Kamryn has a very unique sense of style.  She loves wearing dresses and she loves wearing bright colors.  She also prefers to accessorize with a more is more attitude.  I usually let Kamryn wear what she wants, when she wants.  On occasion, I have to step in and suggest a more seasonable ensemble – she has a tendency to want to wear strappy dresses in the winter and sweaters with velour leggings in the summer.

Last spring I had resized a bridesmaid dress to fit Kamryn.  It was a red, strapless, a-line dress that I added straps to, hemmed the bottom and took in.  I did a few rough measurements on Kamryn so I could make sure I didn’t take off too much and sewed it while she was at school one afternoon.  Considering my lack of sewing ability and vague measurements, it didn’t turn out half bad.

To say she was excited about her new dress-up dress when she saw it is a bit of an understatement.  She put it on and then suggested we go for a walk.  I know she wanted to show off her new garb and I was more than willing to oblige.  We ran into a few little girls on our trek around our condo and each time she received a nice compliment from them.  She graciously thanked her little admirers, just like any girl in one of her mom’s old bridesmaid dresses should do.

The first public appearance of the red princess dress.

A couple of days ago, Kamryn made a comment about wishing her red dress was a real dress.  I asked her what she meant since it certainly appeared to be a real dress.  She proceeded to tell me that a little girl in her class has a puffy red dress that she is going to wear to the Valentine’s Day Concert.  I could see where this was going.  They are supposed to wear something red or pink for the concert and she wanted to wear her dress to school.

We had already picked out her outfit a couple of weeks ago so I reminded her of the skirt that her grandma had sent her.  She said she still wanted to wear that outfit, but that she thought she probably wanted to wear her red dress to school too.  My first instinct was to make up an excuse as to why she couldn’t wear it to school, but then I thought, why can’t she wear that dress to school?  I know I would have been over the moon if I could have worn dress up clothes to school when I was little.  Unfortunately, I wore a green plaid uniform everyday and my only sense of style was displayed in the socks and shoes I donned with it.

I know Kamryn can’t wear the dress to school because it will be a huge distraction.  She would be constantly checking herself out in any reflective surface she could find.  She  would most likely request numerous trips to the bathroom where she could look in an actual mirror.  Not to mention the mandatory twirling that goes along with any long, full skirt or dress.  And while I like to think of my child as modest, I have a feeling she would be fishing for some compliments in regards to her get-up.  Nope, the dress must not be worn to school.

And so we settled for the next best thing…wearing her dress to Target.

What outfit is complete without some purple and pink Vans?