Dress Ups

Earlier this week (Monday to be exact) my children showed up to a play date dressed like this:

Adorable, right!?! These are the Jake and Izzy outfits Grandma gave them last weekend when they stayed at her house. They are more than in love with them. When they put them on they refer to each other as Jake and Izzy and play the greatest games that always involve being saved from danger and finding treasure. Sometimes Reid even draws them up a little map. Nell loves shouting "pixie dust away" when Reid is in trouble. And I've even heard a bit of disappointment in their voices when they've realized they can't actually fly. I could listen to their pretend play all day long. 

But back to the play date. Another mom asked if my kids play dress up a lot. I answered with a resounding YES! The conversation kind of branched off in two directions, but I find both really interesting. 

The first was which toys get the most love in our homes. I named dress ups, Legos, and trucks/vehicles as our top three and another mom (who has a masters in early childhood education) nodded in agreement. Of those three categories, the dress ups are the only ones my kids have constant access to (I love toy rotation). There are days when they go through four different dress up outfits. And there isn't a week that doesn't have at least three dress up play days. They love to dress up, and they love to dress up together. Nell asks Reid to be Snow White when she's in the mood for Princesses, and Reid asks Nell to be Spiderman when he's, well, Spiderman (we bought a kid size costume after Halloween since he'd outgrown the toddler version). Dress up is almost always a team effort around here. 

This particular mom has been to my house before and seen our extensive dress up section. So naturally she asked where I find them all. Which led to the second interesting conversation. The art of shopping. I agreed that there is indeed an art to shopping and finding deals that make both needs and wants worth it. I have mastered kid clothes (50% off with additional 25% off coupons) and with Ben's help we've found some great second hand toys, but other areas of kid shopping aren't my strong point. Like shoes. I loathe shoe shopping for my children.