Bubby Time: I'm a Barbie Girl

Confession: I used to have a serious Barbie addiction. E-bay was my friend as I collected tons and tons of NRFB (Never Removed From Box) Barbie treasures. It all stemmed from my childhood obsession with Barbie....I played with them for hours, and one of my most favorite toys was my big, 3-ft long Barbie camper (which Sissy now plays with). My Barbie collection grew and grew, and my collecting peaked right before Sissy was born.

I know it's hard to see, but each letter is filled with BARBIES!! :) One kind per letter!

My living room boasted two china cabinets purchased for and dedicated to my Barbies...the built in floor-to-ceiling shelving was filled with more dolls. I mounted shelves around the top of the bedroom to house more. I even decorated Sissy's nursery with all of my storybook character Barbies (Little Bo Peep, Rapunzel, Cinderella, etc.) Then when Sissy was less than 2 months old, that lovely old farmhouse where we lived burned to the ground when it was struck by lightning in a freak February thunderstorm. Such heartbreak, but at least our family escaped unscathed. But not the dollies...a few boxes of doll boxes (the ones in the closets and not on display) were smoke damaged but not burnt to a crisp, but all my favorites that were out on display melted right in their little boxes even when the box itself was not burned. Someone told me they looked like the Wicked Witch on the Wizard of Oz melting. Just fyi...I didn't enjoy that comparison!

But I never really had the heart or the time (I WAS a Momma now, after all) to restart my collection. But I still love Barbies, and I love shopping with Sissy for her Barbies. So I was almost as excited to see the Children's Museum had a Barbie exhibit going on when Gal, Bubby and I went to visit as Bubby was when he saw they had a Star Wars exhibit!

 Here's Gal and Bubby posing in the box for the "original" Barbies. Good thing those two are not NRFB!!

 And now Gal and Bubby are working for Barbie as her executive assistants. Love the poodles, right?

 Supposedly, if you texted a message to a certain number, you'd get a call from Barbie (see Gal texting?). We could never get it to work.

 Checking out all kinds of different Barbies though the years...they even had the original Great Shape Barbie....as opposed to the new sparkly-outfitted on in Toy Story 3. Just some of the favorites from my collection that were in this case: Western Barbie (my all-time favorite as a little girl!), Great Shape Barbie, Nascar Barbie (she survived the fire in her box, but her face was smoke stained...Sissy plays with her and she looks like she's dirty from working in the garage0, the Skating Star Barbie or whatever she's called, the Equestrian Barbie, Solo in the Spotlight, Wedding Day...sigh. I miss my Barbies. :)

 But Bubby's favorite part of the exibit? Being a Barbie fashion photographer!

Cuz what little boy wouldn't love to spend their time up close and personal shooting photos of cute little girls strutting their stuff? He is so his Daddy's boy.