They Are Not Throwing Away Their Shot.

Yep.
They're just like their country - young, scrappy and hungry.
And they're not throwing away their shot.

So, for character dress up day at school, here are
Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Nathan Hale and Kit Tyler.

My whole life I have thought that a capable woman makes something out of nothing.
Dinner.  Clothes.  A Home.
It doesn't matter.
If you're a capable woman, you can do it.
When I began staying at home, I was terrible at cooking.  Now I might not be gourmet, but I am an efficient and economical chef.
5 years ago, I was also no good at keeping up a house.  And it sill can be a struggle, but not as much as it was - we have a schedule, stuff gets done on a regular basis ,for the most part, and our house is a fun, loving, organized area (albeit on the brink of insanity).
It's the clothes thing that got me.
I wanted to sew.
I've always looked at cloth and wanted to be able to put it together and make something.
But I didn't have the time or opportunity.
I am so grateful for my sewing machine.
I'm figuring it out and am by no means a seamstress, but I can make basic things.
Over the past couple years I've mended clothes, sewed patches and made pajamas, blankets, doll clothes, skirts, shorts, dresses and costumes.
Not professional quality - but it's just so stinking satisfying to give things a new purpose.
I made Caroline's dress, cloak and collar in this picture.
It's Nate's costume I'm proud of.
Here's the story:
Two days ago, Sam fell and ripped a huge, unpatchable hole in his knee.  Since he loves bottoms with that kind of waist band, I was going to convert them into shorts so he could keep wearing them in summer.
But then Nate came home requesting to be Alexander Hamilton.
Be.  Still.  My.  Beating.  Heart.
So I took those pants, cut the knees just above the hole, added elastic and made them into knickers.
Then took the cut bottoms, folded them into cuffs and hemmed them.
I found my brother's old karate uniform, ripped off the patches, opened up the sleeves to accommodate the cuffs made from the pants and sewed open the collar.  Then we raided the Goodwill bags, found one of Caroline's old turtleneck shirts with stains and cannibalized an old dance costume purchased at a garage sale in Worcester to use as a cravat, stole some of Daddy's socks, got out the black dress shoes and BAM.
Instant Hamilton.
This was the look I was going for.

We did good.