Thursday, January 3, 2013

American Girls

Each year my granddaughters look forward to our annual American Girl Doll Party held a day or two after Christmas. This year our theme was "Let it Snow"(very appropriate this year). The girls get dressed up and walk in single file on a "runway" with their dolls, who are dressed in old clothes. At the table is a special gift for each girl...
new doll clothes that I've made for them.
They can hardly wait to open them to see what this years outfit will be. They immediately dress their dolls and request photos be taken (before anything gets dirty!) 
Mara and Julie
 Tessa and Rebecca
Maddie and Lanie
Brenna and Kit                          
Shaya and her dolly - she will get a real American Girl next year when she is five.
This year in honor of our theme the girls made snowman pizzas.They rolled out their own dough and topped it with their favorite ingredients. They loved it.
One for them and one for their dolls.
The finished snowmen are a little tough from overworked dough, but each girl thought it was perfect!
 I don't know who has more fun at this party - me or my granddaughters. This year each doll got a pair of "Uggs", leggins, a hoodie, and a cute shirt that matched each girls. Then we made snowflake necklaces for each girl and a miniature version for each doll. They were adorable.  Julie, below, shows off her new clothes.  

Soldier Hollow

New Years Eve day found my family all on the slopes of SoHo (Soldiers Hollow) for 2 hours of fun on the tubing runs. It was hands down the best tubing we've had this year! So AWESOME! This pix is the view of the lodge as I was going up the rope tow and although it 
looks warm and sunny it was 2° and fridgid.
Shaya, my 4 yr old granddaughter, cried all the way up the hill and could only be talked  into make the run once!
Despite the cold weather we were all dressed warm and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Parents often doubled with the kids to add "weight" to get the tubes running faster.
Matt and Shaya
Tessa and Tara
Dan and Maddie
We will definately make this a yearly trip as everyone had a good time even grandpa, who sat in the lodge with baby Annalise and Shaya.