The Farmer Family: When Mommy was a little girl . .

I loved Madeline, Babar, The Bernstein Bears and Clifford books. I loved my Cabbage Patch Dolls and Pound Puppies. I loved big large families and holidays that were celebrated by people in the masses. I loved all the places I was able to visit with my Mom and Dad and I absolutely adored my Grandma and Grandpa!

I now read my own little girls Madeline, Babar, The Bernstein Bears and Clifford books. They have my beloved Pound Puppy - Footprint and the (yearly) Birthday Dolls that I collected till I reached Sweet Sixteen.

I married into a much larger family and although I can be defiantly known to complain, I love and enjoy our time together immensely!

We'll plan trips so that our girls may be educated about the ways of the world. Fun family vacations to different places, although with old faithful’s such as Disney World thrown in.

Most importantly my Grandma and Grandpa meant the world to me. Although we had a good distance between us, I would say that I was incredibly close with them and they're still greatly missed by me. My grandfather, a locksmith and carpenter was a man with simple ideals. Perhaps not simple ideals, but down to earth ones - the right ones in my opinion. With only an eighth grade education, parents that were immigrants, he fought for his country in WWII and loved his family, wife and daughter.

This past weekend I went into my parent’s attic and brought down the dollhouse he made for me when I was six. He spent the time to not only to assemble it, but to decorate inside as well. My grandmother made curtains for the windows, my grandfather painted little pictures to hang on the walls in frames; they wallpapered the rooms, laid carpeting down, assembled furniture and turned a standard dollhouse into a wonderful home. 30+ years old, it had a renovation (when I was home one summer from college), but has amazing held up really well. Katie loved playing with it and I enjoyed sharing a part of my childhood with her. It's wonderful to pass on things that meant so much to me as a little girl . .

Coming into the room and seeing it for the first time!