The other day, the girls were invited to an Alice in Wonderland-themed birthday party. The invitation read, “Please come dressed as your favorite character from Alice in Wonderland or wear a crazy hat.” What will they wear, I wondered, thinking they can’t be Alice because where in the world am I going to find a Size 10-12 blue pinafore dress? Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter required way too much makeup, the Cheshire cat required too much thought and creativity. What to do, what to do, I thought for days. I happened to mention it to one of my girlfriends, and just like that, she came up with the brilliant-but-no-brainer idea of Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Well, duh! Why didn’t I think of that? Was there a more perfect idea for twins? (Even though Tweedle-One-of-Them told me that Tweedledee and Tweedledum aren’t really even twins at all. Hmm, that’s curious.)
I threw the idea out to them and they loved it, so we hastily (as in, the night before) gathered whatever we could find around the house to assemble a somewhat presentable costume: striped shirts, pillows for stuffing, old suspenders borrowed from my dad, baseball hats and homemade bowties. There was no time to make that propeller thing for the hats, and at the last minute, I slapped Post-its on them labeled “Tweedledee” and “Tweedledum.” In case no one knew who they were:
When we learned they’d be going to the theater to see the movie, we made the outfits “convertible” in case no one else dressed up. (These are pre-teen girls were talking about, after all.) All they had to do was remove the pillows (which would actually be comfy in the theater), take off the suspenders and hat and they’d look pretty normal. Well, normal kids wearing their parents’ T-shirts, but whatever.
As it turned out, most of the other girls did either dress up or wear a crazy hat, but on the way to the theater, Tweedledum said her collar was itching or choking her so she unstuffed herself in the car . So Tweedledee followed suit, saying, “It would have been silly for me to walk into the movie just being Tweedledee with no Tweedledum.”
I heard they had a great time. And they weren’t even late.
So darling, and quick and creative thinking mom! You amaze me.