Thursday, February 25, 2010

How Many Outfits Can One Girl Wear?

February 25, 2010

in Circus Shots,Darndest Things

My girls, especially my youngest, love to change clothes.  And often.  It borders on ridiculous.  I knew if I didn’t document it, no one would believe me.

So, take a look at Thursdays attire here at the circus. (I will mention that we never left the house today). 

The day started at 7:00am, didn’t have the camera ready then, but here she is at 8:30am.  (wearing the clothes she wore last night plus a coat)

IMG_6220 11 minutes later at 8:41am she is sporting her “bubble bathing suit” (so named b/c of the polka dots on the ruffles)

IMG_6223

This lasted all of 18 minutes because by 8:59am she traded swim suits with her big sister

IMG_6226

By 10:57 am, she added her winter boots, hat, and mittens.  She was determined to go outside, but didn’t make it past the door.  (hmmm… wonder why)

IMG_6233

At 11:17am (20  minutes later) she discovered the too short Winnie the Pooh sailor dress from last summer that I keep trying to hide and she keeps discovering. 

IMG_6237

Thankfully the scandalous dress didn’t last long as she changed into her lady bug pajamas at 11:42am.

IMG_6246

15 minutes later at 11:57am she again had donned the hat and boots and was ready yielding a rather dangerous looking light saber.

IMG_6248

She then changed into her leotard and accessorized with my high heel shoes at 12:33pm.

IMG_6256 She napped in her leotard (hence the 3 hour reprieve on outfit changes).  Upon waking up at 3:33 she decided to change back into her lady bug pajammies.

IMG_6262 By 5:20pm however she was back into her sisters bathing suit and they were having swim class on the living room floor (note her sister is wearing her brothers bathing suit…apparently all bathing suits are up for grabs here). 

IMG_6264 

At 5:40pm, I discovered her sporting her Dora and Boots undies, but decided it best not to post such a picture on the internet.

Since Daddy was coming home soon, I prompted her to put on some clothes.  Here she is helping with dinner at 6:10pm in an actual shirt and pants!!

IMG_6270 

But, Daddy didn’t get home in time to see his daughter in real clothes because by 6:38pm she was back in the “bubble bathing suit”

IMG_6272 

She ate in the bubble suit and kept it on until bedtime when she changed into her “footie pajamas” at 8:04pm

IMG_6276 

13 hours and 13 outfits changes…seriously, this kiddo has more costume changes than a Broadway star. And I promise, this is a normal day…including the multiple changes and the preference for swim suits and pajamas…

{ 15 comments }

Preparing for Easter

February 25, 2010

in holidays

I love Christmas.  One of the things I love most is that it is celebrated for an entire month.  I love the time of preparation and the focus on Christ’s birth.

But without Easter, Christmas truly is meaningless.  As awesome as it is that God sent his only Son to earth, it is only the first part of the story.  His death on the cross for our sins and the fact that he rose from the dead 3 days later is what gives not just this story, but every life story purpose and meaning. 

And yet it seems Easter gets so little of our focus.  Sure there are Easter baskets and egg hunts, and egg dying and beautiful spring dresses (none of which have anything to do with the true meaning of Easter) but all of that takes place pretty much on Easter. 

I don’t see much preparation and focus for Easter like I do for Christmas.

This year I am going to try to be intentional and spend focused time as a family preparing our hearts for Easter.   I want to carve out some time each week to bring out focus on the cross and on His resurrection.  

So, I’ve done some planning.  I’ve pulled out the Easter board books from the overstuffed bookshelf in the kids room, and plan to set them out in the living room in a basket for the kids to look at and for us to read to them over the next month.  photo

I am planning one craft a week for the entire month of March that focuses on Easter.  My hope is to make things we can then use as decorations around the house.  I’m going to do a paper mosaic of the cross with the kids to hang on our wall the first week, “some stained glass” (tissue paper) window hangings for week two, and I am still hunting down an idea for week 3 (any suggestions?) For week 4, I bought these coloring books from CBD.com (at $1.49 each, I got one for each kid) and we are going to work that week on coloring in the pictures and retelling the story.  And on the week of Easter we are going to make resurrection cookies.   I also bought this book which has some mazes, connect the dots, and other paper projects we can work on throughout the month.

I have a set of resurrection eggs, which I have used in the past, but not really.  I haven’t gone through them day by day with the kids like they are intended.  This year, I have it on the calendar.  We will start on March 24th and do one egg each day, thus retelling the Easter story for 12 days leading up to Easter. 

By Good Friday, I hope that our family will be prepared to truly worship and grieve our sins at the Good Friday service at our church that evening.  It is my favorite worship service of the year, as it is such a precious time of meditation and reflection of Christ’s death on the cross, but in such an intimate and personal way.  Saturday we will most likely have an Easter egg hunt with both sets of grandparents and dye eggs with them as well.  (It’s become a sort of tradition here to do that on Sat with the grands and it always a ton of fun).  In my opinion there is nothing wrong with Easter eggs, it’s just not what it is all about.  And Sunday, we will worship our Lord together as a family at our church as we celebrate His resurrection. 

It is my prayer that by making Easter a month long celebration, we can all more fully internalize the true meaning of not only Easter, but of our life.  We were created to bring glory to God and without comprehending the depth of our sin, the sacrifice of the cross, and Christ’s conquer of death as he rose from the dead, we can’t truly bring Him glory. 

My prayer for my family this Easter is taken from Ephesians 3:16-18.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Do you have any Easter traditions, crafts, ideas, you’d like to share?  Please share in the comments below.  I am always looking for new ideas to incorporate here at the circus and would LOVE to hear from you!

{ 8 comments }