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?

Kaya, Our New Friend

 Hi all! Libby here. Today, Marie-Grace and I got to meet another home school girl by the name of Kaya. She's really fun and energetic with an independent sense of style.

 When we first got to her house, she showed us her duck, named Cow. Then we played hotel on her home-made playground. I pretend I was a maid, named Pansy. That was tons of fun, but unfortunately we forgot to take pictures. Sadness.

Marie-Grace describes her as being: "very sweet, charming and  independent."

 I LOVE making new friends and Kaya is great! I can't wait to play with her again!

When did you last make a new friend?

A fascinating trip to Fort Hartsuff

 Good day pleasant readers! I am extremely sorry for the great amount of pictures. Although yesterday was "fascinating" I must first tell you about the day before.

 So, I was practicing  a quite difficult song on the piano called "La Zingana" when I suddenly found it quite difficult to practice, Liberty having burst into the room singing "For the First Time in Forever" from Frozen: "The window is open, so's that door! I didn't know they did that anymore! Who knew we owned eight thousand salad plants?!" 

"Liberty, please, I'm attempting to practice." "Okay, can you just please stop being so responsible for a minute?" "And why, may I ask?" 

"Because, I've got a letter from Rissa and Elizabeth! Eeeeeeeeeeee!" "Well, I best finish my piano before I read my letter." 

"Whatever you want, Marie-the-to-responsible!" exclaimed Liberty, sitting down to read her letter.

I however, waited, as I said I would, until I finished practicing.

Yesterday, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit Fort Hartsuff, a museum/fort in our local area. This is the soldier's barracks.   

I stopped by one of the beds thoughtfully."Imagine living like this. They didn't a lot of comfort, did they?"  "I don't want to imagine it." said Libby.

The dinning room for the soldiers.

"That's not a very large amount of dishes." I commented. "Less to wash."said my Sister. 

I find it hard to imagine cooking on a strove like that! 

Liberty reading "The Cook's Creed.

One of sitting rooms in the officer's house.

Before noticing this sign, Libby was seating herself to play.

If there had been food at this table, I think both my Sister and I would have sat down to eat-it looked quite inviting.

"I would not want to push around that all day!" Liberty said emphatically, as soon as she spotted this pram. 

A bed in the nursery of the officer's house that Liberty "would not want to sleep on!"

This was probably my favorite room in that house. 

The heating system of the day.

The  view from the lovely front porch. 

There was a large group of other children there. "Public schoolers. They don't know what they're missing." said Libby

The interesting underside of the porch roof.

The commanding officer's house was closed.

The outside of the doctor's office. 

This is the first room. Liberty almost screamed before she realized that man was fake.

This display showed the medicines of the day.

The display showing the tools of the day.

After the doctor's office we made our way to a large warehouse. This was one of the small rooms in it.

It was rather startling  to see this hole with plastic over it. Though this "window" we could see into the cellar.

One of the things this warehouse stored was carriages.

This is the laundress' quarters. I thought it looked a bit more like a home than the others.

The workroom and dinning room in the laundress' quarters.

This is the cupboard that the baker would keep the bread in when it was rising.

I am glad I do not have to use an oven like this one when I am baking bread.

The blacksmith's shop.

Here I am, sitting on a side-saddle in the saddle room of the carriage house.

One of the stalls in the carriage house.

After that, we went back to the baker's to watch a five-minute video.

In the guard house.

Upon seeing the above sign, Liberty immediately walked up to the small window and called out:"Hello? Is anyone in there?'

The cells in which they would keep intoxicated individuals.

Before leaving the guardhouse, Liberty ran into the cell, waving her arms and shouting: "Let me out! Let me out!"

Next, we had the lovely opportunity to ride in a covered wagon.

A lady also rode beside the wagon on her horse, Speckles.

The view from the wagon.

Myself.

The horses' names were Sand Dune and Missy.

Liberty wanted very much to buy some candy at the store, but she had spent all her money.

Then we discovered a small barber shop at the back of the soldier's barracks.

When we went into the officer's house again, we were happy to met a friend of ours named Sagie Kremke. 

Liberty.

An interesting contraption, apparently used for hiding things.

Out in the garden behind the house.

A trip to Fort Hartsuff was rather like looking into the past. Thank you for looking at all of our many pictures and reading everything we wrote.

Have you ever been to an old fort?