The Princess Dresses

It began with this little number that I found at a local thrift shop. I think I paid a dollar for it.

I got a couple other dresses that day in the same price range; I have "Irish triplet" granddaughters. One of anything is asking for problems, but I never imagined the problems that I would have due to buying this dress. I thought it was like the one Sofia The First wore and that is the ONE Disney kids show we have allowed in the house. The girls immediately informed me that it was Princess Rapunzel's dress, and they were both squealing with delight. The fear of fighting was justified, the purchase of the other dresses solved the issue immediately. There was another purple dress.

The twins, as they often do, worked it out without a word. One grabbed one dress and became Princess Rapunzel (top) while the sibling donned the other and became Princess Sofia. This became an instant transformation every time they came to play for several months. Now, every time we go to the second hand store I grab up any princess dresses I can afford. I won't pay more than a few dollars, these are toys. However I don't mind missing buttons, small tears or stains, things like that, so Grandpa and I usually can keep a fresh supply of dresses rolling through.

The current choices:

The Disney dress literally fell apart at the seams on one of the girls so they allowed me to throw it away with very little fuss. The other "purple" (as the dresses were called... As in, the moment they got to Granny's they would start asking for "My purple! My purple!") was actually peacefully passed from one twin to the other: One is consistently more dramatic, the other consistently more conciliatory. Interesting to watch. Anyway, the peacemaker twin just took one of the other options, a white one with gold trim. As new dresses came in, she would try the new ones and wear whatever struck her fancy that day. The other twin wore her purple, always her purple.

One day we allowed her to wear it home. When they start to get too small or I am running out of room I send them home. When she came for her next visit, she was wearing it again - maybe still! At any rate, it is a twisty drive home in spots and the purple was defiled. She yuked all down the front of it. It smelled like hell and it was all I could do to get home without joining in her merrymaking... I yerked it off her and threw it on the clothesline hoping the rain would do the first rinse for me.. Well, it rained. Over and over, it rained. The netting and sequins proved to be a wonderful matrix for securing whatever special yukrete she had produced, and many rains and weeks later it was still just caked on. I threw it away. I paid a buck or two for it, had gotten months of delight from it, and... yeah. I threw it away.

This weekend we hit the thrift shop in the valley and I found this little number. I again realized there could be problems, these girls love their ponies and there was ONE pony dress. Granny had better find something else and it had better be good.

Yes, snow fence in the living room. Keeps them away from the woodstove!


I picked this one up at the same store, knowing the youngest child would be easy to please and this has crinoline!

I still needed something on par with that pony dress though. There are side by side second stores at this sppot, so we headed next door. As I walked toward the kids section at the other thrift store, I spotted it immediately! Pink ruffly rosettes all over it, satin gorgeousness fit for royalty! But a woman was in front of me headed into the kids section. You have to go down a ramp and she had a cart, I could not get past her. For a moment I related to those MalWart patrons on Black Friday. I am in pretty good shape, I could hurdle that bar and be in front on her in a heartbeat... but decorum prevailed and at the ramp's end I squeezed past her and snatched the dress.

At home, it played out just as planned. Princess One discovered the pony dress and slipped into it immediately. Before the other sibling could become envious, I had the pink prize out of the bag and the pony-dressed child began squealing for her sister to come see her new princess dress! The other twin hardly noticed the ponies as she was enthralled with this:

Oh yeah, Granny had done it again!

Yet in her hands you see the dingy remains of a once glorious, white and gold Princess dress. When we picked her up she was carrying it. When I had to buckle her in I tried to take it from her and she insisted she wanted to hold it. OK, whatever. I was just trying to get kids loaded and get on the road. Now at my house, she is in her new dress and she loves it. This old dress she is packing around is falling apart, it has been loved just about to death. I finally ask her "Why are you carrying that dress with you every where you go?"

She very sweetly replied "Because I lost my purple..."

And Granny goes from hero to zero in the bat of a child-princess eye... Fortunately redemption was easy. When it came time to play outside, the first two girls put on pants and sweatshirts and snowsuits. The eldest changed into the old, torn up dress. So I stuffed the dress into the snow pants and went to get the warmest jacket. On no, granny, not that sweatshirt. She is a princess, she would like that velvet bolero, please... I mean, she has a flare for style, you must admit!

All photos are my own and deliberately taken or edited to make them useless for the googlemind.

Thanks for stopping by!

NAMASTE'