Since Pixie was a little girl I always tried to show her how to have fun without spending any money. She didn’t know what I was doing at the time.
For example: The little mini carousels in the mall… I would never put quarters in the machine… I would just tell her to jump on and then her imagination would take it from there! She would pretend that she was on a wild adventure jumping from carousel to carousel all while I watched and laughed as she was having fun.
A year later we were watching the little trains go by that hold all the kids. This was at the outdoor mall Pier Park in Panama City Beach. You know.. the trains that cram the kids AND the parents in these tight little spaces while everyone is sweating to death… NO thank you!!!
I taught her that we don’t ride the train, we just wave at it.
She was completely content with waving as the train went by and not even realizing that she could get on the train. (I wasn’t paying $7 bucks!!!)
Now, don’t get me wrong…It wasn’t that I was a mean mom…. it was just that I was a BROKE mom! By the time she was 2 years old we had lost our house and sold everything, so I had a different outlook on extra curricular activities! And that meant that we would pretend that waving was the best part!!! Wave at the train… look at it go by! Isn’t this fun!
I know y’all think I’m crazy right now… but it’s going to get worse so this brings us to Sunday’s activities!
I didn’t always just make Pixie wave at the train or pretend she was riding the carousel! Before she was born I used to go into Dillard’s and try on all of the most glamorous dresses they had. It started when my sister won a Disney Cruise and took my husband and I along. We had to shop for dresses and ended up buying something at Ross Dress for Less.After that I started going to Dillard’s randomly throughout the years and would try on all the dresses I knew I didn’t need or wouldn’t have a place to wear them. I just loved trying them on!!! I loved the possibility of having a place I could wear them too! I loved the way it made me feel like I was someone really important or I had a huge trip coming up.
So… after the movie Pixie is jumping up and down talking about her Prom. (remember she’s 10) All of the memories of me trying on endless amount of dresses floods my mind and I tell her the stories.
She jumps at the chance…. “Mom, can we go do that??????” “Please MOM!!!!” “It would be so fun!!!”
As I think for 1/2 a second I scream, YES! I don’t know why I haven’t done this with you yet!!! But, here are the rules…. WE ONLY TRY ON! NO buying! Deal!? “Deal!”
She understands the rules and off we go! We spend several hours trying on dresses in her size and then in mine! She picks some out for me and I pick some out for her! We take pictures and have a blast! As we try on dresses we talk about which ones would be best for a cruise or Junk Gypsy prom.
Here are a few of our finds! Bonus… It’s prom time so there were tons of cool dresses out!!! And since you’re not buying it gives you permission to try on EVERYTHING! EVEN silly things you would never think to wear like me in that mermaid looking dress for a 16 year old… BUT I LOVED IT!!!
