Summer Fun Club 11

Anyone remember this post, when I had just gotten a full set of authentic Fashion Plates off eBay, and was more than a little excited about it?  We played with them a little, then I packed them away until the girls were a bit older.  Last week, for Summer Fun Club, I pulled them out again.

I can't remember how old I was when I did these with my sisters.  So I was curious how it would go.  First I had to remember myself how to do them.  Our first round was done with pencil rubbing, and they worked, but were very...gray.

I was trying to think how we got just the outline, so you could color the clothes in using the pattern plates on the flip side.  Unwrapped crayons, pressed and swiped.  In our case, we used Cray-Pas, my very favorite children's art supply.  Vibrant.  Perfect.

So many combinations to choose from...

I thought we might hang our creations on the wall, or if I really got ambitious, frame some to hang in the hall.  But the girls had other plans.  They cut them out and named them...

...and turned them into paper dolls!

Which they played with the rest of that afternoon, and for several days after.  And if they ever get lost, or torn, well, we can just make more.

Three Black Ruffles

Every time Poppy wears this one ruffled-black-skirt-with-ruched-gray-leggings-attached that I bought for her before she was even born, I feel deeply tickled to have three daughters in an age when ruffles are a trend.  Especially.  When she runs.

Fall Photo Shoot

 We did our (dreaded) family Christmas card photo shoot today.  Dreaded because it's a little stressful, and I hate how I look pretty much all the time, avoiding mirrors when possible and cameras at all costs.  So why would I PAY someone to take my picture?

The only reason is because Ed and I both HATE it when people send pictures of just their kids in Christmas cards, so to avoid hypocrisy, and in the spirit of "4-out-of-5-Hickmans-looking-great-is-a-majority", we did it.  We scheduled the fabulous Alia, who did our pics last year.  I cannot say enough about how easy and awesome she is to work with.  She had the girls, even Poppy, who is a tough age for smiling at strangers, wrapped around her finger.  Since we thought it might be chilly in mid-November, we wanted an indoor site.  I asked her where this is - love that distressed wood! - and would you believe it?

It's a backdrop.

 Is this bad?  Should I not be giving this secret away?  You totally can't tell in pictures, which is why I find it so amazing I can't keep mum.  We just set it up in the family room, mid-afternoon to catch the natural light, and voila!

 How do you like our styling - the gray with pink accents?  I wore gray and black with silver earrings...and more make-up than I ever wear the other 364 days.  And I even blow-dried my hair with product and a round brush.  I really went all out.

Hazel is wearing a gray dress with small white dots from Target, Ginger's dress is from Carter's (belt from Wal-Mart) and Poppy is wearing an H&M gray onesie with white dots and Uniqlo gray corduroy jumper (and Old Navy gray & black striped leggings.)  All flower clips are from Claire's.  

 Hazel has really taken Project Runway to heart.

 What a coupla lookers, right?  Like I said, 4 out of 5.  (Ed's wearing a gray sweater over whatever he wore to work - a blue shirt, I think - he breezed in for about 20 minutes between work meetings, and breezed right out again - we're just glad he made it at all!  And he always looks good.)

It was such a mild and lovely day we did go outside after these shots, but I didn't take my camera.  We took more family pics, individuals, sisters, and a few with the blog header in mind so I'm excited to see how those came out.  Alia's going out of town Sunday so she promised them before she left - stay tuned...

Fashion Week, continued

A few days after that last post, Hazel picked her own outfit, from head to toe. I loved it.(And that blur of white in the background is Poppy trying to make off with Hazel's raincoat while we are distracted!)

What to Wear to Kindergarten

Dressing the girls is one of my favorite parts of the job. It's both a necessity and an indulgence, and I am lucky enough to have girls who, for the most part, don't care. Which means, yes, I am still picking out what my 5-year-old wears each day. And I love it. Not that we are little fashion plates all the time. We play hard and that means play clothes - washable, inexpensive, disposable if it comes to that. And true, not always matching. The orange-staining sand alone at Hazel's preschool the last two years has played an inhibiting role in what we buy and wear.

However. Hazel starts school next week. Real school. Kindergarten. With wood chips on the playground. And that is a new realm of wardrobe we haven't encountered before. She will need clothes that are versatile and comfortable but also look nice. Luckily, with the coming of school is the coming of fall catalogs in the mail and there have been some fine ones lately.

A word about priorities. Sometimes I look at someone else's children and I think, "What was that Mom thinking?" The kid probably looks cute. But there are 100 buttons up the back of that shirt! Or she is wearing glittery ballet flats and it's raining outside! Or is that sweater cashmere...and they're painting at school today? Whatever. I keep it to myself because different people have different priorities when it comes to clothes and fashion. Here are mine:

1. Comfortable - I don't like to be uncomfortable, and I don't want my kids to be. I don't sacrifice comfort for fashion, at least not in everyday wear. That means sweaters can't be scratchy. Waistbands can't pinch. And movement can't be too restricted.

2. Practical, Functional, and Quality - MUST be machine-washable. Must cover all important body parts, especially butt cracks. Must be able to move in it, and it can't have dangly sleeves or whatever else might get in a kid's way. And I have a problem with glitter, beads and sequins because they fall off during play and wash and then the piece looks bad, like it's falling apart.

3. Style and Design - We get a lot of functional pieces like plain leggings and t-shirts but for anything else it has to have a cool element: fabric, cut, drape, or some kind of detail that appeals to me. Now that we have three girls and I know clothes will be passed down for years, I am trying more and more not to settle on this point. I have to love it. It has to be interesting. It has to be worth the money we spend and the space it takes up.

4. Price - How much would I spend on it and does that match the price tag? I am trying to not get sucked in by clearance prices as much, and get dumb clothes just because they are cheap. There's a balance; it's hard to pass up a low price. But it has to pass the other filters as well. On the other hand, even the most perfect and beautiful piece is simply out of range if the price is too high. I have to always keep in mind the greater family budget, and the possibility that any piece of children's clothing could get ruined, so not to spend too much on any one thing, no matter how cute.

So here are a few things I've liked online and in catalogs. Don't be surprised if you see Hazel wearing some of these this year. Not all of them - the rest of us have to eat this fall - but some nice things for kindergarten, and that can be passed down if they survive, are called for.

TOPS

BOTTOMS
Something I've noticed this year is the emergence of jeans leggings (Old Navy has even calls them "jeggings") and knit jeans. This trend solves a monumental problem for us, which is that my girls think jeans are uncomfortable. Hazel has a round waist; jeans pinch her when she sits and slide down when she stands. Ginger thinks denim is a "hard" fabric and doesn't like how it feels. These "jeggings" from Old Navy and knit skinny jeans from Tea Collection below might be a fashionable answer for us and would look awesome with tunics, dresses or long sweaters like the purple one below from Gap Kids.


SWEATERS
DRESSES We have chosen this little Hanna Andersson number in pink for Hazel's first-day-of-school outfit...if it comes in time:
OUTERWEAR
SHOES

Metallic is so cute but honestly impractical because when it scuffs, like in the first two seconds of wear, it's scuffed for good. Which is why I am picturing these here but probably not getting them.

Photos from: Mini Boden, Tea Collection, Old Navy, GapKids, Hanna Andersson, Olive Juice Kids and Zappos.

Francie Pants

Dilemma: The girls have long outgrown sizes that pair bloomers with a dress. Occasionally we find a skirt with built-in shorts but for the most part it's just their roos under there. It's too freaking hot for tights and leggings, and shorts can get bulky. So that leaves us wearing dresses and skirts as little as possible, pretty much just for church and then we spend the whole time telling them, "Put your legs down. Stop showing your panties. Fix your skirt." Sigh.

Solution: Francie Pants. Thin, slippy and stretchy shorts in super cute prints that go over underwear and under skirts. You know, just in case she has the sudden urge to do a cartwheel. Or has to sit criss-cross applesauce for circle time. Or insists on flopping around during church, dagnabbit.The name makes me giggle because it comes from the rhyme, "I see London, I see France." You know the one. No one's gonna see their underpants now! When ours arrived and we tried them on, Ginger and Hazel said such things as, "Ooh, they're so soft!" and "I want to wear these ALL day, EVERY day!" Nice.

AND, as if they are not cute as a button already, each pair comes with its own "collector's paper doll" (one of the 5 "Francies"), and you can print off paper doll clothes from their website.I discovered Francie Pants on this charming post from the irresistable Design Mom: What to Wear to 5th Grade (that Maude is so stylin' and has the best name EVER.) I ordered mine from a site I like called Mom4Life - they have a smaller selection than the Francie Pants site, but sometimes what I need in life is fewer choices. Plus they have free shipping and included a nice free peppermint lip balm with my order.

One dilemma solved. Check.