Girls at Easter

There is so much one could say at Easter. So much to think and ponder on. Today is Good Friday and I really appreciated Nancy Wilson's blog on why the word 'Good' is used on this day. I look forward each year to our service at Church on this night of Christs Crucifixion.
But in the end, I decided to show some of the beauty of Easters past, in keeping with the theme of this blog....beauty in our daily lives. Little girls dressing up for Church on special Easter mornings is certainly a beautiful sight.

This is my daughter Joy dressed up for Church in 1976...in Burns, where it is always cold at Easter. Julie has the hat and gloves in this picture, and she asked me to find a picture of her dressed up in them. I couldn't find a photo of her...mainly because she never kept anything on long enough to get a photo of it. Also her hair was a bit unruly, and was usually done up in pigtails, so not good for a flat hat. The closest I could come was this picture of Joy wearing the gloves and hat. The gloves I bought for her, and the hat was mine when a small girl. Add a dress and coat passed down from her cousins and she was ready to go. Julie is planning on using these same gloves and hat for Millie on Sunday and I can't wait to see the photo she will post. We really like to pass things down you see...

As long as I was looking for Easter photos of Julie I thought I would pass along this favorite of mine. She was one year old in 1977, and in Grandmas' back yard hunting for eggs. Aunt Peggy was just in the nick of time to rescue her from biting into the hard boiled egg, shell and all! Grandmas' dog Dondie was watching all the fun too. Usually it was too cold to hunt eggs out-of-doors, and we ended up in Grandmas' basement...but this was an unusually nice year.

This was Joy and Julie in 1978, ready for Church and posing for a picture in our back yard. The gloves are back on Joy's hands, but with both having pig-tails, there was no hat.

After finding pictures of Joy and Julie, I wanted to find one more that included JoAnn. We had moved to Portland and the weather was usually more moderate with flowers blooming. Julie has a funny smile here...kind of like her William sometimes makes. I made JoAnn's dress and had so much fun doing it. I think it is the one I enjoyed the most in the making.

And one last photo of dressing up for Easter. This is 1957, and the frilly girl is me. Julie asked if I had a photo of me wearing the above hat...and I searched but no such luck. So I decided to include this instead. I love patent leather shoes and frilly dresses!

But why should we concentrate on clothing at Easter? After all, Jesus' clothes were taken from him and Romans cast lots for them. I think the answer lies in the age old answer of doing and looking our very best for him. I imagine on the feast days of Israel that the Jews put on and out their very best. And the tradition goes on...it is part of our celebration. So, I hope each of my girls and their girls is celebrating this week-end.