLand.  I didn't sew a stitch--suck it Pinterest.  The blue dress with lace peter pan collar was from ebay. It's navy versus the traditional royal blue so at times I thought she resembled Mary Poppins.  Madeline's straw chapeau was from a discount store.  I added red/black ribbon from my stash to the ensemble.  Quinn already had the Mary Jane shoes. It all came in under $20.

And that's all there is--

there isn't any more.

:-)

*excerpts from Ludwig Bemelmans' Madeline

P.S. We didn't dress up this year, but here's that one time I was Waldo in 2010.  

Awful maybe. Or was it awesome?