My mom surprised the girls with temporary butterfly tattoos on Saturday when we stopped by her house for lunch. The girls were thrilled and I was once again reminded how easily enamored they are with a bit of bling. The accessorizing gene is a dominant one!

I can now say that I have inked up my mama’s ankle, albeit with a very dainty and elegant butterfly temporary tattoo. I had to tease her because she was visiting a new church on Sunday. “Mama this butterfly tattoo will look really nice tomorrow at church!” Well, she decided to wash it off the next morning. I’m not sure she wanted to promote the fact that she is a tattoo toting grandma. Sometimes Southern Baptists can be so darn impressionable.

On the other hand the girls proudly wore their butterfly tattoos Sunday morning. Nothing says Sunday best like a little fresh ink for Jesus. We attend a very rockin’ contemporary church where blue jeans and flip flops are welcome so I knew no one would even bat an eye at a few tattoos, but Miss C had her sights set on more royal accessories.

As we were about to walk out the back door Sunday for the 8 millionth time before one of the girls was distracted by some random thing they must have or the world would fling itself off its axis (lip gloss, a kitty cat purse, a necklace, apple juice, a baggie of Cheerios) Miss C shouted, “Mommy, wait! I need to get two crowns…one for you and one for me.” She ran down the hall to her room to retrieve a jeweled play crown. I told her that I didn’t really need to wear a crown, but yelled for her to QUICKLY (I was running out of patience) pick a crown out for herself. She wore the crown in the car and was wearing it when I walked her into her new “big kids’” classroom in the church basement for only the second time. A little girl coloring at one of the tables exclaimed, in awe, “She’s GOT A CROWN!” like Miss C had just ridden in on a sparkly unicorn with a rainbow mane pulling a cart full of free ice cream with extra sprinkles.

Sometimes I wish I could wear a crown in public. It would certainly help break the ice in a lot of situations.