Sunday, January 15, 2006

1/15 Tale of Two Suitcases

First of all, Victoria's birthday party at Olivia's Doll House was so much fun. A hoot from start to finish. When we arrived, Jill just dropped off Kayla and me, because we'd forgotten Victoria's presents. She went home to get them (a 40 minute round trip), so I took lots of pictures so she'd see what Kayla did in her absence.

The place is like a little Victorian cottage. The first thing the girls do is walk into this big room that has make up mirrors and chests of jewelry and dresses hanging absolutely everywhere else. The girls pick out a party dress (or several) to try on. That's done in the powder room. Kayla's first choice was perfect for her. They could also get a big hat if they liked, but she wasn't interested. Her gold "flapper dress" was fun, and reminded her of a "hula girl" dress because of all the fringe. She's really into the hula lately. She found some huge clip-on earrings that completed the ensemble beautifully. Then she sat to have her nails done. The attendants looked like college girls. K's person asked what color. Kayla replied yellow and pink, every other nail done a different color. What fun! Then, the next station was for make up. Some of the girls looked like little clowns because either they chose odd colors or their attendant wasn't good at make-up. Kayla's make up looked really good. I was surprised. The pink blusher was applied expertly and the lipstick was very cute and matched the blush.

The final stage was hair. Kayla's hair is super fine, just like Jill's. But the girl did a good job of putting it up on top of K's head, with a circlet of white flowers as a crown. This little princess certainly fit the roll.

After all the girls were ready they had a fashion show. Each princess was announced and they walked into a room where parents were sitting, they stopped and posed, and tons of pictures were taken. (At the end of the night, each girl got to pick a toy from a treasure chest, plus received a really cute pic of themselves as a princess.)

The tea party followed the fashion show. They ate little squares of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, little slices of hot dogs on toothpicks, sliced veggies like carrots and celery, slivers of cheese pizza. After that, they each received a plate of sweets. The "tea" was lemonade, which was a perfect choice.

The evening was wonderful.

Kayla's bedtime is usually 8, and we got home at 9, so she was tired. Me too. I got to bed at 10, asleep by 10:30 or so, and my alarm went off at 2 AM. Kayla jumped up, "Grandma, are you leaving?" I told her not yet, and I'd wake her up before I left. About 2:45 I gave her a kiss and a hug. She didn't open her eyes but said, "I love you so much, Grandma." (Any wonder it's hard to leave?) I snuck in Hunter's room and kissed him too.

Then downstairs. Remember I'd brought two huge hardsided suitcases? Almost all presents.... So when it's time to leave I have one completely empty suitcase and one 1/2 full--of my clothes and presents I received.

When I arrived in Milwaukee only one suitcase made it. Guess which one it was?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's better to give than receive? :)

Jerilyn Dufresne, author said...

Absolutely, Gin. Arriving home with an empty suitcase was a trip. (Pun intended.) The other suitcase arrived late last night.

Beata said...

Mom, didn't you wish to dress as a princess that night? Next time we will go there together and I will do it with you, I promise! :-)

Jerilyn Dufresne, author said...

Yes, Beatka. At first I thought, "I wish they had this when I was a little girl." Then I thought, "Hell, I wish I could do this now."

When I was a kid I was much more into playing baseball than playing dolls.