Caley's Dress

A week or two before my girls started pre-k, in the fall of 2007, I took them shopping to find new dresses to wear to school on the first day. Both girls found dresses that they loved and were super excited to wear. I remember that at the time that we bought the dresses both girls were wearing size 4/5. I wanted to buy the new dresses in size 6/6x so that the dresses would be a little big and the girls would be able to wear them for a while.
Well, we could not find the dress that Caley LOVED in a 6/6x, so we bought the 4/5.
Caley absolutely loved her new dress. She wore it around the house many times before the first day of school. She could not wait to put in on that first day. To be honest, I think she was more excited about wearing her dress than going to school.
Since the first day of pre-k that dress has been worn MANY times. Caley pulled it out of the closet any chance she got. She worn it all through pre-k, kindergarten, and 1st grade. Finally, at the end of 1st grade I decided that the dress was getting too short. I took it out of her closet and tucked it away for safe keeping. As much as she loved that dress, I knew I had to keep it for her.
Even though the dress was no longer in her closet, Caley would still ask about the dress. A couple of times she saw it hanging in it's "safe place" and she would say, "aww, I wish I could wear that dress."
Well, yesterday Caley came up with a way that she could still wear her size 4/5, first-day-of-pre-K dress.


Here she is this morning, as a 2nd grader! She put a pair of black leggings under the dress and turned it into a tunic-style top. Eventually, she will grow out of the dress (I think), but for now, she still loves it, still wears it, and who knew a $10.00 dress from Wal*Mart would bring such joy to a very fashion-minded girl.