bff adventures: a day at our home

the day after my girls' birthday sleepover deedee and emily got to stay the whole day with us. usually molly is the one visiting her bffs at my mom's house where deedee and emily live, but that day we got the pleasure of having them over to our home! :) the best part about having them was deedee and emily finally got to meet and spend quality time with all of my girls. they had the best time getting to know each other!

felicity and deedee, who had previously met, really meshed! something about their spirited and vivacious personalities made them click! i think it's the start to a beautiful new friendship!

felicity used her new vera bradley notepad, a birthday gift from my mom, to write a story with deedee while deedee also admired felicity's animal scrapbook (she especially liked reading about polar bears!)

 emily, molly, and addy laughed and laughed playing endless rounds of apples to apples.

addy loved learning all about england's history, and culture, and climate from emily. she had no idea how different it is from the u.s.! the british even have different words for things, even though we both speak english! such as pudding which is what they call dessert, and lacy curtains are called nets, a sweater is a jumper, and the bathroom is the loo! :)

 the girls lounged around in their jammies snacking on donuts, and candy, and popcorn for most of the day! it was the perfect way to recoup  after partying and playing late into the night!

finally, well past lunch time the girls got dressed for the day, but they were still too tired to be too productive so they just played around and chatted indoors the rest of the day. 

molly is ecstatic about emily giving her bennett for her birthday!! now bennett and yank can play together during their bff adventures (yank lives with emily at my mom's house)! kirsten is also very excited to have bennett living with us; she adores animals! addy has never had a pet before so she is glad to have one now.

felicity proudly showed deedee her florida scrapbook. they are hoping mom and i will take them on a trip together!  samantha was sitting by reading the american girl magazine. it had some fun craft ideas she wants to try out! 

emily's and rebecca's personalities are very different, but emily loved how rebecca made her laugh until her belly ached, and rebecca loved emily's soft daintiness. she said emily is so graceful in everything she does; she is like one of the elegant movie stars she wishes to be one day!

while working on a puzzle, they realized they had something unique in common: they are both originally from different countries and have family members still overseas. rebecca called kirsten over to the table because she too is in the same boat (no pun intended). the three of them shared their experiences and hearts about it and immediately bonded. it was very special for them to be able to relate to someone in that way.

molly was so happy to share her bffs with the rest of my girls, and so glad they all became good friends!

just before it was time for me to take deedee and emily home to mom i had to make them take a big group picture... of course! i just love that each girl is her own unique person, and yet they are so accepting and loving despite their differences. that's the meaning of a true friend!!

when it was time to go big hugs went all around, even bennett, yank, and coconut gave nuzzles! :)

we had so much fun that we wished they could stay forever, but mom would miss them too much!

ta-ta for now!!

we can't wait for you to come back to play at our home :)

it's so exciting to make new friends. how did you meet your close friends? what types of similarities and differences did you discover?

a birthday sleepover!!

 since my girls' birthdays are all in the spring we decided to have a big sleepover birthday party with their friends deedee, emily, julie, and kit. everybody was in their jammies, and the decorations and treats were all out and ready!

we made these "no-sew" blankets and pinwheels for party favors. and there was one little gift on the table for my girls from me.

 when the guests arrived we all screamed and jumped up to give hugs and introduce all the new friends to each other.

  of course the bffs (molly, emily, and deedee) were very excited to see each other!

and kit and julie were thrilled to see my girls... it had been a few months since we saw each other! 

molly, emily, and deedee are our newest friends so some introductions were needed.

 in case you aren't aware, deedee and emily live with my mom, and julie and kit live with my nieces. my nieces and my mom  were there celebrating too. it was a girly girl night for sure!!

while the girls were getting acquainted and helping themselves to treats and drinks my mom sneaked a whole bunch of presents into the house!! we weren't even expecting presents we just wanted to have a fun party, but she is too nice and generous to come to a party empty handed... love you mommy!!

once the girls realized the living room floor was covered with gift bags they screamed and came running in!!

we sorted them all out and took turns unwrapping. it was very curious though-- one of the bags kept seeming to jiggle and whine, but emily insisted it was just deedee's or her puppies, yank and coconut, who had joined the party.

mom got each girl (including julie and kit) a vera bradley duffel bag!! mom puts lots of though into all the gifts she gives so of course each bag had a pattern fitting for each girl's time period and personality. she knew felicity already had a vera duffel so she got felicity vera stationary and note pads (mom knows felicity loves making scrapbooks).

 there was one more gift bag left unopened; it was the curious bag that seemed alive. molly leaned down to read the tag, "happy birthday molly! you are my dearest and best friend forever! with love, emily," it read. just then a bouncy little puppy leaped out of the bag and straight into molly's arms!!

"it's bennett!!" she yelled.

 emily rushed over! yank was already at molly's feet jumping up trying to get to his little furry friend bennett! emily whispered to molly, "now our foursome is complete!"   :)

what a special gift!

[thank you mommy-- you are my bff]

everyone was wound up even the dogs were barking and going wild! my girls were especially happy and begging and pleading, "can we keep him? can we keep him?" i sternly told them NO at first and they all stuck out their lips. but then i couldn't keep a straight face and said, "just teasing! yes sillies, bennett is a very special gift from emily to molly. he is a part of our family now. but having a pet is a lot of responsibility. we will have to work hard together to keep bennett healthy and happy."

next we let our guests pick out their party favors. they loved the soft blankets and colorful pinwheels we made!

oops we almost forgot my little package for the girls!

"yay! it is apples to apples!" that's the game they asked for! "lets play!" they all shouted! but i insisted they get their sleeping arrangements all set up first and get settled for the night.

once the girls were cozy under their blankets with their games and magazines and treats there was a nice sweet buzz of chitter-chatter.

after a while they said their prayers and snuggled up together. one by one they dozed off into dreamland.

shhhhhhhhhh ;)

the next morning birds were softly chirping, the sun was gently breaking through the curtains, the girls were peacefully sleeping until they were abruptly awoken to:

"zippity doo dah, zippity aye,
my oh my what a wonderful day
plenty of sunshine coming my way,
zippity doo dah, zippity aye."

the girls jumped up out of their deep sleep to find rebecca dramatically singing and dancing with a box of donuts balancing in her hands!

you might have thought they would have been annoyed with rebecca but the thing about rebecca is that she can make even the grumpiest scrooge laugh and fill a whole room with joy and energy!

the girls munched on their donuts and talked about all the fun they had. then all too soon kit and julie had to leave because kit had cheerleading. deedee and emily stayed and played for the whole day
[i'll post a "bff adventures" about all the fun day they had later-- stay tuned]

we had the best time; it was a fabulous way to celebrate their birthdays!

but wait that's not all!...

can you keep a secret?

 ...i'm going to surprise my girls with another more formal birthday party for just my girls, i'm so excited!!...more presents!!

samantha's first "attempt"

welp, samantha's photo shoot was not as successful as kirsten's and addy's. we didn't get great weather for samantha's photo shoot and i was hoping the rose garden would have more blossoms since everything else has bloomed early. any ways, i got a few good ones but i think we will try again. none of these really do her justice; i feel. samantha's personality is hard to explain because she is kind of a contradiction. she is very elegant and ladylike while also being very adventurous and playful. she is level headed, respectable, and well mannered but also not afraid to get her hands or pinafore dirty. so i just feel these pix are too generic for her character. i'd love to hear what you think.

btw most of these have been touched up because it was so cloudy and gloomy that the lighting was very dull in the pictures. poop. 

i took my four year old niece with me and we did several group shots with her three favorite dollies :) i thought you might enjoy seeing some of those too lol

here is bitty, cheerleader, and rosie with samantha. i love the names she's given her dolls :) hehehe 

 

it was a fun day, just didn't meet my high expectations as far as the photo quality goes. not to mention we were ready to do rebecca's too but a storm came, sad.

so out of these pictures of samantha do you have any favs?

p.s. thanks for your feedback on the addy's and kirsten's. i have been considering all your comments.

addy's photo shoot

here are some photos from my photo shoot with addy. like kirsten's wilderness hike photo shoot, one of these photos will be addy's profile picture for her profile on "the girls" tab. which by the by, i'm thinking about making a tab for each girl. whatcha think of that idea?

so for addy's shoot i picked a more urban setting because it's kinda what i imagine philadelphia (where she lives) might have looked like in 1865.

[perfect timing... a train was going by!]

she is a hard working girl, always persevering, and always hopeful.

i thought these shots really depict that side of her. 

i love the rich colors in the following photos!

i think the raw old urban textures in these photos really speak to my addy's personality.

she knows how to look past the rough edges and find the beauty and good in all things.

she herself is a sort of diamond in the rough, if you will.

addy's cheery disposition makes her be my little bluebird of happiness so i was so excited to find this graffiti!

so what do you think? if you were me which one would you choose for her profile picture?

i can't wait to get these profiles made! i hope this weekend is sunny so i can do rebecca's and samantha's photo shoot!