Labor Day At the Dolly Barn

Well, the girls were up early and ready for the day!  Gabby had her best friend, Chelsea, over to spend the night, and they were ready to spend the day swimming, canoeing, and fishing.  They rode the scooter too, and had a great time!  Here are the first pictures as they started outside to spend time together before school starts.

Chelsea is such a great friend to Gabby.  She enjoys many of the things that Gabby does, and they are in dance class together.  She is an excellent student like Gabby, and they will be in many of the same classes.  They can't wait for their art class with Ms. Martinez this year.  She is the best art teacher in their school district, and always plans lots of field trips to great museums.

         I think Chelsea is a very cute girl too, don't you?

   More photos to come on their fun day with the cousins!

Tea Parties Big At The Ranch

This is two more of my grand-daughters, Avery Marietta Michelle, and McKenna. We love having tea parties at the ranch, the Barbie Barn is going to be the sight of many tea parties... especially Birthday Tea Parties!

Just a Few of Our Residents

                            These are some of our beauties!

Flowers Are Everywhere At the Ranch

         There were beautiful wildflowers nearly all summer 

                                 at the ranch this summer.

Stories from the Barbie Barn

Now to tell you a little bit about how I will conduct this blog.  I love to write stories and poetry, so that will be one element of this site, with the goal being to entertain little girls.  My mother taught me to be creative at a very young age, and she also taught my children, and children’s children how to “pretend play.”  She was a child of the Great Depression, and toys were few and far between.  What a great blessing that was, because she developed, along with her siblings, a great imagination, often making dolls out of things from her environment.  I can remember many Barbie doll dresses she made my one and only childhood Barbie on her sewing machine.  

The rich play life which she taught all us girls is why my head is so full of “Barbie stories. “ The way I will write my Barbie Stories is by using the many 36 inch “life size Barbies I have collected and designed wardrobes for before they took up residence in the Barbie Barn, and assign them a character as one of my eight grand-daughters, and my grand-nieces.  These cousins have such great fun together.  I will be assigning them all to the same age of freshmen in high school.  (This of course is because of the dolls themselves all looking the same age. )   

I have had such great fun dying their hair the appropriate color, doing what we doll enthusiasts call  making an OOAK (one of a kind)  by eye painting to reflect their individual looks and personality, and making clothing that reflects their personalities as well.

The first Barbie I am presenting is Gabby, after my grand-daughter Gabrielle, who is extremely talented and artistic.  She too has a wonderful artistic personality.   I will introduce a doll each day, along with her bio.  There will also be a version of each girl in the traditional size dolls, along with my grand-sons  Tristen, Michael and Maddox being represented in this category as Soldiers.