Play with caution.

When you're little, there are three steps to playing:

1. Set-up
2. Play
3. Put away

For most kids, step number two, the playing portion of the process is the most appealing. However, my favorite step was the set-up.

The toy with the best set-up process was without a doubt Playmobil.

Within that miniature mansion there were so many possibilities. How would you decorate the kitchen? Which bedroom was for the parents and which was for the kids? Where would Elsa, the maid, sleep? What food was on the table? Should the bookshelf go in the hearth room or the library? Should the flowers be arranged with pink in one box and white in another, or should they be mixed? (...!)

Absolutely endless hours of fun, all wrapped up in the preparation to play.

I tried to be compliant when the set-up was finished and my friends actually wanted to play with the toys. I just didn't like it, though.

What if someone messed up the bedroom? Or what if, when trying to reach to the stove in the back of the kitchen, someone knocked over the tiny (but perfectly set) kitchen table?

These were just a few of my many fears. With all of the careful preparation and hard work, why take the risk of messing it up?

Miss USA is probably still asking herself that very question. She'd made it so far. She looked beautiful. Everything was perfect and just right.

And then, she fell.

(My Playmobil kitchen table falling to the ground doesn't look so bad compared to Miss USA falling to the ground.)

I'm impressed, though, with her endurance. She popped right back up, clapping and smiling all the way.

While she did not appear to be fazed by the long journey she took falling from those high heels, I bet now she is wishing she had stuck with the set-up portion of the show, and steered clear of the playing part. I can only imagine how messy the clean-up portion of her evening was.