“Hand”-Me-Down Family Fashions

We took two pictures today of the children dressed up for Easter.  Usually we do it outside by the Easter Egg tree but it was pouring rain again and there were no guarantees that all five kid’s outfits would survive through 3+ hours of church so we took a picture indoors before we left.

We somehow ended up color coordinated by accident, Rick and I included, except for Nathan.  This doesn’t happen when I try and I kept on a budget of $0 for this!  Tristan is sporting an Easter tie he got several years ago second hand which he remembered yesterday he had and wanted to wear.  Kaitlyn received a package in the mail recently containing among other things her cousin Sophie’s bridesmaid dress from my sister Rachael’s wedding back in 2005.  I had the other two matching girl’s dresses in cream and teaberry in storage and found that Lindsay now fits Haley’s bridesmaid dress.  Perfect!  (And thank you)!  I even had matching hair ribbons for both girls that I’d pulled out of the fresh flower wreaths that my girls wore to the wedding reception.  Nathan, the only one not matching everyone else is wearing a little 4 piece shorts set with a white shirt, jacket and bow tie that I picked up second hand for Tristan way back in 2003.  Then Haley felt left out.  Rick said he missed the memo about people needing “Easter appropriate” apparel.  I thought for a moment and reappeared from the attic 30 minutes later with a cream colored lace formal that I wore on “The Spirit of Rochester” for a dinner boat cruise back when Rick and I were engaged.  Haley is as tall as me now so I thought we could give it a try.  And it fit!  I’m glad to see that dress have new life since I haven’t fit into it since I had children.  So Haley had the cream color to match the other girls dresses and I had a new dress in solid teaberry, the other color of the dresses, that I got 50% off of a clearance price with some gift money a while ago and was saving for today.  Rick ended up wearing a tie that was also reddish in color.  I was pretty pleased that everyone looked beautiful (or handsome) and we spent nothing, even on shoes!  Fancy church shoes can usually be salvaged to wear on a second or third child.

                            

When we got home it was not raining so we carefully stepped across the wet grass for a picture by our Egg tree.  I had a tough time getting five kids to cooperate for a picture all at once… especially Tristan.  I ended up with a bunch of pictures like this second picture here, where Tristan is humorously trying to save his eyes from the sun glare, Nathan isn’t looking, Lindsay is tired, Kaitlyn is moving or Haley is struggling with a wiggling Nathan.  I gave up and just decided to embrace the madness!  Here they are… my five beautiful children… and I feel like a very lucky Mom.