I like these dolls. A lot...at least $5 worth.

If you have daughters and they are anything like my girls, then they like Barbies. No matter how much I secretly (or not so secretly) want my daughters to play with non-commercial things, they are always drawn to things like Barbies, Ponies, Dora dolls, and Hello Kitty anything. 

We have a hand full of Barbies, some old garage sale finds and some new. Overall the only emotion I've felt about any Barbie I've bought in the store for a while is dissapointed. These aren't the Barbies of my youth. They're cheaply made. The legs are a hollow plastic. Extra outfits cost $7 or more. They break easily. The heads pop off, the legs break off.... And, the cheaper ones just have their shirt painted on... I just don't like them. But my girls...they still love this kind of doll. 

We do most of our shopping at Walmart because that's the cheapest place in town to get our stuff. When we aren't in a hurry, I usually let my kids wander through the toy aisle for a bit before we head to the grocery side of life. It was during one of these days that we stumbled across the Sparkle Girlz doll. 

I'm not going to say that it was love at first sight...but it was a heck of a lot closer than I've come to that emotion in a long time. 

The dolls are slightly larger than Barbie, but are made with way more quality. Their bodies are made from the same material as my Barbies were growing up. They're cutely dressed and my daughters love them.

The best part is that they are less than $5. The going rate at our Wakmart was $4.98. This is a price that Sophie can actually save up for. Extra dresses were right around $3 each...so she can reasonably save up for those too. 

So far I've only seen these at Walmart or on Amazon. They were way more expensive on Amazon though. 

I like them enough to write a blog post to let other moms know....so maybe it is love.

Comfort Dogs

The LCMS comfort dogs are coming to our school chapel service in November. If you aren't sure what that means, you can check it out here.

This event sparked a discussion between me and the kids on why you might need comfort dogs. It wasn't a pleasant conversation as we had to talk about some of the horrible things that have happened over the past couple of years that the comfort dogs went too. We talked about natural disasters, school shootings, why people in these situations need the dogs, and what kind of horrible things would have to befall a town before the comfort dogs are sent in.

What Connor took from this conversation is that people, even in the worst of times, can be comforted by the gentle nature of a great big dog. 

What Sophie took from this conversation is that if our house happened to burn down, and we lost all our stuff...and we didn't have a place to live...we'd totally get to pet the comfort dogs and it would be awesome. 

Clearly I need to find more opportunities for this girl to pet dogs.

Sophie on digesting worms.

Sophie: When I grow up I am never going to digest a worm.

Me: Um...good?

Sophie: Unless maybe they were covered in cinnamon and sugar. Then I guess I could digest them.

Me: I still think they'd be pretty gross.

Sophie: Maybe. But cinnamon and sugar are pretty good.

Me: Yes they are.

Sophie: When you digested worms did you put cinnamon and sugar on them?

Me: I've never eaten a worm.

Sophie: I heard you telling Connor that you had eaten a worm and a rat and that you thought the worm was way worse than the rat. Maybe I should digest a rat instead!

Me: Dissect! I said I had dissected a worm and a rat and that the worm was worse. We didn't eat them!

Sophie: What is dissect?

Me: It's when you cut something open and look inside.

Sophie: Oh gross! I'm never doing that!