dollhouse

so the kids got a dollhouse for their birthday this year. although it wasn't exactly the ones i had in mind, the ones i'd be imagining about were the gigantic old-school traditional wooden ones that looked so antique that you'd be too scared to even play with. but then the dolls would also be old-looking at tiny and scary looking, wouldn't they?

(ok fine. i couldn't find the perfect dollhouse in Malaysia).

there were alot of children's wooden dollhouses for sale in the UK, which costs roughly about £100 (furniture sold separately hokeh) but they were too huge and too heavy to be brought back. i'd rather ship back my EBM if i could, haha.

since the girls had a small collection of barbies, i thought why not get them a barbie dollhouse?

they weren't into My Little Pony like iza's daughters were.
Polly Pocket had so many small parts D3 would be more likely to swallow them once she learns how to crawl.
they already had Duplo bought by their Daddy.
they also had a play kitchen with all the utensils strewn everywhere (but i wouldn't mind getting them one of those wooden sturdy ones from ELC or Ikea =P).
however their princess figurine collection set is under code red (what with loose limbs and a decapitated Cinderella).

so i guess the obvious choice would be a dollhouse of the sort for their barbie collection, wouldn't it? the kids' idea of a 'dollhouse' at the moment include parking all their small toy figurines all over the room - on top of the bookshelves, in the baby's crib, under the dressing table, on top of my storage boxes, etc. semak bilik!

so we got them a dollhouse each - to SHARE (bah. what a lot of hogwash that word is hahaha). the girls were so excited to tear open the wrapping paper (don't worry, i recycled the torn pieces =P). but who had the task of assembling them dollhouses? mommy and daddy lah. the one i had to assemble was a sort of summerhouse, complete with a kitchen and living room. this summerhouse had small parts that you could anchor onto the main parts of the doll house, which i think is pretty cool so you don't end up losing them. the dollhouse that daddy assembled consisted of a collapsible bed and a bathroom. you could fold the whole dollhouse into a compact carry bag and lug it around the house. the downside of this one is it had so many small tiny parts, i'm pretty much sure that the kids will be bound to lose them anytime soon.

the first thing they did after finishing assembling the dollhouses was to - you guessed it - fight over who got to play what. sigh.

oh let me show you the kids' barbie doll collection. the daddy loved to buy them barbies. each time we drop by toys r us, the kids will always manage without fail to pau a doll each from daddy so that the total number of dolls that they owned would be even numbered - except for one time when daddy came back from a business trip he bought Ariel for D1, and pooh bear for D2 T___T. pooh bear? seriously? haha.

so just before i flew off for my holiday i hunted around the house for those dolls. mind you they don't take care of their toys as lovingly as we want them to, no matter how many times i tell them to keep them properly. take Tinkerbell for one. uncle Amal bought Tinky for Dayana's birthday present and the next day it disappeared. like completely. i haven't found it until now. and you know what she said? 'it's gone! Tinkerbell flew away!' T___T. Dinara pulak has this thing about destroying the dolls by taking off their outfits reason being they want to take a bath T__T.

update: until now, no sign of Tinkerbell. di manakah??? @_@

amidst the jungle of toys they've managed to accumulate over the years, i managed to find all their barbie dolls and accessories, except for the first doll's miniscule shoes. and their crowns? couldn't be saved. i dunno how the toy manufacturer initially glued the crowns to the dolls' head, because each time i try putting them back on they just come back off again. the bad part? their hair were in total tangles. yarghhhhhh. especially Ariel, who had the longest of hair among them. the kids wouldn't play with the dolls if their hair were out of place. i remember how irritated D1 and D2 would get each time their hair got into the barbie's face.

L-R: newest to oldest

i read online that you could literally get rid of tangles with a water, fabric softener, and a comb. just dunk the doll's head in the mixture for 5 minutes, then dry off and comb. i have yet to try this tactic. another way to untangle dolls hair would be to massage baby oil into the hair before coming it out. but i think everything will end up oily, so i think fabric softener sounds like a much better idea.

i just got back from my trip, and guess what the Daddy decided to get them: more barbie dolls T___T. i stuck all 4 of them in the stroller box... eh wait got 5 - Belle, Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, and Merida. yeah and guess which one noone took a fancy to? T___T. i think their Nana bought them a couple more barbies too, because i saw an unfamiliar barbie lying about in an outfit i don't recognize.

hmmm... now to get an updated shot of their collection. laters, ya?