This is funny! I thought one of the things on my Summer 2015 To Do List was to make new summer dresses for the girls. I just checked that list and my 35 Things to do Before I turn 35 list, and it’s not on either! Oh well!
So…. Guess what! I made new summer dresses for the girls for no reason other than the fact that I love doing it, and they are adorable.
And it was a reason to buy this fabric I have been coveting for months and years and decades. I absolutely love Sarah Jane Studios and we have a couple of her prints in the girls’ rooms. I also used some of her fabric in Alma’s quilt.
This is a ‘pattern’ that I made up last summer for Alma’s lion dress. It’s a really fun, simple dress to make. I’ve even helped a couple friends make them for their daughters this summer. I’m toying with a few ideas about how I could get this pattern out to a broader audience. Maybe a workshop for local sewists, or trying to figure out how to get a pdf pattern put together for download.
Anyhow, I used two different lines of fabric for the dresses. I made Harriet’s using fabric in the same design of a print in her bedroom. The kids on parade are so sweet, and Harriet loves, loves, loves balloons.
We spent the afternoon at the University of Oregon art museum, and I took advantage of the backdrops and lighting to get some photos of the girls in their dresses.
This was post-naptime, so Harriet’s dress is a little wrinkled. But that’s life when you’re always on a parade, right?
The museum has an amazing program where the kids can pick up backpacks full of activities for the kids. They are mostly above our kids’ heads, but it’s fun to go through them and see what we can talk about.
Each backpack has colored pencils and paper, so aspiring artists can copy the art, or draw what they see. It’s sweet to see what other museum goers have drawn in the past. They also each have magnifying glasses which are always a hit.
The backpacks have themes to them. Alma picked one up and the Asian art they have at the museum. She found some little figurines and coins in a bottle.
We love going to the museum anyway, but the backpacks make our visits even more fun. I hope they keep these backpacks so we can watch how our kids grow and change during our museum visits!
I especially like the photos they chose because both my daughters are involved. There’s the photo of Harriet and Elsa playing in Elsa’s playhouse: 
And one of Alma sitting at Humble Bagel. When Alma saw this photo hanging on the wall, she was pretty excited. She recognized herself right away. 
We were at Disneyland for almost 12 hours, and by the end we were all running on the magic.
We were leaving when we ran into the parade. We found a spot to wait for the princesses. Rapunzel looked right at my girl and waved. 
