Lydia's Birthday

I fell in love with this castle a few months ago.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to get it for my daughters.  Since Lydia's birthday is this week, my husband and I decided to get it for her and Ellie.  I then had to figure out what toys to get to go along with it.  There are some that Mellisa and Doug make to go with it, but they got mediocre reviews.  I also thought of Schliech or Papo toys, but all the reviews said that they were too big, plus they have lots of little pieces that my now 3 year old Lydia probably couldn't handle at this point.  Then I came across peg dolls.  I found several on Etsy, but they were outside my price range. After examining them, though, I thought that I could make some myself, so that's what I did!  I found this seller on Etsy who sells the peg dolls unfinished, and I bought 7.  Two were extra large, and 5 were regular large.  Here's the ones I got in the shape they arrived in:

Then I searched all over Etsy and the web for some inspiration.  I used Etsy and a few blogs for models so I could paint the people the best I could.  Here are the finished products, complete with castle and Schleich dragon from Grandma, ready for Lydia to discover tomorrow morning.

The peg people turned out to be adorable!  And they fit the castle just right.  As you can see, my husband and I had fun taking these pictures, and I think we were both tempted to keep playing with it when we were done.  I hope she likes it!