... i like the way they walk...

... girls!

This afternoon I spent some quality time with seven or eight of my closest half-dressed female pals (and two of my closest fully-dressed female relatives). Yes, we played Barbie, except when we were playing horses. And sometimes we played both at the same time!

In surfing you'd call this a "quiver," different boards for different conditions and breaks. I'm not sure what the proper phrase is in barbie-ing:

Not all the Barbies in the house

I picked up the girls from Ms. Ronda's this afternoon because M had to work. And the main challenges in the afternoon are: getting them to eat a proper snack, and stalling to avoid Saddle Club for as long as possible. In other words, this was serious!

In-van conversation, 2 minutes from home:

K: I'm starving!
me: We're almost home and we can have a snack.
K: What can we have?
me: How about apples and cheese?
K: We always have that. You always say 'apples and cheese.' Why do you always say that?
me: Because it's good for you. And it's good.
K: I don't like apples and cheese!
L: Because ith... ith... ith not like a dessert!
me: Right L, it's nutritious and helps your body stay strong!
L: Yeah! Ith nutrithouth.
K: I don't like apples and cheese!
me: Ok, we'll find something else. Like yogurt.

Against all odds and contrary to indications, I manage to tempt K into eating some apple and a bit of cheese. L and I finish the rest of it.

And then comes the "Can we watch a Saddle Club?" request. I say they can, but then ask what the suitcase of Barbies is doing in the middle of the kitchen floor. (These are dolls passed in our direction by a neighbor girl who's 8yo and has moved on to other things, which means most are missing at least one shoe, and their dresses are a bit worse for the wear, but it also means that we've yet to actually purchase a Barbie. A small victory, I like to believe.) We open the suitcase and L wants me to put a dress on the strange mermaid Barbie and we're somehow suddenly acting out scenes from Go Dog Go (which we've read many times and which we saw at the Childrens Theater just last week).

me ("walking" the mermaid Barbie up to the Snow White Barbie): Hello.
L (nodding): ---
me: You're supposed to say "hello"
L (nodding): ---
me: Do you like my hat?
L (shaking her head): No.
me: Good bye
L: Good bye.

In addition to the mermaid (onto which I never did manage to get the dress), there's this:

who is scary-freaky in her mardi gras (?) costume.

And since I had L's cambra out and was taking arty photos, I took this one:


I'm not sure why K felt she needed to close her eyes, but she did. If you look carefully you can see Prancer off to the left side, just clip-clopping into the frame.

I'm proud to say that we managed to entirely avoid Saddle Club, at a cost of ~1 hour of Barbie-ing and horsing around. Yes, I'm that good!