Matching dresses.

McCall made a comment on her blog about matching Easter dresses. She wrote: "I used to just love getting a new Easter dress ... and until I was about 12 and started to complain ... my Easter dress always matched Haley and Chloe's."

Now as her mother, how could I possibly resist posting this picture after reading that? There are many, many more pictures of these little girls in matching dresses, but this was a particularly glorious Easter for "da mama." I thought they were out of this world adorable!

(Disclaimer about Chloe's hair: She had just woken up from a nap and we dragged her out of the car to get a picture. We also pulled her pacifier out of her mouth - notice the rash under her lip - and she wasn't real happy about any of it.)

I don't think mothers really dress their girls alike anymore, but for a REALLY long time, we did. (I have pictures of me dressed just like my sister too.) It was mostly on holidays, namely Christmas and Easter.

By the time I had the three girls in a row it was getting really expensive to buy them all new dresses and tights and shoes at the same time. But it was also one of those gotta do things - so one Easter I decided that I would try to save some money and make their dresses. But of course, I couldn't just go to a regular fabric store. NO! I had to go to Calico Corners to find fabric that would be different and more luxurious that cost $12.99 a yard instead of $4.99.

So that particular year, I went ahead and bought the $12.99 a yard fabric (times three dresses) and the zippers and patterns and thread. I also had to buy a sewing machine, since the one I had wasn't really any good and was making me a little crazy during the project.

I remember staying up on Easter-eve until about 3:00 am, trying to get those darn dresses done in time for church on Easter Sunday morning. I also remember being sore, tired and cranky by the time I got through.

All totalled, I had spent about $500 getting those 3 little dresses made.

There was a lesson learned that day, and one I am going to share with any of you young mothers who think it might be less expensive to make something ... it isn't. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Definitely do the math. And take into consideration the frustration of shopping for the supplies, redoing countless seams, having them not turn out exactly as you had hoped, and the countless hours of time you spent doing it - when you could have just gone to the store, died over the cuteness of a dress on the hanger, and swiped your debit card.

Seriously - learn that lesson by someone else's experience, not your own.

(And as a side note: These weren't even the dresses I was talking about. This was the year before ... I hadn't learned my lesson yet because after I was frustrated enough with the project that year, I enlisted the help of my sister, Leslie, to finish the sewing. She actually enjoys sewing and is good at it. And I was expecting baby #4 in a couple of weeks and had had it. The lesson came the following year, when I didn't enlist any help.)