The Butterfly Flutterbye

Before we moved to Texas, I started researching the town we were moving to. One of the most exciting things I found was that the town of Grapevine has a Butterfly Flutterbye every October to celebrate the migration of the Monarch butterflies through this area on their way to Mexico. Well, since Addie loves the TV show Little Einsteins and they have a whole episode devoted to Monarch butterfly migration, I knew she'd be excited.

We found out the event is free (!) and includes a costume contest, parade, and butterfly exhibits and activities. Count us in!

I got an idea for a costume for Addie one night when she was wearing her hooded towel after bath, and grabbed the edges of the towel and flapped it like wings. Aha! Why don't I make her a cape of butterfly wings so she can flap her wings like a butterfly?

So I cut orange fabric to the shape of wings, and painted them like the Monarch. I attached black rubber hair ties to the edge of the wings so Addie could slip her fingers through and be able to flap. I attached a ribbon tie so she could wear it like a cape and it was done! (We already had some antennae from a ladybug costume, so I just added orange fabric to them). The costume only cost about $10!

Here is the finished product.

Here is Addie modeling her costume at the Butterfly Flutterbye!

She loved it and I was thrilled it came out the way it did.

We didn't win any prizes, but I could care less. We liked it and liked that it was very different from all the other costumes. Out of hundreds of other participants, she was the only one who wasn't wearing wings made of wire and mesh. Yay for being unique!