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 

Samantha's South African adventure

Blog silence during December was purely because we were preparing for and flying to South Africa for a long anticipated visit to see some of my family who still live in Cape Town (the last time we visited as a family was 5 years ago).  One of the Gotz girls was lucky enough to join us on the trip.  I know my little daughter would have loved to have taken 2 of the dolls, but she didn't have enough arms to carry both her favourite fluffy bunny, pull her hand luggage and carry 2 dolls, so Samantha, her original Gotz ice skater doll, was chosen.  We selected a few outfits, and took the pink sleeping bag which proved to be a useful way of carrying the clothes inside hand luggage.

As you can see, Samantha wore sensible clothes for travelling.

On our third day in Cape Town we took our daughters, my nieces and Samantha on the open top red bus trip around the city of Cape Town, which all of us enjoyed.

Admiring Camps Bay beach from the red bus

Samantha loved the Agapanthus at Vergelegen Wine Estate, Somerset West.

We did take our girls ice skating at the wonderful Olympic sized rink in Goodwood, however although Samantha had the golden dress and the matching skates, we didn't take her to the rink because it was too crowded, so she had to pretend that she had been ice skating in hot South Africa!  On Christmas Eve she came to the Nine Lessons and Carols in St George's Cathedral with us, wearing her pink summer dress to match her owner's dress.  Fr Christmas brought her a new outfit and shoes which were perfect for the summer weather.

 Fr Christmas and Samantha on Christmas Eve

After Christmas we went to Clanwilliam Dam for a few days.  It was too hot (33 - 40 degrees some days), so shade was the thing - here you can see her sitting in her deck chair enjoying a view of the dam, wearing her new outfit (which I believe Fr Christmas sourced from a local craft market in South Africa).

Samantha's new outfit (including the shoes)

Relaxing at Clanwilliam Dam campsite - Lebanon Citrus

Now we are home again and she is telling the other dolls all about her fantastic holiday in the sun.