Family Gathering 2019
History of Family Gathering Dress-Ups
For the past five years, we have dressed-up. The girls love to assume different personas and the boys like to have swords and hatchets and the horned helmets of Vikings. The boys always end up staging pretend fights, especially with animals if they are in the background or in the prop box.
I started quite simply enough with plain backgrounds and simple props. Over the years I have added funky backgrounds and unusual and dated clothes.
Props have changed and the whole thing has been more fun.
Backdrops
Here is an explanation of the backdrops. They are all shower curtains and most came from Amazon.com. I have a healthy collection of backdrops which appeal to boys and those which appeal to girls.
Grandpa built two frames out of PVP Pipe. One set of shower curtain rings will hold about 6 or 7 curtains. Each person can choose a backdrop and throw it over the top of the frame to put his or her choice in front.
This year I must be forgiven for I did not get to ironing the curtains. That just means that there are some wrinkles in the backgrounds in some of the photographs but my wise granddaughter Clara said that I was being silly to worry about it so I am now just fine.
Clothes, Hats, Jewelry, Purses, Props
Everything except the curtains has been thrifted over a period of months. That is because one can’t just walk into a thrift store and find funky things. It takes some patience and some prowling and many Tuesdays. Tuesday is the day when everything is 30% off at Savers. That’s my day.
Perhaps the most fascinating things about Dress-Ups is the way that children and adults too, perceive their characters. While it is clear that George is ready for this small dinosaur, I can see that George’s knees are right at eye level.
I don’t think that George should be so confident.
Who Can Dress-Up?
Two-year-olds get it. Four-year-olds get it. They watch the other kids for a minute and dive into the boxes and come out looking like this.
Our question to him was simply “Hey, Tucker . . . how’re you doing?”
Well, you can see what we got.
Where Do All of the Lost Teeth Go ?
Some photos become “historical” and that is because we have a group of grandchildren who are in various stages of losing and growing back lots of front teeth. Some are missing the two top front teeth and another is missing a top and a bottom and some have two big front teeth back in and some are waiting around for things to get back to normal and for teeth to be the same size again.
These are the children who are eating out of the sides of their mouths and talking to each other about the Tooth Fairy even though most of them don’t believe in the Tooth Fairy. They have decided that it is economically sensible to enthusiastically believe.
I fell in love with this dinosaur shower curtain.
It was one of the favorites this year.
The bright colors and the “pixels” were especially fun for eclectic costumes and goofy stuff. Here is Andrew from the front and below is Andrew from the back.
Let’s look at just a few more photos.
The Family Clown
Every family has a clown. You are looking at ours.
No matter what is available, Holden will come up with something funny.
I don’t know what to say. I just don’t.
Here is a threatening and powerful Viking Princess.
Don’t tell me that she doesn’t have it in her
to storm the castle or drop a knight from a horse.
If looks could kill . . . but you know what I mean.
Go, Maya.
One More
Here is the last one. I just don’t have room to put everything on this post but I will send them along to Moms and Dads so that everyone can see everything. You can probably see why shower curtains make great backgrounds for photos.
Yes. The creature above is an elephant. I do believe that the other creature is named George.
No. I can’t explain it.
“Don’t Underestimate Me.”
Grandma