Welcome party

There was a party going on

Music was provided by the band with Laura singing the vocals

Laura was wearing a dramatic red velvet cloak as she sang and danced

Edmund had joined the band with a guitar though was in danger of being deafened by Trendon Elliott's trumpet!

The flute, guitars, drums and backing singers were in full swing

The backing singers Matroshka, Jayne and Harriet were dancing and moving their arms in time as they sang while Matilda and Belle danced on the balcony and Nicholas James played the guitar

Clemence the bear fancied himself a singer too and held the microphone stand for Laura

Peter the drummer and Matroshka the singing dancer

Matilda and Belle were loving the music

Trendon Elliott was playing the trumpet, Anna the flute and Samantha the guitar

Reuben, Miranda, Florence and the babies Amy, Mabel and Leo were loving Laura's singing as they danced along to the music

The music drew two newcomers into the room - they were astonished by the welcome to their new home

Reuben rushed over to greet them "Melanie, Nina, at last you've come" he yelled in delight to see his new sisters

"Welcome home" cried Reuben as he hugged his new sister Melanie while Miranda greeted baby Nina

"Hello Melanie and Nina, we've been looking forward to meeting you" exclaimed Florence and Miranda as baby Amy peeped between their legs to see Nina

The Sasha and Gregor family gathered round Melanie and Nina to welcome them, there was a lot of excited chatting

soon they were all partying together as the band started playing again to welcome their new sisters to the family

Melanie, Reuben and baby Nina (with Nina's basket)

Melanie and Nina my two new Trendon Sasha dolls arrived at the end of January via Susanna Lewis's site. They both came with their complete original outfits and boxes, and Nina has her basket.  They are both minty, in fact Melanie still has the new vinyl smell and Nina, who was a shop display doll until she went to the same private collection as Melanie also has a faint new vinyl smell and her basket is perfect.  Melanie is the 1983 Cora Flower dress and Nina is Little Flower.  Reuben, who is a later Caleb is slightly shorter than Melanie (though it may be her hair) - he doesn't seem to mind though as he is delighted to have two new sisters.  The elder sister of my childhood playmate Reuben was called Melanie and another Sunday school playmate I had at the Cathedral was also called Melanie.  Nina is named for two Nina's - one was the mum of three neighbouring children whom I knew all my childhood and the other is a current friend.

My daughter was playing music from Queen while we set up and photographed this story, including Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions. Somebody to Love, Another One Bites the Dust, I Want to Break Free and We Will Rock You.

I've had so little time for the dolls in recent weeks so it was fun to carve out some time with my younger daughter today to play dolls again together.