Happy Excuse-to-Dress-Up Day!

I don't do Halloween.  Neither my husband nor I grew up celebrating Halloween, so it's just not a big deal to us.  Honestly, not much really appeals to me about the witchy festivities, and I really dislike all the ghoulish decorations.  I'm not being a hater here; if you love Halloween and want to throw your energy into making it a big day, go for it. It is just not for me.

Except.

Who doesn't love candy?  I mean, besides dentists and my Sammy?

And.

Pumpkins are so cheerful (and, uncarved, they make great decorations right up till Thanksgiving).

And.

I love love love playing dress up.  Yep, I'm a grown-up mom lady person and I still play dress up.  Only my kids don't know it yet.  They must think everyone dons a polka-dot dress and vibrant red lipstick to perform domestic chores.

I happen to have a lot of candy and pumpkins around, but one can never have too many dress-up clothes.  The happy, cute, creative costumes and the chance to show off my happy, cute, creative children are the only reasons that make me wish we did Halloween. Especially when I see something like this lovely little concoction from one of my favorite blogging crafters.  What kind of dress-up loving mama would I be to deny my lovely little girls something like that?

When I saw The Cottage Home's duds, I started thinking through my stash of fabric, creating a similar ensemble in my mind... Let's see, I have shiny red satin, sheer sparkly organza, happy striped and dotted ribbon, and absolutely zero extra time.  Bummer.  Because my girls need some new dress-up stuff.  Really.  What they have only fills a small laundry basket and it is all Disney Princess garb (which I hate and they love.)

The next day a friend and I hit Old Navy for a massive sale they were having (a situation that deserves an entire post of it's own: 2 mommas + 2 nursing infants + 2 two-year-olds = absolutely hysterical chaos!) and I saw a rack of costumes marked down to $5.00.  Plus, I had a "40% OFF" coupon.  So, instead of the original price of $29.94 I paid a whopping $3.00 for each outfit!  That's less than a happy meal, folks - and guaranteed to last a lot longer! 

 Is the construction of the garments solid? No, I've had to repair the queen bee dress twice already.  Does anyone care? No!  It was $3.00 people!

We are very happy on this last day of October, (despite the rush-to-school yelling) and we hope you all are too.

Boys dress up too! My sons had outfits (homemade, so take that!) for the school costume parade on Friday. Weston was a Christmas clown (say what?) and Sammy was a laptop computer (because his dad thought it would be cool).  But OF COURSE, I did not get any pictures snapped. Maybe I'll make encourage them to become their clowny computery selves again today.  We could hit up Great Grandma's house during the town's trick-or-treat hours.  She always has lots of candy around. 

Wardrobe {FUN}ction

I was trying to tell G-Baby that she looked extra sweet in nothing but a soft blankey...Or atop a hand-made quilt.

But she didn't so much feel the same way I did about it. So I gave her a shirt. Now, I don't know if she was just cold, or if she was upset about the big Zero (the logic of my argument that she wasn't one month old yet, so she couldn't wear the number 1 yet was lost on her. Actually, after the mess of that run-on sentence, the logic is lost on me too.)

Maybe it was just the cold, because here she is, five minutes later in peaceful slumber:Or maybe she was just worn out from all that screaming.

You would think that by the time I brought home my third daughter, I would have learned my lesson. Girls have definite opinions about thier clothing, and these opinions are not usually founded upon Good Reason nor Common Sense.

Good Reason & Common Sense: if a dress is scratchy, don't wear it.

Norah's opinion: If a dress makes you feel beautiful, wear it and ignore the discomfort!

Good Reason & Common Sense: If it is cold enough for snow boots and long sleeves, it is not warm enough for hawiian print shorts.

Willa's opinion: if mom can bum around the house in sweatpants and a grubby t-shirt, a two-year-old can make any outfit work.