As I mentioned yesterday on my “Facebook Liking Page”, I have started the packing process for our move to Ruralville.
What?! Lumberjill has a Facebook page?!
Yes, folks! It’s true!
Look at me with my big girl blogging pants on!
Interruption: Lest any of you be confused, I am not a big girl blogger, nor do I know what I am doing.
They always have.
And they have never been willing to give things up. No matter how small. No matter how torn. The dress up clothes shall never depart from their room.
Or so I thought.
As I started going through the clothes and holding up each item, Daisy Mae and Sweet Pea were both saying strange words, such as:
“Nah.”
“Give it to Little Miss.”
Little Miss is their little cousin.
“Don’t like it anymore.”
And, dear readers, 4 princess dresses were retired on that fateful evening.
You may say,
“Taylor. You are a goofus. There are only 3 dresses in the above picture.”
And I will respond,
“I am not a goofus. I know exactly what I am doing.”
There is one dress, a Cinderella dress, that deserves its own, special picture.
What a tragic demise.
This was one of those exquisite Disney dresses you can find real-expensive like at a Disney store.
It.
Was.
Gorgeous.
My girls obliterated it.
And now, dear readers, I would like to present to you:
The Story Behind the Dress
About 5 years ago, we became friends with Melissa (Bimlissa) and her daughter, Cute Little Red Headed Girl.
Cute Little Red Headed Girl had this Cinderella dress and every time we went to their house, Sweet Pea, who was about 2 1/2 at the time, would start stripping in the entryway, run upstairs, and put this Cinderella dress on.
Every time.
Bimlissa ended up giving it to her because she loved it so much.
Wasn’t that nice of her?
Let us have a moment of admiration for the kindness that is in Bimlissa and Cute Little Red Headed Girl’s hearts.
*Thank you*
Any-who . . .
This dress was well-loved and well-worn and was one that I was sure I would never hear Sweet Pea say she was ready to give up.
One night, The Lumberjack took my precious girls fishing and Sweet Pea caught her first fish. He walked in the door and asked me to grab the camera so we could get a picture of Sweet Pea with her fish. I left the room to grab the camera and LJ went back to unload.
Sweet Pea heard us say camera and she ran upstairs, unbeknownst to us, threw off her dirty, grubby fishing clothes, and put on her lovely Cinderella dress.
That picture is, by far, one of my favorite pictures of all time.
It totally captures the essence of Sweet Pea.
Look at her!
Filthy! Hair a mess!
Yet, she knew it was a special picture, so she went and donned her most especial dress.
Sweet Pea has grown.
The dress does no longer fits and it old and torn.
Goodbye, Cinderella.
I am not ready to let this stage go.
Doll houses.
Tea parties.
Princess dolls, stories, and books.
My babies!
They are growing up too fast. It makes me so sad.
I have said it before, and I will say it again.
I NEED A PAUSE BUTTON.
At least they are still into dressing up.
We have about 4 “Little House on the Prairie” costumes left for dress up fun.
It will be a sad and mournful day when my girls want to give those dresses up.
You might want to stay away from this blog on that day.
I predict it will be a bummer of a post.
Happy Wednesday!
Kids do grow up fast. We need to cherish the times we have with them and make them the best. We will always have the memories of them young. I want a pause button too. Always love your blog, even this one.
i shed a tear for this dress this morning! =( i have many pics of my little gal in it as well as her cousin. you probably already know this but a good way to get dress-up clothes that will fit them is to shop the Halloween clearance each year!! i think that is where most all of my son’s costumes have come from.
wait til she turns 13!!!!! that was my wake up call last year, pumpkin_seed will be 14 in october…..i miss the cute little thing she used to be, but i love that she still likes to spend time with mom!! =)
I think every woman should have a Cinderella dress. I would wear it while watching tv. Or even blogging.
BTW, that picture of the fish and the dress would be perfect to use for, say, a 16th birthday party. : )
I hear you on them growing up tooooooo fast. It is crazy, scary, and wonderful all at the same time!
Love the fish picture!!!!!
Seriously tearing up! Why are these kiddos growing so fast? I miss so many things about our kids being young…mostly all the fun adventures we used to take. Okay now I’m crying! Oh and when your girls out grow the little house on the prairie dresses that used to be mine could I have them for Lily? No hurry and don’t care how loved on they are just think it would be fun for her to have someday?
Awww… That is the cutest picture ever. And such a sweet post.
I can’t wait for your adventures packing up the boys room. I bet that will be a real hoot. 🙂
Marla @ http://www.asthefarmturns.wordpress.com
Great post – you big girl blogger you..
Wonder what daughter thinks of you posting the pic of her on the toilet? She is rather dazzling on her throne.
I am waiting for one last picture to be emailed to me and then I am going to publish my post. Ironically, we are blogging about the same thing today…
I still play dress up and I’m…Well, we won’t discuss my age in years, but I don’t think you ever outgrow dress up.
My sister’s girls have tea parties for birthdays where everyone dresses up, wears gawdy jewelry and retro hats. They are 18 & 21.
So. You never have to say goodbye to that stage!
I have threatened to tie bricks to the heads of my crew to stop this growing-up-to-fast nonsense. They see right through me and laugh in my face. Sad, I know.
That blue “little House on the Prairie” dress in the last picture? My daughter actually HAD that dress, along with a couple of others – and they WEREN’T dress-up!! Too funny! She’s 36 now!
See…this is why I love having a girl. Dress up and tea parties. Luckily mine is only one so I have some years ahead of me. But, time does fly so quickly.
I think I should get a princess dress for myself to play with her?!?? It makes perfect sense.
You could look at it this way…you have prom dresses and wedding dresses to buy and that will be waaaaay fun. Expensive, but fun.
This blog is great in many ways, but especially in the fact that I can come here and find a picture of a little girl in a princess sparkle dress…holding a fish.
It’s unique. That’s for sure 🙂
Our youngest daughter had that exact same Cinderella dress when she was younger. She would eat, sleep & play in that thing.
I am the exact opposite of her wanting to dress up and look pretty all the time. I am happy in a comfortable pair of jeans and sweatshirt.
She once told my mother-in-law (who is a girly girl herself and takes my daughter shopping A LOT) that, “I’m not like my mom in style. I like to dress up and she likes to dress down”! So true, hunny. So true!
Well, no-doubt-about-it this sounds very familiar! There were three girls in my family so there was bound to be some “play-dresses” worn around! The bad part of the whole growing up first things was when my sisters would put on said “play-dresses” go out and fetch the horses and stampede out in the front field for all. to. see! Man! I was embarrassed – between that and running through the sprinkler nakey – I was usually hiding!
Sweet girls. Love the picture with daddy, sis and the fish… priceless.
and. moving? – you poor thing. there is nothing worse!
Praying it goes smoothly – The lady of the House
Love the dress and fish photo and story. Love the photo of the girls at the table.
This is a bad week talking about growing up to fast. On my blog today, my first born holding his diploma 🙁
Aw, I hear ya. Mine aren’t quite ready to give up their fancy dresses yet, but they don’t fit anymore… so sad. I was so surprised last time I cleaned their rooms, and they were more than willing to chuck a lot of stuff… amazing!
Oh yeah, I should also say, I love the fish picture, first of all, and I linked back on my re-cap lazywoman blog post today of an old post of my girls shooting their toy guns in princess dresses. 🙂
I’m not really a saver of items but there are a few items of clothing the kids have had that I couldn’t bear to part with and they are stashed away. That dress would totally be in the collection.
After I washed it. 🙂
Rest in peace, Cinderella Dress.
My daughter let a few (6-7?) dress-up dresses (also inherited by kind friends) go about 3 years ago. It was a sad, yet glorious, day. She is now into Laura Ingalls Wilder-style-dresses….which were all mine when I was young….remember the whole Gunne Sax thing in the 80s? Good times. Good times.
Dear, Dear Taylor, you must not mourn the demise of the dress up clothes. What you must do in the future when your children are older (or you can start now for fun!) is buy big girl sized (teen age!) dresses at thrift stores for future dress ups. It is most delightful fun to have friends come over for your eighteenth birthday party and have everyone dress up for the picture! I promise! (But wait to start collecting till you’ve moved so you won’t have to pack those clothes!)
Thanks for sharing that story Taylor. That was really lovely
Oh my gosh, how sad I have totally been in your shoes. My oldest reached double digits this yar and its going too fast! I agree, where is the pause? I have just learned to enjoy all that I can and soak it all in. As I know you do as well, its just crazy how fast they grow up! I loved the post and the pictures as always.
Yes … they grow up too fast … too fast … too fast! I must love them more and enjoy them more TODAY!
P.S. Perhaps Bimlissa gave your daughter the dress to end the stripping in her entryway 😉
When I was at work today, little Ashlynn was donned in her Cinderella Dress, too. She has been invited to a princess birthday party in five days and has declared that she will not remove the dress until then! 😀 So fun!
Our fish+costume blogging is a strange coincidence, is it not??
I’ll be back later to leave a real comment. I just wanted to say quickly that your comment made my morning. Hilarious.
Too funny! I love the big girl panties. We were just talking “racing panties” this week. Heehee!
I’m linking a post as an example of a FAB Friday post and we go back to linking up next week. I changed to once a month cause it’s too darn much. I’m not yet a blog master like you with your own FB page! 😉 You go girl!!!