My kids wear almost all hand-me-down or second hand shop clothes, so this is the time of year we actually buy them something new. Yesterday, we went shopping for their Easter outfits. Jeremy needed a new church outfit as well. I’ve always been the one to pick out their clothes before, so Amie was thrilled with the privilege of picking out her own dress. James was slightly disappointed because the color suit he wanted wasn’t available in his size, but after Jeremy found the same one in his size (George clothing at Walmart is great for my big shouldered men) then he became very pleased and is eager for next week to come. Christine also got to pick out her own clothes, though I had to veto the first one she picked on the fact that it had spaghetti straps and a somewhat low front. Why do designers do that with little girls clothes?!?!? Anyway, she really wanted a pink dress, but there wasn’t a decent one in her size, so she settled for blue. After trying it on in the dressing area and seeing how pretty it looked with her light skin and hair, she is quite satisfied. AnnaBeth was able to pick from either the toddler section (5T) or the regular section (5). She actually wears size 4, but I like the skirts to come down just a bit lower and smaller dresses seem to have shorter skirts. There was a bigger selection in the toddler section, but she prefered the one and only dress left in her size in the other section. I had thought I would pick out a dress for Noelle, but she loves doing her own choosing (whether it’s what is put on her sandwich, to what clothes she wears everyday) that she put in her opinion. There was a BIG variety in her size to pick from and she looked at ALL of them. She had one picked out halfway through, but she wanted to look through, “Just for case” (her words). What I think is great is that she picked the same style dress that I would have picked, but a different color. I wanted the yellow one, but she got the pink one. I’m sure that if there had been any purple dresses, both of us would have been very happy with it since it is the favorite color of us both. Anyway, that took us only about an hour and a half.

What did I get? I didn’t get any new clothes. I found a favorite dress that had been packed away that I want to wear. I did get new sandals. My current regular sandals are very much casual and look funny with my nice Sunday clothes. I was happy to find some beautiful sandals for my child-sized feet that don’t look like they belong to Amie. The other thing I got was more important to me than anything else… my engagement and wedding rings back. I know that I told some of you that I haven’t worn them since I got pregnant with AnnaBeth, now 5 years ago. I couldn’t get them on. Money was tight, so I wore them around on a necklace for a while and then had them put away for safety until we could get them taken care of. The day after our tax money came, we were at an independent jewelers. They were really sweet and gave us a discount because they found out about us having 5 kids. Jeremy needed his wedding ring fixed too, it had broken a few months ago, so we took them both in and got them back yesterday. I got a new head put on mine to hold my diamond. The old one was tilted and cracked. It looks brand new. Oh, so beautiful.

Anyway, that was our shopping spree yesterday. We probably won’t spend that much all at one time on clothes for another year.

Yes, I’m writing this during the time when I would normally be in Sunday School. Noelle started running a low fever yesterday as we were getting done at Walmart and is still slightly hot. Jeremy will stay with her tonight for evening service.