Recently, I pulled out some dress-up stuff that I’ve been saving for when the kids got big enough.  Ellie latched onto a prairie girl bonnet that was made for her as a baby present.  It was the very last thing still waiting to be used from what was showered on us when she was born.  We haven’t started reading Little House in the Big Woods yet but perhaps it’s time, now that she has the hat.  She has fun telling Nik (and whoever else who will listen) that the hat is to keep the sun out of her face when she doesn’t have sunglasses!

Also on Ellie – my high school senior prom dress! 🙂

Mark has decided his hat of choice is a treasure my dad gave us, a favorite of my grandmother’s.  It fits him remarkably well!

We have purposely avoided having narrow-focus dress-up clothes in our house (i.e. no fireman or princess costumes), just as we avoid having narrow-focus toys.  The kids are really having fun with these “real-world” items, incorporating them into their play time.  I need to find a few more things for them but I’m glad they have the option of playing with them now.

P.S. We’re storing the dress-up things in two old suitcases that I found at garage sales.

I particularly love the larger suitcase.  That label has hints of an amazing story that I will never know but I wish I could!  Also on the suitcase is the customs sticker, verifying that it had passed customs inspection.  That was the best few dollars I’ve spent in a long time, and from a house just a couple blocks away from us!

Andrew C. Olert, who went on a trip to “Argentena”, sailing in first class from Baltimore on May 13, 1964, staying in Stateroom N 362

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