It was Riri's first visit there. She loved it.

She's wearing some of the new Barbie separates I bought for her birthday (I bought one of everything I could find in WalMart, almost, at least the ones I liked). I love the rose-print jeans.

The water here is kind of muddy because it's a launch for small boats and the channel is kind of shallow. You can see the boats in the background.

Riri got kind of nervous around the water. I think she was afraid I'd drop her, although she is of course entirely too polite to actually suggest I'd be so clumsy.

When I was a kid, we had this HUGE cedar in our front yard. It had branches thick enough to climb and I'd often go sit in it. These were kind of flimsy (and my tree-climbing days are far behind me), but Riri managed just fine.

We also had a big oak tree in our side yard (this is Lower Alabama, there's no shortage of trees, especially oaks and pines), and I used to set up house with my dolls amongst the gnarled, shaped roots. Even now I kind of have a thing for taking pictures of a doll sitting or posing amongst the burls of oak roots.

See above. Actually, as a child, I never had any dolls that posed this well. The one who came closest was my platinum-curled Uneeda Dollikin, who could wear Barbie clothes but not the shoes. I never could find shoes for that chiquita except the ones she came with (which were fugly).

Having worked up an appetite, we settled down to our meal. I made this food out of salt dough, well-sealed. Yes, even the bottle of AriZona Green Tea! I've worked with both salt dough and polymer clay, and I just like salt dough for play food because it looks better to me, and, well, it's cheaper and easier to cure (you just let it air dry, though in a humid climate like mine it can take a while and sometimes needs a little help).

Of course, it's not a proper picnic without dessert. I made Riri a waffle cone with mint chocolate chip ice cream (her fave).

I know I've almost made everyone here deaf singing the praises of the Made to Move body, and I really do think it's that good...but something has to be said for the Moxie Teenz face mold, too. I love love love this particular pic (coming soon to an avatar near you). I love that coy-yet-sweet expression on her face!

My dolls are the only "children" I have (well, besides my cat), but Cherry and I hope all you real moms out there are having a great Mother's Day.
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