Dress-Up

 

                                                                   Fireman Phil

Growing up we had a plethora of dress-up clothes. We had a huge laundry hamper overflowing with them, we had wigs, hats, old bridesmaids dresses, masks, and a menagerie of things we could use to make about any costume, and we all loved playing with them.

 

                                                                   Phillip as Zorro!

I think Phillip's favorite was his muscle shirts, he had more than a few over the years, because when he outgrew one, my mom would buy him another, because he used them ALL the time.

I was getting out the Halloween decorations this week, and there were a few scary Halloween masks in there. Somehow these do not frighten my twin toddlers at all. :) But it did remind me of a little prank that Phillip and I played on Sharlene. Shar could not have been more than 3, maybe closer to two. So I was about 7 or 8 and Phillip was 5 or 6.I was playing in the dress up clothes and put a netted wig across my face and had a bunch of other stuff on as well. I told Phillip, "I'm going to hide in your closet and scare Sharlie. You invite her in your room and then after a minute ask her to get something out of your closet for you." He happily obliged. Sharlie came in and I listened for a bit and then he sent her to get something out of the very full closet, so I was wedged behind some hanging clothes. As she got closer to me I jumped out and yelled. It worked VERY well. She ran out of the room screaming and crying and Phillip and I laughed and laughed, and then I got in a whole lot of trouble, but it was worth it. Ha ha!!

I included some Halloween and dress-up photos from over the years as well. As I remember, Phillip LOVED Halloween as a kid, I remember him being very excited about each costume, and with his extreme love of sweets, what is not to love about Halloween! :)

 I think this is probably one of Phillip's first times dressing-up. :) Here he is wearing a super cute cowboy vest and his momma's heels. (I have had the vest for a few years and needed to repair, it was going to be for my boys to wear, but now, it will be a special keepsake)

 

This is probably one of my very most favorite photos of Phillip. All dressed up in cowboy gear, just like his daddy. He was such a joyful little boy, as evidenced by the huge smile on his face. This is also one of the rare photos of Charlie smiling. Maybe that is where Phillip got that stoic looking face for all photos, with only rare smiles, because I remember Charlie doing the same thing, smiling and laughing, get out the camera, and the smile would disappear. :) Of course, there are photos of both of them smiling, they just seem harder to find.

Phillip playing cowboy with a friend (I'm not sure who, sorry!), in the forefront are Shar and Calvin.

This was a church Christmas party. Phillip is the cute little army guy on the left side. He is about 5 here. The rest in the photo are: Shar (Supergirl), Phillip, Karen (Heather's friend), Heather (both princesses), Danny Smith (a cowboy), Rachel (me, always a baby), and Erik Smith (also a cowboy).

 

Here is Phillip in his scarecrow costume, and Sharlie as a kitty. I think he is around 7 here. He was a good little scarecrow. :) We didn't usually have the money to buy costumes each Halloween, we went with what we had around the house and in the dress-up box. I don't think we even realized that buying a new costume at the store each year was a possibility. But Phillip always used his imagination and found something fun to wear.

 Here's another pic of Phillip the scarecrow with his very best childhood friend at the time, Danny. They were always arm in arm like that. I think they probably are again. Sadly Danny passed away about eleven years ago now.

I think these were Phillip's favorite pajamas ever. They were dracula p.j.'s, and he would definitely pretend to be dracula in them. He wore those things for years, long beyond the point when they actually fit him well. lol

Pictured above are: Phillip, our cousin Nicholas, Heather, Rachel, and Sharlie. Nic reposted this pic on facebook not quite a year ago, and his words, so sweet, just get me every time, "This is my my light!! us when we were young and everything is at our hands —" and " Phil look at this K you will be ok!!!!" 

Phillip LOVED having a karate outfit to wear. We never could afford those kind of extra curricular activities, but he sure would have loved it if he could have learned it. He always had a karate gi, when he outgrew on he got another for pajamas, and he wore them a ton!

 

This was probably Phillip's nicest costume. I think he is about 8 or so here. It was lovingly sewn by Terri, his birth mom. It was amazing! It was really nice and plush, and I know she put a lot of effort into it, I'm sure she put hours of sewing into it. I was always a little jealous of that costume. I knew that Terri had a special bond with Phillip because she had carried him and raised him until he was one, but I was still a little upset that she had made such a cool costume for him, and hadn't made one for me! I guess at 11 or so you just don't have the perspective to understand all of that.

Here is Phillip and his best childhood friend, B.J., they were beaten up soccer players that Halloween. Sharlie is a pirate in the background.

 And another with our soccer players, and B.J.'s little brother, Aaron (and Calvin's all time best friend). Sadly Aaron passed away just about a year before Phillip. How we miss them both so!

 

This was the year that I was in drama and we were learning stage make-up. I was so excited because we learned how to make fake beards. Phillip was a good little guinea pig for me, and let me make one for him. It took a fair amount of time, even though it looks like a big mess! Ha ha! I can't remember what Phillip was going to be with a cool beard, but well, the beard did not quite turn out as either of us planned, and I don't know that he really liked it, but he was such a good sport and sported it for Halloween. He decided to go with the crazy mess of a beard and be Moses! :) Calvin is with him wearing the Dinosaur costume that Aunt Terri made for Phillip when he was a little boy. And Aaron Freeman is next to Calvin, but I'm not sure what his costume is (Ann? B.J.? :) )

Now this photo just cracks me up. My mom has always loved having photos of her children and grandchildren taken, sometimes a little too much! ha ha! But this year she really wanted Halloween pics of everyone taken, and well, getting 10 people ready in costume and keeping them happy, yeah, not an easy task, as evidenced by the smiling and engaging faces above. Phillip was less than thrilled, being the 14 or 15 year old he is here. He was a punk sports fan or something. :)

Also pictured are:
bottom row: Dylan (clown), Kolby (devil), Cole (clown)
middle row: Lea (our mom a witch--that just sounds wrong lol!), Phillip, Rachel (me, also a witch)
top row: Sharlene (a witch, possibly the only smiley one in the pic!), LeeAnna (a fairy), Casey (a devil), and Calvin (the evil Freddy Krueger bunny).

I also wanted to include some cute photos of his little guy, a little dressed up. These are photos that I got off of Phil's facebook page, so they are ones that he loved.

 

                            I just love this pic of his son, he is so darling in this little outfit and giant grin!

 

                                                          in a bear jacket on vacation

                                                                    in a skeleton shirt


I wish Phil could be around this Halloween to take his little boy trick or treating, to pick out costumes in the future, and just enjoy the holiday he seemed to love so much as a little boy. But I'm sure he'll be looking down on his little guy smiling, wishing he too could be there.

Pets

Yesterday my kids were telling me gecko facts that they learned on "Animal Jam".

"A gecko has no eyelids, so they lick their eyes to keep them wet." they said

It took me back to Phillip and his geckos. We lived close to a pet store, a 5-10 minute walk. Phillip and I both loved to walk down to the pet store (B.J. provided the name for me! It was All Pet Complex!) and peruse the animals. I was much more into the rodents, and Phillip was into the lizards. He would gaze at the geckos, iguanas, turtles, spiders, snakes, etc. My mom was pretty open to all pets, excepts rats, mice, snakes, and spiders, but everything else we could have, and practically did have everything else. Those geckos were pretty cheap, tiny little green ones that I think we meant to be feeders for bigger animals. He bought quite a few of those, and they never lasted terribly long. He had an iguana for a few years as well. That thing was FAST! He inherited a turtle from somewhere, and the previous owner had fed it lunch meat regularly, so that turtle was a meat eater. Sadly that turtle ate one of his geckos. I still remember Phillip's sad crying face as he removed the half shredded gecko from the cage, cursing that darned turtle. He couldn't have been more than 10, maybe younger.

Once Phillip came home early from a birthday party. My mom was a bit surprised. Phillip said he had found a turtle on the way home, in the middle of the road. He was so excited and ready to find everything it needed to be his pet. He was in 1st or 2nd grade, I would guess. Not too long after though, the birthday boy's mom gave our mom a call. Her son's turtle was missing, and Phillip had left early. Yeah, lets just say he got in a little trouble, and did not get to keep the turtle as his pet. Maybe that's why later my mom got that turtle for him.

He really loved animals. We had a dog, a Husky mix, I think. Her name was Tinker, she was beautiful, white fur and blue blue eyes. She was a puppy and rambunctious, Phillip was in kindergarten and a rambunctious boy as well. One day before afternoon kindergarten he and Tinker were tearing around and well, I think her fingernail caught Phillip's ear and he ended up with stitches. I remember trying to find him after school to walk home with him, and he wasn't there, so I rushed home to see why he had not gone to school, and saw his bandaged up ear. He was a tough kid though, I don't remember much whining, I think he kind of wore it as a badge of pride.

Phillip also loved our other dogs, Muffin, Spunky, Cinnamon, and Shasta, among others. We had many much loved cats and kittens as well. We loved when our dogs and cats had puppies and he was always loving on them. We had a lot of puppies over the years, and Phillip and I were often the ones that would sit outside the grocery store trying to sell them for $5 each to anyone we could.

As he grew older he had other dogs that he just loved, I never met those dogs, but they were like his first kids, I hear. I do remember him telling me about how much he wanted a "rotty". I'm glad he got to have some, his Diablo and Cyrus, among other animals he had.

 

Phillip, Calvin and Shasta

 Phillip and Spunky

Phil and his dogs

 

 

Not every one is an animal person (sadly, I am not as much as I always thought I would be. lol), but Phillip sure was. He loved having someone to take care of and love, and love him back. He was good with those animals. I'm sure he's being his rambunctious self in heaven with many of them right now!