no more drama

one of my friends posted on facebook yesterday about halloween. specifically asking, what happened to homemade costumes and bite-size snickers? it has all gotten so out of hand. i do love our pumpkin lights and will admit that they were strung and hung on october one. but this week has just about sent me over the edge as far as the costume planning goes. my question is, what happened to the simple days of making something at home for a costume? (actually, that was pb's question as i was pacing the floor the other night, trying to figure out which group em was dressing up with and what she was going to be and why she was feeling "left out"). it seems that the middle school takes the dressing up part of halloween to a whole new level. i know that this is a dms tradition and the parents, teachers and students love the parade of ingeniously creative costumes. it is quite the competition. which brings me around to my point here. i love the creative aspect of all of this pagentry. but the competition aspect is what i am not welcoming. wil didn't really care who dressed up as what or who was in a group or not in a group. the boys just dressed up in camo or something easy and all he wanted was the candy. so this year has been a new experience for us. thankfully, em is in a bible study with all of the 5th grade girls and this "grouping" for costumes was addressed several weeks ago. we have 2 great moms that really love these girls and want to see them stay on track through these middle school years. and these years can be torturous. i am so grateful that these moms took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and bluntly addressed some potential issues before the halloween extravaganza today. we had a bumpy week but everything worked out and several phone calls later, combined efforts of a lot of moms to create the costumes, and a craft that involved a ton of glitter (if you know me, you know my feelings toward glitter), we have 5 of the most precious rockettes you can imagine. and i think we arrived at this day with everyone's feelings in tact.

as em grows up and we face more serious girl and friend issues, i hope and pray that i will have the wisdom and strength to not overreact, take it all too personally (amazing what it does to your heart when you think someone is mean to your child), and keep perspective as i try to teach her how to gracefully embrace and tackle these years...sans drama. i love her friends and the moms that care so much about them. i have said this before about this little group of girls...they are special.

love you em.