Invasion of the Barbies

When the kids were younger, Lady Di used to hit all of the summer garage sales in the area. They still are the best places to get baby and toddler clothes. But ever since the kids outgrew those yard sale bargains, we haven't returned to anyone's house to buy their junk.

Until last week that is.

Lady Di was invited by our neighbor to check out a few sales. It had been years so LD said OK.

Here is what she came home with.

Needless to say, LD is now banned from yard sales for awhile. It seems one household was divesting itself of a collection of Barbie clothes, dolls and accessories. It was an entire totefull.

This is a plastic bag full of just shoes, boots,flippers and apparently one cooking pot. Any guesses as to how long Sweet Pea will be able to keep at least one pair of matching shoes together?

Here is one of Sweet Pea's ideas for a snappy outfit for Ken. It fits, but I'm not sure those clothes actually belong to him. Although, it could be from his Miami Vice collection. From the next picture it's easy to tell which outfits are Sweet Pea's favorites. She had a lot of fun with the mermaid tails.

How many mermaid tails did this house really need?

It took about a day and a half to sort through all of the stuff and we had to build a Barbie wing onto the back of the garage to store it all. But at least we are now prepared for any Barbie emergency that might arise. No fashion crisis or wardrobe malfunctions are in our immediate future.

All except for Ken's outfit.

Sleeping bag blues

A couple of days ago, Ethan and Emery's grandparents came for a visit. My folks, Lady Di's folks and my Grandma Peg came to see Ethan's play. It was a big weekend for everyone. On Saturday, after the play, we all went out to eat. When we came back home it was around 7:00pm. The kids then opened some Easter gifts from the grandparents since we won't be seeing them at Easter. After that, the kids were a little over stimulated and had some difficulty going to bed. Since we had guests, Emery slept in her Barbie sleeping bag in Ethan's room. This arrangement had worked in the past, but not tonight.
First, she had to come downstairs to tell us that Ethan was talking, and she couldn't sleep.
Then we heard some animal noises coming from the bedroom. I went up to ask what was going on. Ethan said, "Emery was roaring at me."
"Emery, why were you roaring at Ethan?"
"Because he was leaning over his bed and touching my blanket.", she replied.
"That's because she was touching my blanket.", was Ethan's immediate response.
Since this was about the fourth time I had had to go into their room, Emery was relocated. I put her and her Barbie sleeping bag in our room.
At about 9pm we could still hear her talking to herself in our room. Exasperated I asked, "Emery, what is the problem tonight?"
She said, "I'm sorry Daddy. I just can get the hang of my sleeping bag."

I hope she gets the hang of her sleeping bag for camping this summer.