It is October and for our family that means several birthdays and Halloween. My girls love to dress up and role play. They play house, school, weddings – you name it they create it. I adore this about my girls. I am thrilled that my almost 12 year old plays young for her age. This is partially due to the fact that we sensor / shelter her from a lot of today’s media and partially due to being a big sister and best friend to her almost 8-year-old sister. Some days I am torn over this … am I sheltering her too much? These lingering questions all fade away when I see how advertising in today’s society is focusing on over-sexualizing EVERYTHING!

I am not a perfect parent, nor do I pretend to be. I do however pride myself in letting my girls be little kids. I am perfectly fine that they still think Miley Cyrus is in her “Hannah Montana” phase, that they play dolls and enjoy mothering them, and they enjoy a good princess and/or fairy movie.

Halloween has recently become a hard holiday for my oldest. She is in that in between stage with her body … not quite a child, but definitely not a teenager. She has never intentionally wanted to be anything at Halloween that is sexual, but as anyone who has ever “Googled” a Halloween costume can tell you – there is a sexy version of almost everything. Case in point – the Sexy Pizza Rat costume. Seriously! It exists. Now that she no longer fits in child size Halloween costumes, one would think that the teen costumes wouldn’t be risque, but that unfortunately isn’t the case. Most everything is low cut or too short. So we end up improvising.

I love Halloween because it keeps my creativity flowing. I love creating either the costume itself or items to go with it. My oldest has really raised the bar at times with what she wants to be and if she wants me to make it. When she was too young to trick-or-treat I would do co-ordinating costumes for us and then go to my moms house and her other grandmothers house for photos. We have gone as Strawberry Shortcake and Blueberry Muffin and Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts. As she got old enough to go trick-or-treating she has been going with her best friend. We get together as families and walk around the same neighborhood each year. We have a blast! Kailee has been princesses and animals, witches and more. My favorite one that I made was the White Witch of Narnia.

So, as each Halloween rolls around, I hope that my kids still want to be kids and dress their age (and not just for Halloween). This year she is debating on being a peacock or Queen Susan from Narnia.

Easy Monkey Bread
2 cans Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls
1 bag chopped pecans (optional)
10 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 c. light brown sugar
2/3 c. white sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bunt pan or 2 loaf pans. Sprinkle pan with a handful of nuts if using. Put brown sugar and butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combined as butter melts. Once the butter starts to melt turn heat to low to keep the sugar from burning. Once the mixture is completely combined pour a few spoonfuls over the nuts. Set remaining sauce to the side. Unwrap cinnamon rolls (you won’t need the icing for this recipe). Cut each roll into four  pieces and set aside. Pour white sugar and cinnamon into a large Ziploc bag and shake to mix. Roll gently each piece of cinnamon roll and put into bag. Gently shake pieces to coat in C&S mixture. Place piece in pan to coat the bottom. Once you have a layer, add another layer of nuts and gently pour remaining C&S mixture over the pieces. Now mix your brown sugar and butter mixture and gently pour over the entire dish. Be careful as you need to give it time to drip into the empty spaces. Place dish on top of a foil lined baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes. The dough will expand while baking so some pieces may jump ship from your dish if you are using loaf pans. The sugar will be extremely hot so make sure you wait a little before turning the dish out onto a serving plate or dish.