The tea party

Our living room has been invaded

by Littiest Pet Shop Pets and friends.

Saturday fun

Triniti and Emily and the baby dolls had a lot of fun today.

Playing Polly Pockets

When we have company

When we have company, Emily gets to camp out in our room.

Sewing 101

I thought was had gotten the best deal on this little sewing machine. It was $40 on Black Friday. Well, it was a booger trying to get it to work. But I kept trying and finally I got it to work. I don't know who was happier me or Emily.
Emily and I sewed all day and made a huge mess doing it.
But look at all the neat things that were made for her babies. There were scarves, bags, capes, and skirts.
The next morning, we were willing to get right back into sewing, but the sewing machine had different plans. One of these days I am going to drop the stupid no good machine from a very high building. Hartford tried to fix it, but it didn't work. It is extremely disappointing.

Playing dolls

Sunday after church Emily and I played baby dolls. The laundry went undone, but I'll always have laundry to do, I won't always have a little girl to play baby dolls with me.

Gone Fishing

Two Sundays ago, Hartford took Emily finishing. Although Polyester didn't go with them, Emily dressed her up in a fishing outfit and even made her a fishing pole.

Christmas in August

Two weekends ago, Emily asked me if it was time start decorating for Christmas. She didn't like my answer, however I suggested that she should decorate her Barbie doll house and that was exactly what she done. Here's proof:

Re-root of a teenage black Skipper doll - before picture

The other night, Emily comes into the orange room holding this Skipper doll, one hand held the head and the other hand held the body. I told that I would super glue it. I really meant it when I said it. It laid on the craft table for a couple of days and every time I saw it, I tried to convince myself that I was going to super glue it. That's all, just super glue the head to the body and walk away from it. Well, the urge overcame me and I gave into the temptation. I have scalped her and prepared her to be re-rooted. With every strain of hair I pulled out, I felt so guilty that I told had Emily that I was going to super glue it. The next morning, I confessed to Emily of my actions. At first she was disappointed and ask to see the doll. I showed the bald head to her and she immediately forgave me but I read between her words that she should have known all along what I would and wouldn't do.

Doll Makeovers

After the eggs were dyed, it was time to play babies. And babies did we play! Each baby got a makeover which involved a pretend haircut, a new style, pretend makeup and a new outfit. Even the teddy bears got into the action.

Good night, Emily

Emily dearly loves her purple blanket. She simply calls it, "Purple." She often says, "Where's purple? I can't sleep without Purple!" Sometimes she sleeps with so many stuffed animals, pillows and blankets, I wonder how she is going to fit in bed with them.

"Shh, my babies are sleeping"

Last Friday night I worked late. When I got home, Emily rushed to the door and whispered, "shh, my babies are sleeping." Hartford reported that she had worked all evening putting them to sleep.
On Saturday morning Emily didn't want to go to swimming lessons because she needed to wake up her babies and feed them. I reassured her that they would sleep until she returned. They did. She played with them on Saturday and put them back to bed Saturday night. Please note their covers. It's her old, old purple blanket. Thank goodness Santa brought her another one in 2007. For some reason, I think both blankets will go to college with her.

Pictures of Emily / American Girl Dolls

I've always enjoyed playing dolls. Now more so because I have a living baby doll, a dream come true.

Toys have came into our home and toys have left our home, but this rocking horse as stood the test of time:
When I was pregnant with Emily, I saw these cute soft rocking horses at Sam's Club and fell in love with them and I wanted one for my child. However, as luck would have it, money was tight and I had no other choice but to leave the store without one. I reasoned that I had plenty of time since the baby wasn't due for months. Well, the more that I thought about those cute little horses, the more determined that I had to have one immediately. Therefore, when pay day arrived, I went to pick up one of those adorable rocking horses. Guess what, they were sold out without knowledge if they would be getting more in stock. No problem, I thought because I would just go to another Sam's club and get one. It wasn't as easy as I had thought. I ended up searching ever darn Sam's Club that I knew how to get to. Unfortunately, everyone of them said that they were sold out and didn't know if or when they would be stocking more.

Anyway, months past and I have given up all hope of every finding these horses again. One day Hartford and I took a walk and ended up at Sam's Club. Lo and behold there were three horses waiting for someone to buy them. I had to have one that moment. Hartford tried to convince me to walk home and get the car. But I would not take the chance of them selling out by the time I could get back to the store. So I purchased it and I carried it home. Did I mention that it was a hot summer day? Did I mention that it gets really muggy hot in Georgia? Did I mention that I was large with child? Did I mention that I carried that stupid horse all the way home? Did I mention that I should have listened to Hartford because two weeks later, there were about 30 of those darn horses in every darn Sam's Club that I went into?

The horse has stood the test of time. Emily has enjoyed many hours playing with this horse. She is almost seven years old and she will still sit and ride it for a few moments at a time. There has been phases where she would feed it half eaten apples, and there was been phases where she shared it with her dolls and stuffed animal, there has been times that the horse has been it time outs and there has been times that it has been covered in hair bows.

I'm glad that she likes it so well.

The tea party and fashion show

I looked forward to our tea party that Emily planned for us and of course playing baby dolls afterwards. Apparently she had it on her mind as well because when I picked her up from the YMCA yesterday, she mentioned that she was glad that I was the one who picked her up so that we could have our tea party. Being the mean parent that I am, I broke the news, "Honey, you'll need to eat dinner and take a bath before we have the tea party." She took the news as obvious and happily agreed.

To be honest, I was a little worried that we were going to run out of time because I went shopping during my lunch break and I wanted her to try on the items. And of course, I wanted to take pictures. When we walked through the door, I was so thankful to see that Hartford had supper on the table. Therefore, things really moved quite nicely. Hartford is a awesome husband and father but I'll save that for another blog. But, I want to mention that he is very understanding that his girls need their time to play dolls. Let's just say that our house wouldn't be pleasant without dolls.

Immediately after supper, I explained to Emily that time was limited and it was going to be hard to get everything done that she had planned for us to do. I asked her if I could make the muffins while she was taking a bath. She agreed only if she could pick out the muffins. She handed me the chocolate muffins with a sly smile. She knows me too well, I dislike chocolate muffins and wouldn't have picked them.

While taking her bath, she decided that it would be best if we invited guest to our party so that we would definitely get to play baby dolls. She is a smart girl.

Emily invites Nikki:
Nikki was America Girl's doll of the year for 2007. My little stinker admitted a couple months ago that she only picked Nikki from the catalog because she liked this outfit. Good Heavens, this outfit wasn't even the outfit that came with the doll. But thanks to Connie, she wasn't disappointed at Christmas. Connie even purchased the cowboy hat for her. By the way Nikki's horse either wears the hat or uses it to carry things in it.

Now, when I play dolls, I play by changing the doll's outfit and giving the doll a new hair do. Occasionally, Emily will allow me to change Nikki's outfit only to make me put this outfit right back on her.

Wherever Nikki is, her no name horse is with her. The poor horse has to carry all of Nikki's pets which at this moment included three dogs and a cat. He got a carrot to eat. The pets got nothing. In my opinion, the lazy pets didn't deserves anything. However, they were very well behaved at the party.
Here's a picture of Emily trying to convince Nikki to eat her muffin. I suppose she doesn't like chocolate muffins either.
Emily finally gives up and eats Nikki's muffin for her.
What is a tea party without tea? A snow cone party.
Yum!
Double yum! She went back for a second helping.
Just as I was beginning to think the party was ending, Emily announces that it's time for dessert. The parent inside me was thinking that I should stop the party. But since we were having so much fun, I decided to cut her a very small piece of Hartford's Boston Cream birthday pie. She added a few more chocolate chips on her plate just to make sure that she got enough sugar. As she was eating the cake she raved about what a good job that I did on the cake. Finally, I looked at her and said, "Honey, you know I didn't make it, don't you?" She answered, "I know Mom, you don't cook, but you did an awesome job picking it out and buying it!" I thought to myself, "Well, yes I did and I am very proud of myself and I think that one day soon I must do it again because I love the praise."
After eating a good supper, and her muffin, Nikki's muffin, the horse's carrot, two snow cones and dessert, she announces that she is hungry and wants a banana. She normally doesn't eat this much, she is in the midst of a growing spell, thus the reason for the new clothes. As soon as the banana was gone, the fashion show begins and the sugar hits hard!

First up is the poodle skirt that I purchased from eBay. The little shirt was from Ross for only $4.99. It was a perfect match.
While Emily was eating the banana, I begged her to let me dress Nikki in her poodle skirt. She agreed. Poodle skirts are fun, they twirl wonderfully. At this point in time the sugar is at it's peak and there was a lot of twirling and giggling going on and she made a number of movies.

After killing two sets of batteries and filling up one memory card, I decided to put a stop to the movies. Plus, we had more things to try on and bed time was approaching fast.

This shirt came from Ross for $5.99 or $6.99, I forget which. It is different from anything the is currently in her closet.
This shirt came from The Limited Too. Oh my goodness, the styles and the prices! Luckily, this one had been marked down and had an additional 30% off so I got it for $17 something.
Here's another shirt from The Limit Too. It was on sale $9.99. I thought that it looked very first grader-ish. Plus, Emily is so into hearts and rainbows. Plus, she adores pockets.
This is yet another Limited Too shirt. This one is my favorite and it is Emily's least favorite. This doesn't surprise either of us. We just giggle about it and I pray silently that we will still be able to giggle a little during her teenage years.
After all this activity, she still had time to find her pajamas in the pile of clothes, take her allergy medicine and gummy vitamins, brush her teeth, and listen to me read a book before it was time to say our prayers and turn off the lights at 8:45.

I really enjoyed our evening together, but I have to admit, it wore me out.