For the Love of Adorable Dresses Part II

I posted an entry a while back about little girls, namely little southern girls, in adorable dresses. There is no disputing the fact that girls are more fun to dress and their clothes are much, much cuter than boy clothes which are expected to be more durable, less frequently ironed and starched, and appropriate for playing in the dirt. Here's a story about the foofy outfit that *almost* could.

Our friends Keith and Kelly got married August 20th and her colors were lavender/purpley and white. Meredith, my best justification-to-spend-more-than-I-should-simply-because-it's-adorable-and-perfect-for-the-occasion friend, and I had been gushing over different dresses and outfits we found online that would be oh so perfect for Keith and Kelly's wedding. I went to Strasburg Children's website a few months ago and found this ensemble:

This ensemble at the time was priced at 76 dollars which I nor Meredith could justify so we lamented and moved on looking for something else. Katie Rose has plenty of beautiful vintage dresses so it wasn't like we had nothing; It's just fun to shop. Ok so downtown Bozeman has a kid's consignment shop near where I work. I casually walked in one day during my lunch and low and behold, this very outfit was on the rack in her size for, get ready, THREE DOLLARS!!!! I couldn't believe it. What luck! What a prize!

I took it home and showed it to Mom who was also amazed at my fantastic find. She was at my house showing some other outfits she bought for Katie Rose. She said, "Let me take that home and I'll iron and starch it for you so it'll be all ready for the wedding. I'll take home some other dresses too because you know she'll spit up on the one outfit, and you should have another one or two to change her into throughout the party." Oh, perfect I thought. Things were falling right into place.

Then things took a turn for the worse. Mom had Katie Rose on the couch with her playing dress-up to make sure the new items fit. While Mom was holding her, Katie Rose spit up green goo allover the new purple outfit. She wasn't even wearing it and spit up allover it! But Mom was confident she could get it out with a little goo-gone and took it home. A few days later Mom came back over to our house with the ironed dresses. She had a solemn look on her face. She said, "Lee, please don't be too mad at me....pause....I got the spit up stain out of the outfit, and I transformed it from a wrinkled mess into a sweet, sweet outfit.....longer pause.....But, I accidentally got bleach allover the front of it. I am SO SO sorry." My unbelievable buy was ruined and had to become a play outfit...an outfit that could get - SIGH - dirty.

But - The relief is that we did only pay 3 dollars for it. And it happened to a store bought outfit and not one of the dresses Mimi made for me. Mom and I would have cried if that had happened. I suppose one shouldn't place too much value on material things because afterall, spit happens.

*Katie Rose ended up not going to the wedding at all, not because she didn't have an outfit, but because Robbie and I realized that at her age, we might have more fun without her. She was perfectly content with zero regard for her clothing at home with Grumpa and Mama V where she played outside, got food allover her play clothes and hair, and mouthed every filthy, soggy tennis ball she could find. Baby bliss. The outfit has been worn once while riding in the car to Stevensville the day of the wedding. It has since been washed and has returned to the wrinkled mess it started as.