It's the Mooooost Wonderful Tiiiiiime of the Yeeeaaar . . .

Being the good Southern girl that I am, I like to buy a lot of Miss Priss and Master P's clothes from trunk shows (well, not so much Master P anymore - He's getting a little old for appliqued elephants). The bad part of buying from trunk shows is that I have to order everything in February (for the spring/summer) and July (for the fall/winter). It's also bad because the credit card bills for those months are usually on the scary side, and I often (sometimes justifiably) get the evil eye from DH. The GOOD part of ordering from trunk shows (aside from the precious clothes) happens about now, because all those clothes I selected and paid for several months ago start showing up on my doorstep. Hooray!!! For example, yesterday, this cute little number arrived from Just Ducky (I did Miss Priss's full monogram on my order):

A few weeks ago, this Wizard of Oz bishop arrived from another one of my favorites, Orient Expressed:
It has a darling little sweater to match, and I actually found "ruby slippers" at Target to complete the look (I don't usually go for sparkly shoes for non-costume wear, but I figured I'd make an exception for the Wizard of Oz bishop).

I also got this darling Ladybug pants set - love the polka dot pants:

And this pumpkin bishop for the pumpkin patch trip and Thanksgiving:

From another favorite company, Kelly's Kids, I picked up one of these name shirts and the polka dot pants:

Of course, the best deliveries are yet to come - My custom orders (these are the BEST trunk shows - you pick the style of outfit, you pick the fabric, you pick the applique/smocking, etc.)! My favorites are Beaux et Belles and Hannah Kate, but there are others I like, too. I'm trying out Three Mommas for the first time this season - We've got the little apple outfit coming (I liked the sample so much that I didn't change a thing!):

So fun! I wish I had Miss Priss's closet.

The Change

My mom is coming to visit this weekend, and I am going to take advantage of her presence to accomplish one of my least favorite tasks of each season: The Great Closet Change. Basically, this involves me going to Target and buying four giant rubbermaid bins, and then spending several hours wading through Miss Priss and Master P's closets, pulling out the out of season items, and arranging the new season's clothes. For many people, this is probably an easy thing to accomplish. At our house, it is an all-day affair (or at least, it feels that way). DH would (and will) no doubt comment that this headache could be alleviated by purchasing fewer clothes. Silly boy! Miss Priss and Master P have a reputation to uphold! So, for the love of all things smocked and monogrammed, I continue to face this painful task twice a year.

It gets more complicated as they get older, because I cannot simply put everything away. For one thing, the clothes have gotten too big to keep them all (it's not like those tiny newborn bubbles). In addition, some of them might actually fit next year, so I don't want them hidden down in the basement storage room, where I might forget about them (On second thought, if I "forget" about them it means I get to go buy them more new stuff next year . . . hmmm).

I have to examine each piece, to determine whether it goes in the "donate-without-a-hint-of-sadness" pile (those are mostly the playclothes), the "probably-will-donate-someday-when-they-are-in-college-and-I-can finally-part-with-it" pile, the "could-not-bear-to-part-with-under-any circumstances" pile. My problem is that most of their clothes fall into category three for me, hence the giant mountain of Rubbermaid containers that reaches almost to the ceiling of our basement storage room. Eeek.

And so, off to Target I go, where I'm sure I will pick up $100 or so of other decorative items that we "must have" in addition to my Rubbermaid bins. I do love Target.

The Bigger the Bow, the Closer to God

Just by way of background, I have always been a Bow Girl. My wedding cake had a big white fondant bow on the top. In college, I had a collection of over 70 different hair ribbons - one to match virtually any outfit combination. My sweet ZTA sorority sisters at UNC used to tease me, because at night I would change my hair ribbon to match my pajamas. (Lord knows, you can't have a red hair ribbon and pink pajama pants. Because THAT would just be silly. Ahem).

So, when my precious little baby boy "Master P" was born, I was at a loss. He was always dressed to the nines in smocking and appliques, but despite DH's laments that I "dressed him like a girl," I obviously wasn't going to be putting any bows on my sweet boy. It was a dark period for the Bow Girl.

Then, 2 and a half years later, "Miss Priss" was born, and the Bow Girl in me rejoiced. At last, a girl to dress in bows! Then, sadly, I remembered that my babies are mostly bald. Miss Priss was no different than her brother before her. Blonde peach fuzz is not conducive to bows. I would have to wait a little longer.

By the time Miss Priss had arguably enough hair to be seen from a few feet away, she was also regrettably old enough to have an opinion about Mommy putting strange objects in her hair. And so began "Bow Training."

I have often had friends ask how I am able to get Miss Priss to keep bows in her hair. Bow Training was the secret. It requires three things: (1) a baby; (2) a bow; and (3) a burning desire to succeed. Think of it like potty training - Eventually, if you persevere, you will prevail. Bow Training consisted of sticking the bow in Miss Priss's "hair" (if you can call it that - she still did not have much), and putting it back in immediately each and every time she pulled it out. We did this for a full weekend, over and over again. Finally, I think she just got tired of me chasing her around and relented. Victory was mine!!!! Now, Miss Priss's bows are limited only by her (still questionable) amount of hair. I suppose that when she has a collection of 70 hair ribbons someday, I'll have only myself to blame.