Our girls love dresses, well, most of them do most of the time. This year with the help of friends and each other our two older girls made their own civil war dresses for an annual event that we have become a part of – Liberty Day. Liberty Day is usually held in February-March. This year it was on March 20th. It is usually a day long conference of learning history from a constitutional perspective, then in the evening there is an event called the Liberty Day celebration. The celebration includes skits, music, special performance of the 2nd Virginia Convention and an hour or so of dancing the Virginia Reel and other dances from that time period – all in costumes from many different eras, not just the civil war.

This annual affair has become a delight to our girls. They love picking out patterns, fabric and notions for their dresses. The past couple of years they have even purchased all their materials with their own money. It helps that both of them have Christmas and birthdays early in the year to put their gift money towards their coveted costumes.

In some ways, this is a rather extravagant affair since they really don’t wear their dresses anywhere else except when they act out their own plays at home. However, we have heard of friends wearing their dresses to places like Old World Wisconsin, Williamsburg and other places that are very historical. The thing is, I hate to squelch the desire they have to create, sew and be a part of the event itself. They have a blast making the dresses and then when they come home from Liberty Day talk of nothing else for several days! These are the things that make memories for them to treasure their whole lives.