Should kids wear their dress up costume outside of the house?

When I was little girl, my favourite character to dress up as was Belle from Disney’s ‘Beauty & The Beast’. Her hair was oh so perfect and who could forgot that beautiful signature yellow ball gown she wore when Belle dances with The Beast? After watching that movie in the cinemas with eyes wide open and gleaming, I couldn’t help nagging my mother to buy me a yellow dress. But not any yellow dress, the big golden ball gown dress! Just like Belle.

My mother look far and wide to find this perfect ball gown...and lucky me, she found it! All my dreams and wishes came true. Day after day, weeks and possibly months went on and I wasn’t budging out of that beautiful yellow ball gown dress. Grocery shopping at the local supermarket, family gatherings and even heading down to the hardware store with my father. It didn’t matter, I simply loved this dress and I wasn’t prepared to get out of it any time soon!  I don’t know what it was that I LOVED about this dress. Yellow wasn’t my favourite colour and I wasn’t a big fan of outfits made from that terrible taffeta material either.

I think I was mesmerised by this dress purely for the fact on how beautiful Belle looked in it. It made her feel like a princess! I wanted to look and feel like a princess too!  I guess all women have dreamt of living and looking like a princess as well. Having the perfect hair, flawless make up and amazing clothes to wear.

But my question, and reason behind this post is How far is too far with dressing up OUTSIDE of the House?

For example, is it okay to have your child dress up in their favourite princess or fairy outfit down at the local shopping centre?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

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1.      LIKE Pink Poppy on FACEBOOK at http:www.facebook.com/PinkPoppy1

2.     Find our competition and tell us ‘Why you love Pink Poppy?’  (HINT - Most creative answer wins!)

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Trick or Treat........ Now only 24 days away!!!

Originally named as “All-Hallows-Eve”, Halloween started around 2000 years ago in the area which is now Ireland. Celts (people from ancient Roman times) celebrate this day because it’s the end of summer with the dark cold winter soon to come. Celts believed that on the night before November 1 ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

Trick or treat is a customary practice for children on Halloween in many countries. Parents and Children go to great measures to bring the spirit of Halloween into their homes by decorating their houses with cotton spider webs, devil sticks, skeletons costumes, helping to make their house appear hunted, others just have a pumpkin basket filled with sweet candy treats. 

Did you know? One quarter of the all the candy sold annually in the U.S is purchased for Halloween

With only 24 days away until Halloween, Pink Poppy has some fantastic costumes suitable for boys and girls. Visit your favourite Pink Poppy stockist and ask for the spooky ghost cape, the scary red spider cape, the deadly bat hooded cape, and the red devil hooded cape with horns.

 

Halloween is not all about scary and spooky, you could be on the good side and defeat the bad. Pink Poppy also have available the wise wizard and witch’s capes with a matching hats.

With so much fun just around the corner let us know which Pink Poppy outfit you will be wearing this Halloween.

It's Spring - let's go outside!

Finally, the sun is shining a little more and the days feel brighter.  It's time to have some outside fun again. 

Go Camping - Pack up your sleeping bag and tent and head out for a camping trip ..... in your backyard!  Spending the night outside under the stars will be an awesome adventure, plus your whole family can join in.  You will need:

• snacks to munch on
• a ball to throw around while it's still light
• board games, books and magazines
• your portable DVD player so you can have a moonlight cinema
• don't forget your torch for telling ghost stories when it's dark - or in case you get the spooks in the middle of the night!

Plant a veggie garden - get your green thumbs out and create a veggis patch in your backyard.  all you need is a patch of soil, a shovel and a few packets of seeds.  Hint:  make sure the spot you choose is sunny and pull out any weeds first.  Water your seeds according to the instructions on the packet and before long you'll have a bunch of delish veggies ready for you to pick and eat.  Cool!

Sports Carnival - get active and plan a super silly sports day!  Divide your mates into teams and plan a fun carnival where each team has to compete in a bunch of events to decide the overall winner.  Think of the wackiest sports you can and then plan around six events for everyone to compete in over the day.  Give each team a name and a colour, and get everyone to dress up in their team colours.  Don't forget to keep score too, and award a prize to the winning team!  Silly sports to try ...

• piggy back races
• dance off ( points awarded for creativity and funniest moves)
• three-legged race
• hopscotch
• wheelbarrow races

Hold a pet show - invite your pals over for a Pet Show in your backyard.  (Note: ask your parents first and only invite pets if you think they will get along with other animals!)  Lay down a couple of towels on the grass to make a 'pets catwalk'and get each person to walk their pet along the catwalk.  Then, get together and nominate an award for each pet.  You can give whichever awards you like, from Cutest Bark to Fluffiest Pet, but make sure each cute animal gets an award so no one feels left out.

Show me the Money!! 5 steps by Kidpreneur founder

Five steps to success, by Business Guru and Club Kidpreneur founder, Creel Price.

1.  Play to your strengths - If you are a creative then consider something that uses these talents, like selling hand drawn cards.  If you are a good cook then make something that people love to eat.
2.  Do what you enjoy - Business can take a while to be successful and can take a lot of hard work.  If you start a business in something you like doing, then you will be more likely to follow through to the stage where you are making some money.
3.  Conduct research - Before you start your business, find out if people would buy your product and how much they would be willing to pay for it.  Look at what other similar companies offer and how you can make it cheaprer or faster.
4.  Ask for help - don't be afraid to ask for advice.  Test your ideas on your friends and family.
5.  Start Small - don't pay huge expenses until you have trialled whether people will buy your products or services, whether of not you can make money, and most importantly, whether you like doing it.

Buck-making ideas:

• Make and sell greeting cards
• Plant or tend a garden for your neighbours
• Bake and sell cookies
• Help with laundry
• Consider pet sitting (and feeding!) or dog walking
• Car washing
• Footpath or verandah sweeping

Find a Fairy in your garden

The best way to find a fairy in your garden is to invite them in!  You need to make your garden fairy-friendly.  Make sure there are lots of flowers, trees and plants for them to play in.  They also love water, so if you have a pool or pond, you're extra lucky.

Be positive.  Fairies will only befriend humans who believe in them.  And look in the right places.  Did you know that dawn and dusk are the best times to spot one?

You could also bake up some sweet treats like cookies and cupcakes and hold a fairy picnic.  Fairies are known to have a sweet tooth so they'll want to join in!  You could also leave some of your best drawings out for them to look at - fairies love art too!

Tell Pink Poppy what you could do if you found a fairy in your garden!

Hair Clip in, hair clip out ....

Why do 3 year olds demand they have a hair clip, only to slide it off within 2 mins?  I bought my niece some pink clips with a fluffy pom-pom type ball with a couple of sparkly stones on it.  It is very cute and her eyes lit up when she saw it.  Immediately she wanted it in her hair, but it lasted only minutes.  The real attraction was the bending, clipping motion of the metal clip.  That was fun.  She opened and closed it for ages.

Then I found the clips on the floor and put it in my own hair so they wouldn't be lost.  No, that wasn't acceptable.  They were her clips now and not mine.  What right did I have to use her clips?  And so the dance continued.  The clicking, in hair, out of hair, on floor, in my hair again.

I love the drama of doing her hair.  The tiny brush, the fine golden hair that is so soft to touch, the art of placing plaits and pony tails were ever she wants them.  And the final result of multiple clips, ties and headbands that give her Rock Princess cred.  I don't have this with my sons.

The clips finally found a home in her handbag with a toy lizard, two blocks and a tiny book.  At what age do they finally decide to keep the clips in their hair??