Emily to the rescue

The cloth pony my younger daughter made last year (with my help) is called Emily.  For a while my girl has been talking about giving Emily a horse birthday party, and today she finally managed to organise it.  She had decorated for a party under her bed with paper chains about 3 months ago, but decided she wanted the party outdoors, well the great British weather didn't make that possible until recently and even today we had light showers, bright sunshine and strong gust of wind.

In preparation the doll family got changed, not into party outfits but into good sensible clothes for outdoors and mucking out the stables.  Three of them changed into riding clothes, the others don't have them.  The following picture story was my daughter's plan for the party, I just took the photos and enjoyed her fun.

Harriet has the first ride on Molly the Battat horse

Samantha, Jakob, Peter and Matroshka watch at the stables

Harriet dismounts like a pro

Harriet dismounts Molly

Anna, Belle and Matilda at the stables

Jayne is so nervous about riding a horse she mounts back to front

Jayne finally manages to face the right way

but she is very scared and clings tightly to Molly

Molly goes up the ramp and Jayne starts to enjoy the ride

Jayne gets bolder and drops the reins

"Look no hands" cries Jayne

Molly decides to rear on her hind legs and Jayne clings on tightly again

Jayne is quite relieved to dismount, while Laura looks on

Emily the pony finally gets a birthday ride in the sleigh (well it works on grass),
wearing her red cape and holding the riding crop

Harriet rides Molly and tows Emily

Emily uses the riding crop to make Molly go faster

Molly comes to a sudden stop and the sleigh crashes into  her legs

Harriet loses her grip and tumbles from Molly's back

Poor Harriet crashes to the ground

"Ouch my arm hurts" cries Harriet

Emily put Harriet's arm in a sling ...

then mounts Molly while Harriet sits in the sleigh

Emily the pony wears the riding hat to ride Molly

So Emily rescues Harriet and tows her back to the house 

Meet Matroshka

I've taken photos of doll happenings this year and haven't had the time until now to write about them.  So this story starts on Easter Day.

Once again my girls did an Easter Egg hunt around the garden, this year I planted clues in the eggs and they had to match up questions and answers about Easter.

The completed Easter Quiz

 

Their prize were Real Easter Eggs (the only commercially produced egg in the UK with the Easter message printed on the box) and a joint gift of a Gotz Matroshka doll.

A Real Easter Egg

It seemed appropriate to give them this particular girl because Russian nested dolls, which always remind me of Easter Eggs, are called Matryoshka dolls. I did suggest they could call her Marie or Maria or Mary, but they decided to keep her exotic name.

 My elder daughter examines the new doll

 Matroshka from the side

She has the same face as my younger daughter's first Gotz doll (Ice Skating) whom she called Samantha.  I like this face better than the more popular 'Sarah/Hannah' Gotz dolls (who are lovely).  Matroshka has long blond hair and an outfit of tartan, faux fur and white jersey fabric which includes a Russian nested doll printed on her white top.  Both my girls were delighted with her.  I'd bought her in TK Maxx earlier last year at a much lower price than RRP, but was served by a rude young male cashier who commented that dolls were creepy.  I refrained from telling him that it was the height of bad manners to pass derogatory comments on customer choice and taste to a customer's face, though it was tempting to suggest that he keep his thoughts to himself (I think he was too young to ever have watched 'Are you being served'!)

Matroshka quickly became a favourite in the doll family and when we travelled to Germany for May half term to the Black Forest for a Fair Organ Festival which takes place every 3 years, my girls decided to take Matroshka, Peter, Matilda and Belle.  The Aussie girls hadn't been on a trip to Europe and for Peter it was like going home, as his original outfit is Bavarian.  We have the matching girl outfit (Gotz Dirndl dress) so this was taken for our new blond girl to wear.

We always stay at a small family run Bed & Breakfast in a little valley above the town when we visit the festival. It has the most glorious views down the valley, a stream running endlessly beside it (which you can hear from the bedrooms at night), serves fresh trout as well as home made Black Forest Gateaux (the chef owns the hotel and it is his speciality) and the service is friendly and welcoming (my girls love it).  My elder daughter is learning German for her GCSEs and practised her elementary German with their warm encouragement.

 Matilda tries to share my younger daughter's ice cream in the hotel

Belle enjoys the glorious sunshiny view from our breakfast table on Saturday morning

Belle did visit the Saturday of the organ festival and Matroshka and Peter came out on the Sunday, but carrying the dolls about town all day is tiring for small arms after a while, so they only came to meals at the hotel after that.

 

A monkey and barrel organ at the festival - these monkeys are very rude
and squirt water at you if you get too close! 
They are operated via a series of levers and have
various hand movements, some of them rather naughty!

A vintage doll for sale in a side street at the festival

Matroshka and Peter in front of an Alfred Bruder fair organ outside an organ workshop

Matroshka, Peter and my younger daughter outside an organ workshop

Matilda and Belle in their new party dresses in the hotel at dinner time

We stayed a couple of extra days after the festival was over and had a relaxing time exploring Waldkirch a bit more than we usually do.  We came across a delightful toy shop where I held a baby Kathe Kruse doll for the first time and saw several others, they were beautiful and very tempting but I resisted.

 Peter and Matroshka outside our hotel on the second last morning

In their Bavarian outfits outside Gasthof Altersbach, Kandel Pass, Black Forest

Matilda and Belle at breakfast the morning we left

(the clouds were low and heavy with rain)