Thursday, December 20, 2007

Kids say the darndest things..

I was visiting yesterday with Judy over at Anybody Home and reading her post on visiting her mother at the nursing home. I left her a comment about how children and old people are so much alike. It also got me to thinking about an encounter I had with a little "princess" on Halloween.

Back in the spring I decided to make a little arrangement on my old church bench on the front porch:

spring porch bench

Dave had found a little pair of yellow rain boots that he thought my granddaughter could wear, but she has a purple pair (her favorite color) that she loves. And besides, I had just the thing in mind that I wanted to do with these yellow boots!! Somewhere online, maybe a blog but I can't remember, I had seen just one little rain boot with flowers in it. I just thought it looked soooo cute and I decided to do this flower arrangement with both boots! I had some thrifted flowers that I added and put them on my bench. I liked it!

Then Halloween came and I still had this spring display on the bench. I had several little goblins visit that night for candy and I always take time to talk to each one, telling them how scary they are or how much I like their original costume. One little girl in particular made a lasting impression! My doorbell rang (again!) When I opened the door there stood a cute little blond haired princess (around 4 years old) with big blue eyes, dressed in a beautiful white glittery dress with a big smile on her face and her goody bag held out to me. Her daddy had accompanied her but was standing back a ways and letting her do her own talking. I could see he was beaming with pride when he looked at his little girl. Here is the conversation that ensued:

"Trick or Treat!!" "Well, hello there, Little Princess!" I said. It was at this point that she spied the yellow rainboots/ flower pot! "What a beautiful dress you have on!" "Yes, I know!" she replied, still looking at the boots. "And you are such a beautiful Little Princess!" I said. "Yes, I know!" was the reply again, looking at me but still glancing at the boots out of the corner of her eyes. At this point her daddy said, "Tell the lady which princess you are." "I am Princess Fiona." she told me as she twisted from side to side making the glitter sparkle in the light. I said, "But you're not green, and you certainly are more beautiful than Princess Fiona!" "I know!" she said once more very matter-of-factly.

I proceeded to put a big handful of candy in the bag she was holding out to me, but she was all the while looking toward the boots. She started to walk away then just as suddenly stopped and pointed at my masterpiece and exclaimed, "That just looks silly! You're suppose to wear boots in the rain, not put flowers in them!" Her red-faced father who had just minutes ago looked at her with such pride now looked like he wanted to sink through the porch floor and kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" I was laughing the whole time and saying, "Oh, don't worry about it, I have a granddaughter who's always been very outspoken!!" Then to his little girl he said, "Now you're the silly here. You didn't even say, thank you, to the nice lady." She stopped at the end of the porch and looked back at me with her eyes lowered and said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am. Thank you for my candy!"

As the two of them walked on out the street I could hear her Daddy talking in a low voice to her and her reply, in a very loud voice, was, "I'm sorry, Daddy, but it really did look silly!!" I'm still laughing!!!

Kids and old people...they tend to say exactly what's on their minds!! Who knows, maybe someday when the Little Princess grows up she will learn to appreciate "Shabby Chic" decor! :)

rain boots bouquet sized