She's 9!

Well she's 9! She has been very excited for this birthday (9 on the 9th of 2009). It was a whole birthday weekend. Friday night was dinner at Chili's (one of her favorites); Saturday night was a slumber party full of Wii game playing and Nintendo DS game playing (required very little planning on my part:-); and then Sunday was a mani/pedi appointment. Now she is all ready to go back to school as a 9 year old. Of course it also means she moves up a group in swimming. We'll have to tell you how the next meet goes after the 24th.

The rest of the bed

Well the bed is complete...the dolls can finally get in to the top bunk because they received the stairs. Below you can see the whole "house," the bed with the stairs that have storage and even a TV stand. The third picture shows how the dolls watch TV and the fourth picture is of the TV itself. Grandpa put pictures on his own TV and then took a picture of the TV to make the one for the dolls...hard to explain, but you can even see the SHARP logo on the TV. Guess the dolls are watching a documentary about Laurin's trip to Sea World.

The Dolls' House (taking up one wall of Laurin's room)

Bed and Storage Steps (there is even a light for the dolls on the bottom bunk)

Watching TV

The TV

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 everybody. We have had a nice break and are ready to go back to work/school on Monday (yeah right:-) Laurin and I returned from our quick trip to San Antonio on the 31st (Ron had to stay here and work and take care of Ranger:-(
We got to see the Riverwalk and spend a day at Sea World. Sea World was a lot of fun for Laurin and myself. It wasn't crowded and it wasn't too hot (or too cold). We got to see the Sea Lion show and have lunch with Keet (Shamu is just a stage name as we learned from the trainers:-) We also got a backstage tour of the "Viva!" show which has the dolphins and beluga whales performing with acrobatic divers and swimmers (think Cirque de Soleil in water). Laurin loved seeing the dolphins up close (brought her to tears). She asked lots of questions about how to become a dolphin trainer. Main thing they said was to be an excellent swimmer, so hopefully that will inspire her to keep training with her swim team:-)
Hope 2009 is wonderful for you all, and I hope my next blog post isn't in 2010.

Christmas present

Just had to share a pic of one of Laurin's Christmas presents....It is a bunkbed, handmade by Grandpa. She kept saying she wanted a bed (or beds) for her American Girl dolls and had the catalog marked and everything; but instead she received something much more special. Maybe Grandpa should start his own catalog. Grandma made the bedding (thanks to Linda for sending such perfect quilting scraps). I think they have a new business venture to persue now that they are retired.