Easter dress up

Easter means many things in our family. First, foremost, most importantly, it is a celebration of the resurrection of Christ. But there are other little traditions that make Easter fun. One tradition we share with most other families I know is that Easter means new dresses and white sandals. If you're really feeling fancy, you might also get a new hat or gloves to go with your new dress.

This year, L was extremely easy. She pulled a beautiful, long, fluffy, pink and white concoction out of the hand-me-down bins (from when K could actually be convinced to wear a beautiful, long, fluffy, pink and white concoction) and she declared that she had found her Easter dress. Truth to be told, she really just wanted to wear the same dress she wore last year - it's pink, sparkly, and twirls (a perfect dress trifecta) - but I convinced her that she should wear the one that was "new" to her.

K, on the other hand, has moved to the juniors department and so we spent an evening at a local department store where she found racks of dresses she liked, but we had a heck of a time finding one with an appropriate neckline. I threatened to shorten the straps on almost every one she tried on. Thankfully, the one she liked best was extremely modest, especially after the addition of knee-length capris.

It turned out that finding a dress was the easiest part. K's dress is gray pin-striped and I knew it needed a splash of bold color, so I wanted to get a large flower for her hair. We had a...difference of opinion regarding the perfect kind of flower (not too floppy) and the perfect color (bright). We finally compromised on an orange rose and I heaved a sigh of relief that the worst was over.

Until this morning.

We had to get up and dressed incredibly early and the girls were grumpy. I fixed L's hair with a side ponytail and a large pink rose she had picked out.

Then I moved to K's hair. K has lovely hair - incredibly thick, loose curls, a golden brown that burns a fiery copper in the sunlight. It's the kind of hair most women would kill for, but it simply frustrates K to death. I pulled it into a loose side ponytail and she argued about the curly bangs. She's been growing them out for awhile, but they still curl mercilessly. She wanted them pulled straight and pinned down, but I figure she's got to learn to embrace the curl sometime. So again, we compromised and I pulled the bangs over to one side and carefully arranged the curls. She was still grumpy about it, but she got a ton of compliments. Honestly, it's the absolute perfect look for her hair. Then she left it the way I fixed it even when she changed and we went to some friends' house for a cook out.

It's nice to know that she did decide that I was right.