The Homecoming.....

Sometimes the road up to the post office is narrow and steep.........

....But not today!  Today I sprinted up it like a 2 year old, as there was a special parcel waiting for me at the post office!  Yes, this morning I collected my lovely Little Darling Ellie, she'd finally arrived home after being gone for more than 2 and a half months!!!  

For those who don't know the story of her travels, basically on the 14th December I saw that one of her eyes was damaged and so sent her off to visit Dianna Effner in the US for eye 'surgery'.  She left home on the 2nd January and after what was a very 'scary' journey with tracking not working for weeks, she finally arrived at her US destination almost a month later on the 29th January.   After Dianna had worked her magic on her, she was returned to me on the 10th February and arrived back in Spain on the 15th.  As she'd been sent 'express' I thought she'd be back with me in a few days! LOL how wrong can one be!  She stayed in customs for one MONTH all but two days, and finally was on the last leg of her journey on Friday the 13th March!  I had a massive battle with customs in that month, where they asked for one piece of paperwork after another, until finally, they must have believed that I wasn't trying to get something for nothing, the doll was my own property being returned to me after repair.  And so I only had to pay admin fees of €23,50...phew!  So now I can relax and wanted to do a little photostory of her return :)  I hope you like it!

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The girls are soooo excited to have their cousin Ellie back after surgery!  They've gathered in their playroom to welcome her, Olivia (Helen Kish Prima Vera Olivia) and Nicoletta (Imaginarium Nicoletta) came along too to welcome Ellie home.  There were presents and bunting, and I think Ellie was a little bit overwhelmed, poor girl!!!

"Open this one first Ellie" begs Finn as she passes one of the packages to Ellie in excitment!

"Thank you" says Ellie, carefully taking the brightly wrapped present that Finn hands her ....

.....then giving her beloved cousin and friend, a big hug :)

Reece waits patiently to join in the hugging!  

"We've missed you so much Ellie, you've been gone forever.....I thought you was never coming back!"  says little Reece, her voice quivering ever so slightly! 

Poor little Ellie, she's tired and overwhelmed from her long journey home, but like any 4 year old she's keen to open her pressies!!! :)

"Oh wow Mum, red boots!!!  Aren't they lovely!"  These were a lovely gift for all three girls from Auntie D in the US....

"Open the second one Ellie!"  the other girls chorus.....

"Ooooh red and white shoes!  These are lovely too Mama!"   (I got these shoes from Paola Reina here in Spain, very good value and cute shoes but a tiny bit loose on the Little Darlings).

"Oooooh" said Nicolette, "those are lovely, they'd go really nice with my new outfit!"

"Aren't they nice!  You can borrow them sometimes if you want to Nicki" says Ellie :)

Shoes and boots pushed to one side, the girls hand Ellie the biggest pressie of them all, and all the girls gather around to see what the package contains.......

"Awwwww lucky!"  chorus the girls, "a Pinypon!"  As they all lean forward to see better the little Pinypon doll.  Unbeknown to Reece and Finn, I have Pinypons for them too , but I thought it only fair to wait until the three girls are on their own and their visitors have left...because they might feel left out  ;)

Ellie takes her Pinypon out of her packaging and sits looking it her.....I think she seems happy with her new dollie!

A close up of Ellie's Pinypon....

Later, when their friends have gone home, I took a couple of photos of the three Little Darlings in the garden......It's soooo lovely to finally have Ellie home again, we really have missed her.

 

And finally some close up photos of Ellie's newly painted eyes......I'm so happy that Dianna was able to fix her for me, and now she is back to being as she was before :)

Thank you to those of you who've emailed me and sent good wishes whilst Ellie was gone, I've soooooo appreciated all your friendship and support more than I can ever express. :)