Fancy Dress

I do love a fancy dress party and I think everyone should be encouraged to dress up as much as possible. Last weekend it was to a Disney themed occasion and we were invited as a family to attend.

We have lots of fun getting the children to choose their outfits - oldest insisted on being Batman regardless of theme. Youngest wanted to be a princess but wanted trousers and usually the 2 are not all that compatible. In Aladdin they are! Jasmine wears trousers. That was much easier than I anticipated. The outfits arrived in plenty of time and we allowed a single trying on session before the actual party.

My husband and I were not so easy. We both like to think 'outside the box' and spent ages thinking about all the franchises Disney own including Marvel, Lucasfilm (Star Wars) and Pixar. I wanted classic Disney. I wanted to be a princess too. After many suggestions, mostly of Cruella De Vil I decided on Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It worked well with my re-enactment costume.  Ideas my husband had were much wilder - Jedi (his dressing gown essentially), Mowgli (a loin cloth!?!) and the dragon from Pete' Dragon (he would be invisible so not actually there), the list goes on and on. He eventually decided on the easy option - a pirate using his re-enactment costume.

It was fabulous - everyone had made such an effort with the costumes including a purple faced Ursula, green toy soldiers (with feet fastened together), Mr Potato Head, a storm trooper, lots of princesses and pirates as well as scattering of witches plus a few Woody and Jessie outfits. 

The nicest part of the party was the people. The party was for the children's last foster carer and full of people who had not seen the children since they moved on. The comments were amazing - plenty of people commenting on how they had grown but also on how confident and happy they were, how sociable they were and  crediting it to our skill are parents. It was nice to have complete strangers say such wonderful things about the children, children they knew nearly 2 years ago. To their credit the children were amazing - fazed on occasion by people who knew them but whom they had no memory of which we expected. It made me exceptionally proud to be able to call myself their mummy.