Last minute mini-beasts

Lily the social butterfly!

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Last night, the whole family attended a fancy dress disco held by Lily's playgroup. We had known about this for some while, but Tom and Lily were adamant they weren't going to dress up...until the day before the party! I spent much of yesterday cutting and hot-gluing felt in an attempt to throw together their requested costumes at the last minute. They are fascinated by all kinds of mini-beasts, so it came as no surprise that Tom wanted to be a ladybird. Lily initially wanted to be a slug (!!), but with a little guidance from me she agreed that a butterfly costume might be nicer! Emma didn't get much say in her costume, but I thought it would be sweet to have the girls both dressed as butterflies. The costumes aren't great and were put together very quickly with things I just had lying around, but the Podlings were thrilled with them nonetheless. For some reason all my photos are a bit blurry, (I think the batteries in my camera need changing) but you get the idea!

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The Podlings had a fabulous time at the disco and you couldn't get Tom off the dance floor. Emma had a little snooze when we first got there and then woke up and just took it all in. She wasn't remotely bothered by the loud music and took great pleasure in looking at the disco lights. Lily had spent all day showing me how she was going to dance at the disco, so she had a great time when we finally got there. She tends to get tired in the evening though, so she ended up sitting at the table and chatting to us. We all had a lovely evening and everyone went to bed with no fuss when we got home just after nine.
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Lily wore a dress with an all-over butterfly print (a gift from her Great Aunt), to which I attached the wings from her fairy costume. Her antennae were made from pipe cleaners and pompoms attached to one of her headbands.

Tom's ladybird costume was an old red sweatshirt turned inside out to hide the print. I simply glued some black felt to the back to make it look like a ladybird. He also had antennae made from pipe cleaners, pompoms and a headband, but he refused to put them on for the photo. He wore them all evening at the disco though.
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The littlest butterfly! I hot-glued Emma's antennae to a strip of felt. I wanted something soft and light that wouldn't bother her or make her hot. She seemed to be completely unaware she was wearing them.
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Emma sporting her pink felt butterfly wings. It's quite hard to get a picture of her back now because if you put her on her tummy she makes it her mission to roll onto her back. Here you see her in mid-roll!
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Emma enjoying her first social function!
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