Apparently I lied

Six months later...I finally thought of something to blog about.

When we finished our basement 2 years ago, I made sure we built a huge toy closet for our kids. It is currently full. I keep the closet locked because we have so many toys that it can be overwhelming to my kids. And I really can't handle cleaning up that many toys on a daily basis. And the fact that my kids have so many toys isn't really my fault. My children have grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins that all spoil them rotten.

About a year ago, I decided I'd had it with toys.

"We aren't buying any more toys EVER!" I stated to Mike. He agreed. So, for Christmas's and Birthday's we decided that we would give our kids presents that didn't require more space in our already crowded toy closet.

And then we received a mixed blessing last spring. Mike was required to take a one week unpaid vacation from work. It was a cost cutting measure that happened to come at the right time. He was able to use that week when we had Maggie, which then opened up a week of vacation time. I immediately responded "NOW WE CAN GO TO DISNEYLAND" Yes, I said it in all caps.

So, for Christmas this year instead of toys, we gave our kids a trip to Disneyland. Now lest you think we are the meanest parents in the world (because I'm sure you thought after hearing that we gave our kids a trip to Disneyland INSTEAD of toys) Santa still came to our house on Christmas morning. But, at our house, Santa doesn't bring much. Mainly because I'm selfish and I want the all glory. Why should Santa get the praise for all my hard work? But I digress.

So, we took the girls to Disneyland the week before Christmas. It was fabulous. We couldn't have asked for a better trip. The weather was perfect and my children were angels.

We went with a list of items we were planning on buying as souveniers. Such as our Christmas pajamas, a stuffed animal for Maggie, treats for their cousins etc. No where on this list was another princess dress for each daughter. We've done that before. Twice. I didn't feel that we needed another Official Disneyland Princess dress. Our girls don't dress up that much anymore, and we already own Snow White, Jasmine, and Belle. However, the fine folks at Disney encourage parents to surrender all common sense and the ability to say no to your children when you buy your park hopper passes.

It was Mike that pointed out the Princess dresses to Cass and Lily when we were walking through the World of Disney Store. They didn't even notice them until he went out of his way to call their attention to them. It went down hill from there.

"Mom, I don't have a Cinderella Dress" Cassandra points out in the sweetest voice.

Lily, having seen the new Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog" two days prior exclaims "Mom, They have a princess Tiana dress!" Well, luckily it was Sunday, and we told our kids that we were keeping the Sabath Day Holy, and not buying things on Sunday. No, we just went out to dinner, and were walknig through the store, getting ideas of what we wanted to buy on Sunday. Actually buying something - now that's just going too far.

To make a long story even longer - we bought the dresses several days later, wrapped them up and let our kids open them on Christmas morning.

Unfortunately, the Cinderella dress itches. I had to beg Cass to put it on for the picture.

Lily's dress is too big, but it sure looks pretty hanging in her closet.

Lily has been much more interested in wearing her Christmas church dress. She thinks it makes her look like a cow girl. And it does, when you are riding a cow, and have a pink velvet hat to go with it.

Cass likes to have me tie her silkly blankets into a dress for her. She's very simplistic in her dressing up. She does love the Cinderella shoes we bought her as seen in the photo above. I'll save the story about Lily's Christmas day tantrum when she realized that she chose different shoes that she didn't like anymore at the Bibbidy Boppity Boutique for later. It was tragic.

Maggie was just thrilled with her Tigger. It's going to be a sad day when she starts asking for a dress too. I keep telling Mike this is good practice for all the weddings.

Wow, this was a super long post. Hopefully it makes up for such a long absense. My brain is actually starting to function again. Hopefully it won't be another 6 months.