The Dress

Have you ever seen a bunch of little girls playing dress-up together?

(These are my nieces playing with one of their baby dolls)

(This is my youngest niece in all of her cuteness glory – can little girls get any cuter than her?!!)

There are five girls (scattered among our three brothers) in our family, so dressing up in dress-up clothes was the scene in my house almost every day while growing up.

(my sister J. and I at our family’s Christmas party last year)

Our dress up clothes were a collection of dress up clothes and old bridesmaid/formal dresses, accessorized with long white gloves, hats, old high-heels, and blankets used as shawls or capes.

In our little world of pretend, there was always that one dress that we all wanted to wear, but only one of us girls would triumphantly prance around in that dress once all was said and done.  The dress was colonial style with a light blue background with a dark blue flower print.  It had lace around the sleeves, around the bottom along the hem, and a blue ribbon tied in a cute little bow in the front at the waist.

(My sisters J., myself, and B. at a park last fall)

We spent countless hours playing “house” in our dress-up clothes.  Our favorite place was our playhouse, built by our dad and uncles.  The playhouse had a porch, windows (with window boxes for flowers) and an attic.  Throughout our adventures in our playhouse, we would cook and bake in our little kitchen (complete with a play fridge, stove, sink and dishes.)  We would gather leaves from various trees around the yard to use as our food since our play food stayed in the house where it couldn’t get dirty.  We also gathered dirt from the flower beds surrounding our playhouse, and made lots of mud pies.  Throughout our revelries, our dresses got a lot of use, and occasionally got torn and had to be mended.  The dresses also got the occasional mud stain from our “rain or shine” excursions throughout our yard.

(Me and my sister R., and my family’s dog)

Now that my sisters and I are older and our playtime dresses and dress-up days are gone, it’s still fun to dress up in heels, occasionally wearing a hat or a shawl, and secretly wish that I were back in my childhood playhouse with my play kitchen and mud pies, playing the day away wearing my favorite dress.