USA 2017 - Sasha festival part 8

Suddenly it was the last day of the festival - it had gone by so fast after months of preparation and years of dreaming about and saving up for it. 

I had volunteered to be a table hostess for the Babies and Toddlers breakfast.  Table hostesses provide a gift for each of those sitting at their table in addition to the Festival souvenir gifts.  My younger daughter's designs for her dress a Sasha were pressed into service as my sister had printed enough extras on the fabric I had provided for me to make up eight t-shirts for baby or toddler Sasha.  I also made 8 mini teddies (stuffies) from felt to go with them.  These teddies were stitched in the car on the way to and from Waldkirch the month before and my younger daughter stuffed them for me.  Their faces were drawn on with fabric pen and they have bows around their necks with my girl tied for me because she didn't think I got my bows straight enough!  The t-shirts have bias binding around the neck, sleeves and bottom hem and seams under the arms, plus one popper on the back.  I had hand stitched some of these on a music outing with my younger daughter and her orchestra (time on the coach and in the concert!).  I had placed the gifts in lime green boxes with a label.  All the boxes were placed in the centre of my daughter's hold luggage, with clothes packed all around them to cushion them from damage.

My table hostess gifts in their boxes, all ready to travel to the USA (click on the photo to get a closer look)

Just before Sunday breakfast all the table hostesses came to set out their gifts on their tables.  One gift was put in the pool of gifts and we each chose one of the gifts - I ended up picking one which was identical to the one I'd received at the Friday lunchtime meal as Sheila had hosted twice - a lovely fleecy fringed baby blanket but in a different pattern.

My table with the hostess gifts and the information about next year's festival along with the Festival Souvenirs in the brown paper bags.

On display on a table close to mine were the dolls modelling the 4 wonderful festival souvenir outfits, along with the chocolate bars.  They are all stunning.

2017 Sasha Festival souvenir outfits sewn by Karen W and the Lindt chocolate bars

2017 Sasha Festival souvenir outfits sewn by Karen W

Sheila brought her wigged baby to sit on my lime green pram!

Ginger and Sheila with my pram and the baby with hair that rocks

Ellen, Carmen, Judy W and Fran came to sit at our table, along with Ellen's partner and my husband and we had some lovely conversations.  My girl sat with her friends at Pat P's table.  After breakfast Ellen and Joe were interested in looking at the printed out blog posts about restoring the pram and my husband also showed them photos of our little street organ we built.  Then it was time to open the hostess gifts and some of the babies at our table put their t-shirts on and cuddled their new toys.  We also opened our final Festival souvenir gifts in the brown packages, they were a wonderful addition to the already super collection we had received - a long sleeved Sashapotomus onesie and a pattern for baby clothes (skirt and onesie for baby or toddler). And already it was time for some goodbyes - Ellen and Joe had to leave for their flight home before the final raffle draw.

Looking at the pram and the dolls

Breakfast before opening the gifts

Discussing photos of our street organ

Discussing the street organ photos

Opening the table hostess gifts from DollMum

Cuddling her stuffie bear

Cuddling the stuffie bear before putting on the t-shirt

Wearing the new t-shirt and cuddling the stuffie

Cuddling their stuffies

Ellen's baby wore his new Eeyore t-shirt

Peggy came to join us at the table for a little while in between phone calls about a baby on his way (which made us all excited for her). 

Fran and Peggy at breakfast

The next festival was announced - everyone is welcome to 'The Land of 1,000 Sasha dolls' in Minnesota in June 2018.

Announcing the 2018 Sasha Festival

Then it was the final Helper raffle draw (some of which had happened at the meal the night before), the children lined up to help with distributing the prizes.

The final helper raffle draw

The children helping with the Helper Raffle draw

Then the 3 Raffle dolls were drawn - a moment of big excitement as everyone waited with bated breath for Norvell to read out the number on the ticket for the Calendar Girl.  It was Ellen's number and as she had donated the doll but not the outfits she had left instructions for it to drawn again so that the winner would get the doll with the outfit she had donated while she kept the other outfits.  So it was drawn again and Elizabeth M won the lovely doll.  Charla drew the ticket for the baby Matti and his outfits, which were won by Jackie K and the Toddler 'Raffie' with her outfits was drawn by Karen W with the winner Sharon C delighted to receive such a lovely prize.

Norvell making announcements about the raffle

Norvell draws the ticket for the calendar girl doll

Very happy winner of the calendar girl doll

Charla reads out the winner of the baby

Delighted to win baby Matti

Karen draws the ticket for the toddler

Norvell announces the winner of the toddler

A very happy winner of the toddler

Everyone was thanked for attending and everyone thanked Charla, Karen and Norvell for all their years of planning and hard work organising the festival and making sure it ran so smoothly.  They did a wonderful job and there were smiles all round as several of us asked them to pose for photos.

Thank you Charla, Karen and Norvell for organising a fabulous 2017 Sasha Doll Festival - what a great team

Then it was over and time for goodbyes as people started to disperse to catch trains, planes and drive home from such a happy gathering of Sasha collectors.  It is always sad to say goodbye, especially when you've made new friends, renewed friendships and don't know when you'll next get to meet up for a face to face chat.  We were not leaving that day as we had the sights of Washington DC to explore next.

Goodbye to Sasha friends

Safe journeys and looking forward to meeting again one day

We consoled ourselves after the sad goodbyes by catching a bus to the Udvar-Hazy centre - part of the Air and Space museum, the branch of the Smithsonian which was only 5 miles from the hotel.  We took Timothy and Edmund.  Timothy had changed his clothes to his new Sheila F outfit - the Minion shirt and denim shorts, while Edmund kept his Dress a Sasha shirt on with his new shorts and sandals by Monica J.

At the museum we were excited to discover a Cessna plane which people were allowed people to sit in to try the controls.  The boys joined the queue and played with the interactive display board controls which showed what the different terms mean in flying while they waited their turn - roll, yawl and pitch.

The Cessna from above

Edmund and Timothy learn about flying a plane

Timothy discovered what a roll is in flying

He also learned about the yaw

Edmund experimented with pitch in flying

The sign inviting them to be pilot for the day

About the Cessna plane and Roll, Yaw and Pitch

Edmund and Timothy in the Cessna plane

The Cessna is so small

My husband was thrilled to climb into the Cessna too, on his one previous trip to the USA in 1985 he had a memorable flight in a privately owned Cessna and was given the controls for a while when flying.  It is probably one of the top 10 highlights of his life. 
We saw lots of other planes but one of the highlights was seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Distant view of the Space Shuttle Discovery

Space Shuttle Discovery is huge and impressive

Edmund and Timothy enjoyed looking at a model of the Space Shuttle

The museum is smartly designed and is on the flight path for Washington Dulles Airport.  While we were waiting for the bus back to the airport then hotel, we saw several planes fly over the entrance.

Commercial flight over the Air and Space Museum

When we got back to the hotel, my girl met up with her new friend who wasn't leaving with her grandmother until the Tuesday.  They were soon back in the water again. 

Swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel

We had dinner with Charla and her granddaughter after the girls had finished swimming and planned the next day's outing together.

See Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5,  part 6 and part 7 if you haven't read them. There is one more festival post to come, all about what we received and bought at the festival.