Part of me thinks that Lara is now cut out for a career as a milliner; her eye for fashion having developed at such a young age. But I'm kidding myself.
Lara has won the Easter bonnet competition for a very simple reason... she has made a hat herself out of things she likes to get crafty with at home. Her hats have been very random, usually with bits of ribbons and stickers and pipe cleaners and pom poms stuck on willy nilly. But she isn't yet 4 years old... she's allowed to explore her creative side!
This year I was less surprised when I took Lara into nursery than I was last year. I had been prepared this time to see the array of beautiful hand-made hats and bonnets, all perfectly trimmed, coloured and crafted. Some of them looked amazing but honestly, 80-90% of them had clearly been made my parents, not 3 or 4 year olds. What is the point in that? Where's the fun? All the children who hadn't got the chance to make an Easter hat at home were invited to make a sugar-paper crown at nursery that day. These very simple sugar-paper crowns made with random bits of tissue paper and paint to me looked so much more fun than the perfectly-formed creations of the other mums and dads.
I will admit that I helped Lara with her hat. I helped her collect twigs in the garden, helped her to put the hair-band in to place (that was my idea... Lara was quite happy balancing it on her head). I helped Lara with the glueing... but mainly because I don't trust her with a bottle of PVA! But Lara did all the cutting of ribbons and twigs. She chose the eggs she wanted, and where she wanted them. Lara said that she wanted stickers all over the base of her hat and, if we had had more time she would have painted her nest in a fine array of colours. Lara was the boss. And why not?
Lara's prize-winning bonnet won her a chocolate easter egg (handy because we hadn't been planning on buying her one) and a photo op. with the mayor of Wokingham which apparently brought her to tears!!!
