Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts

Thursday, October 8, 2015

A Fourth Trip to California

Good morning, my friends. As some of you already know, in September we went to California to visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews for a few days. We had a lovely time there and on the way back we got to see one of my aunts and my other brother.


 We left on Friday and got there very early Saturday morning, whereupon we went right to sleep. Later on Saturday we went to Morro Rock.

This is Walter.

This is Owen.

Here's my mommy, who was very pleased to be holding her grandson again.

This is my lovely sister-in-law, Margaret.

This is my brother, Matthew.

That's me with Walter.

Here's Mother with Walter.

Here's Daddy with Walter.





We read to the boys a lot the whole time we were there.





Owen loved his grandpa.


And Walter Loved the homemade raisins Grandma brought him.



 On our way home, we stopped at my Aunt Sue's and my brother Patrick's houses.




We had a wonderful time with everyone, and I can't wait to see them again. But, of course, it's nice to be home.

Originally I had called this our third trip to California, but it's really our fourth. I don't know why I thought it was only our third. Perhaps it was because I didn't write about our trip last year, but whatever the reason, this is our fourth trip to California, not third.

Friday, February 6, 2015

An Adventure (or Two), Part 2

Alas, the long awaited ending to my birthday adventure (which took place over half a year ago) is here. I'm well aware that I promised it would be up before the end of the year, but this time I have a perfectly acceptable reason: I started watching "Downton Abbey." Now, for those of you who have not seen me since Christmas, this may seem a rather feeble excuse. But until I've watched all five series two or three times, everything is "Downton Abbey" to me. Yes, I am quite happy to sit in front of the television and forget about all my blogging obligations for the next few months.

I suppose it's time to get on with my birthday story since you've all been waiting so very patiently. You probably skipped that last paragraph anyway.


An Adventure (or Two), Part 2


Last July I ended Part 1 with the intentions of taking Isabelle and her goody bag goodies outside for some pictures in the gorgeous summer weather. I never actually got all the necessary pictures, so I'm afraid I cannot show you what came in the goody bag. Until it gets a little lighter and dries up a bit outside, I shall simply give you a list of the items in the bag.
  • An enormous "Isabelle Dances into the Spotlight" poster
  • A doll-sized poster of Jackie Sanchez (Isabelle's favorite ballerina)
  • A human-sized movie ticket
  • A doll-sized ticket
  • A sheet of Isabelle stickers (I think there are five)
  • A doll-sized plastic container of popcorn
  • A doll-sized Isabelle T-shirt
There were plenty of items to begin with (the popcorn and T-shirt are especially delightful), but since they handed one out to each person, I now have three of each item.

Anyway, after we left the theater, we drove to Lincoln Park where we had a picnic by the water and watched the ferries. It was very beautiful and it reminded me of McKenna, Girl of the Year 2012, who lived in Seattle.



After we ate I took Kit (my very first American Girl), Filumena (my precious My American Girl), and Isabelle (the new girl, of course) onto the beach for some pictures. 

Filumena, Izzy, and Kit were very obliging and leaned against a rather large piece of driftwood. I fancy I would be terrified to stand in front of a colossal chunk of wood.

Naturally, Izzy got the most pictures taken. She really is lovely.





Kit and Izzy were quite intrigued by the seaweed, which happened to be the perfect size for them.

Filumena was lucky enough to find a seashell. It is now sitting in her bathroom in my bedroom.

My parents were the ones to find the seaweed and shell and set them up with the dolls. We had a great deal of fun.

After we left Lincoln Park (finding our way back to the car was an adventure in itself), we drove home. I read about half of Isabelle's first book in the car. It's a fairly good series, even if it's not my favorite. I think my favorite GOTY story is Nicki's or Chrissa's.

When we got home I was tired and it was dark outside, so I had to wait until the next day to really play with Izzy. But, that was my birthday, and it was a very enjoyable day. This is really the end of the adventure, but I still have so many pictures of Isabelle to show you, so I am including a sort of review of her. Just think of it as my apology to you for practically abandoning the blog.

Even though you've already seen her, here is the queen of all other Isabelles.

Her shirt has a ballerina and pink sequins on it, and the ballerina has a small triangle of tulle sewn on for a tutu.

Her capris are, unfortunately, stiff and a bit out-of-scale, but the cuffs on the bottoms are made out of a very soft knit.

Her shoes are delightful. They're better than many of the shoes American Girl makes now, and they're very sparkly and pretty.

Her hair is long, thick, and the perfect shade of blond. It has a lovely mix of dark and light blond streaks, and it reminds me of my hair when I was younger.



The one "special" thing that Isabelle dolls come with is a hot pink hair extension. Anyone who knows me probably wouldn't think that dyed hair, especially pink, is my style. It certainly is not, but Isabelle's extension is wonderful. It's just a chunk of hair sewn to a fabric strip with three plastic hooks at the top. The hooks go into three flesh-colored loops of ribbon sewn to her wig cap. They stay in very well, but the only problem is that pink hair doesn't show up very well without considerable effort.

While I was at the store, I bought her accessories. These coral fingerless gloves the black jacket are from them.

I didn't know that her jacket was made out of knit until I opened up her accessories at home. I do wish I had known, because I actually wasn't terribly excited about the jacket. Once I realized that it was made out of soft, stretchy knit, it became my favorite doll coat for all of two months.

Hooray! I have even more pictures of Isabelle's face.

Her hair comes in two twists, and once the larger one is taken out, her bangs like to completely cover her face. I generally keep her hair out of her eyes, but once in a while I let it down.

Here she is in her Performance Set. I bought this at AGP Seattle too.

It comes with a charming little crown which perches atop her head beautifully. I think I would wear this crown every day if it were mine.

And here is one last picture of Isabelle. That's one of the T-shirts that came in the movie goody bags.

Well, that's it. It's finally over. I will try my very best to blog more frequently, and now that I'm finished with my online English class, I shall feel guiltless when I do. Come to think of it, the English Class is story which very few of you know. Perhaps I shall write about that next. Until then, I wish you all a lovely day and a relaxing weekend.

Monday, July 21, 2014

An Adventure (or Two), Part 1

First, I must start out by saying that I am fifteen.  Yes, my birthday was on the eighteenth, and I am now considered one year older.  On that day, Mother, Daddy and I traveled to Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood.  There is a very special store there where we have gone for three of my birthdays.  That's right, we went to the American Girl Place for the third time.  This year I have come back with the most surprising of surprises: Girl of the Year 2014 Isabelle!  You see, I wasn't planning on buying her there, but apparently Mother and Daddy were.  The dialogue went like this:

Mother: Where's the Isabelle section?

Me: Over there.  I begin walking in the direction I think it is.

Mother: Are you sure?

Me: No.  I catch a glimpse of an Isabelle display.  Yes.

We walk over to Isabelle, pointing at different things along the way.  We get to the Isabelle display.

Mother: So, we were going to buy you Isabelle.

I look at Mother, then at Daddy, then back at Isabelle, probably with my mouth slightly open.

Mother: Is that OK?

Me: Yeah.

Mother: Why don't you pick out your Isabelle?

I pick out the very best Isabelle they have.

And that is my story of how I got my Isabelle.

Anyway, after spending a good portion of my money, we went over to the theater for the next exciting part of my little birthday adventure.  About two weeks ago, Mother went onto AG's website and saw that the Isabelle movie was playing at the Seattle store on July eighteenth, the day we happened to be going there.  Reservations were five dollars a person, and they still had room at the 2:00 showing. (The earlier showing was entirely booked.)  I must say, "Isabelle Dances into the Spotlight" was quite good, but I am getting ahead of myself now.  First, we got our free popcorn and sodas with American Girl tickets, then we sat and watched the movie.  When we left the theater, they handed out a goody bag to each person (they do it every year.)  What was in the goody bag?  Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little while to find out.  I'll have the second part up tomorrow or the next day.  Until then, farewell!


I decided I had better leave you with a picture, which is also a clue to my next birthday adeventure.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Summer is Almost Here

Yea*, summer is almost here.  No math (just math, not school) marks the beginning of summer, and math is nearly over, so summer is almost here!  These are my plans for the next few months:

  • Build Rainbowland into an amazing Land and have plenty of fun
  • Play with dolls and participate in Camp Doll Diaries
  • Do everything with Rosey
  • Sell eggs
My list is short, I know; however, working on Rainbowland and playing Camp Doll Diaries are both time-consuming (in a good way, of course) activities.

Among other things... the reason I wasn't blogging was because I didn't have enough exciting things to write about, and if I simply wrote a small post about what was going on in my life, I thought it would sound stupid.  I received quite a positive reaction when I blogged last time, though, so I thought perchance it would be perfectly fine.


*I think it's really funny and pleasant when people use "yea" in writing.  I always think: "You probably just wanted to shorten "yeah," you think that's how "yeah" is spelled, or you simply forgot the "h."  Nevertheless, I shall pronounce it the way "yea" is pronounced and just assume that you intentionally used the archaic "yea."