When Shaelyn was 2, she wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween. And she wanted the rest of the family to be her entourage. And she got to pick who was who. She had total control over the decision-making process, a role she completely relished. And since Rachelle was only 9 months old, she didn't care that her big sister had assigned her the role of Gus-Gus. In fact, she made the cutest little Gus-Gus I'd ever seen.
Then when she was 3, Shaelyn wanted to be Angelina Ballerina. Again, the rest of the family had to be her entourage. Michael even willingly let me put hair ties and mouse ears in his hair. Rachelle was assigned the role of Alice, Angelina's best friend. This time Rachelle was almost 2, old enough to have an opinion, but thrilled to be a ballerina mouse just like her big sister.
So you can imagine Shaelyn's surprise this year when Rachelle refused to go along with whatever sidekick role Shaelyn tried to force upon her. In fact, Shaelyn had all but skipped over Rachelle and was assigning major sidekick status to Christian - she was going to be Lilo, Christian was going to be Stitch. She was going to be Dora, Christian was going to be Boots. When I finally suggested Rapunzel, Christian was immediately assigned the role of Pascal. And Rachelle, she was told, could be one of the little girls that braid Rapunzel's hair.
Rachelle wasn't having it. (Neither was Momma.) Knowing that BOTH girls had been begging me for a Rapunzel dress-up since they'd seen the movie, I thought the time had come to have identical costumes this year. No fighting over who is who in the theme roles, no fighting over the Rapunzel dress after Halloween, no fighting, period!
So the suggestion that both girls be Rapunzel was received surprisingly well. I was happy that stage-director, costume-designer, executive-producer Shaelyn approved.
And I got to play a villian. And wear a wig. And have people not recognize me.
My favorite costume to date!
(Shaelyn had originally suggested that I play the Queen, because she is Rapunzel's real mother. While I was flattered that she wanted me to be her real mother, I didn't want to play a SILENT back-up role. Where's the fun in that? So I suggested Mother Gothel. Thankfully the girls thought that was a great idea as well. Because, let's face it, Mother really does KNOW BEST!)
And Christian totally has the Pascal tongue-sticking-out-routine down pat!
