Almost a week ago we celebrated my daughters 3rd birthday. As any mom I made sure the day was extra special, including making her a dress that matched all of the table runners and decorations!

Since then,  I spent the better part of a week soaking, scrubbing, and washing the said dress. Battling the Jello stains, mud, ice cream blobs, and grass marks.

On her special day, among trying out the new sprinkler she had received and inhaling a ton of sugar… my toddler took the concept of “trash the dress” to a whole new level!

After spending hours and a few swear words trying to restore the dress back to perfection… Only to hang it up in the back of her closet with the dress from her two year old birthday party. I started to wonder why did I care so much about cleaning it?

She had so much fun on her special day! She made memories when I let her run through the sprinkler with her clothes on, she dug into her cake with such enthusiasm we all giggled!

Why did I want to wash away those memories so bad? I should have hung that dress up in the closet, stains and all! They where proof of a fun day in the sunshine.

In fact my wedding dress is sitting in a box under my bed. Red rose petals stains on it, dirt from walking around downtown Minneapolis for pictures still hanging to the edges, and a dribble of red wine from when my sister made me laugh so hard I spilled.

It was proof of my fun day…

Looking back I wish I would have kept her dress as it was. Stains and all!!!

I think we all can learn a lot from that toddler trashing her birthday dress in the front yard. It’s about the memories… not the things!