What to do if you gert a bad gift

 Hi all! Today Marie brought in TWO packages from the mail (late birthday gifts).

 One had presents from Rissa and Elizabeth, our cousins.

 Here's what I did with the wrapping from Rissa's.

 In it was a very useful and fun Create-Your-Own Stationary Set. I can't wait to use it!

 Elizabeth's contained a shell frame which is really funny because I just got another frame at my party. This one's different though. I'm not sure what to put in it. What do you think I should?  

So, I was contentedly popping bubble wrap before Marie reminded me there was another present.

"Boy, is there! It's almost as big as me!" I tore off the wrapping paper and......

"A DOLLHOUSE?! I am WAY to old to play with DOLLHOUSES!

Okay, here's where my two tips come in. 1: Never tell them you hate it. There's got to be something nice about it. Maybe you like the color, or their thoughtfulness, or that they could come to your party. Try and think up SOMETHING nice!

2: Try the thing out! Maybe it's not as bad as you thought. Marie and I found it was lots of fun playing with all the different dolls. It is really, actually great fun!

Have you ever got a "bad" gift?

Do you like to play with dolls or dollhouses?

My Birthday!

 Hi all! Today was my so-much-fun, great, amazing, fantastic BIRTHDAY! YAY!

  So, I started out my day with a yummy breakfast in bed that Marie made me.

 After getting dressed and all that stuff, Mom said I could open one of my presents!

It turned out to be a very fun board game called "Apple Land".

At 3:00 Liz Miller and Addy and Jubilee Walker arrived for my costume party. Since we forgot to take pictures of the costumes I'll tell you what the costumes are now. I was a hot dog (with Caramel as my mustard bottle), Jubilee was an Indian, Addy was one of the Von Trapp girls, Marie-Grace was "A wealthy lady from the southern era", and Liz was "A ragbag or a Cinderella before the ball!" You see, Liz had been in California for vacation until last night so she didn't have time to think up much of a costume.  So anyway, here  we are playing "Have you seen my dog?".

After "Have you seen my dog?" we played "How's Your's?"

Then we played clothespin tag. Now, that was fun!  Basically, you try and grab other people's clothespin (or pins)  while not having your own pulled off.

Jubilee won that.

Then I went out while the others hid my presents. When I came back in they all started calling out their hotter, colders all at the same time! Annoyance! That made it very hard to find my presents.

I did, however.

Before opening my lovely  presents, it was time for CAKE!!!!  

Marie did an amazing job when she baked it.

Then it was time for PRESENTS! In this particular present from the Walkers was a $20 gift card to Olive Garden! Maybe when I go, I'll order just bread sticks! Not really, but their bread sticks are amazing, don't you think?

From Marie I got this exciting book called: "The Tale of Princess Tatiana". From what I've read so far, it's really good.

Then I got a really thoughtful gift from Liz. When she was at the American Girl store in Los Angeles, she remembered that that was the only american girl store I had ever gone to and bought me the tee-shirt from there. Wasn't that nice of her? 

The Walkers also gave me this cute frame as a present.

Later, when Dad got home,(and the guests had left) I opened my last gift. It was a leotard and a promise of gymnastics lessons in the fall! I'll finally learn to turn a cartwheel! 

So I'm a year older. Do I seem older? Do I look older? I bet not. Well, I had a great birthday all the same.

What do you do for your birthdays?

My Dress is done!

 Good day pleasant readers! After much hard work, yesterday, I tied the last knot and was done with my new dress. It took quite a bit of thought before I decided on a beach theme to embroider.

 Around the collar, I embroidered three shells, and on the sash, multicolored  fish swim.

 At the bottom of the skirt, waves roll and crash.

 It feels lovely to wear something that I myself embroidered. This will be a lovely addition to my summer wardrobe.

Do you like sewing or embroidery?

A Wonderful Idea

 Good day pleasant readers! This evening, I was reading an extremely good book called: "The Journeyman" in my backyard. Then, struck by a sudden thought, I laid down my book. "What if," I thought,"I was to make a dress decorated by my own embroidery, like Jennet in the book? I think that would be lovely!" 

 I began to make plans immediately, being no longer able to concentrate on my book.

What do you think of my idea?

Do you have any suggestions in accordance to what I should embroider?