Fun with a Friend

Hello, lovely readers!  Yesterday our pen pal, Kit P, came over for a visit.

"Kit!"  Chrissa hugged our friend. "It's been forever!"

"I know, right?  I wish we could see each other more often." Kit replied.

"It's so good to see you!" I added.  "Do you want to come up to our temporary room?"

"Sure!"

After we were seated on the bed, our friend pulled two wrapped gifts out of her bag. 

"Chrissa, this one's for you, and this other one is for you, Elizabeth." she said, handing one to each of us.

Inside mine was a pretty pink dress and a "E" pillow, while in my sister's was a "C" pillow and a blue dress.

"Thank you so much." I said, admiring the dress. "Now I feel bad, because we have nothing to give you."

"That's okay." she replied. "I'm just glad you like it."

"What do you want to do?" Chrissa asked.  "We don't really have a long time."

"I don't know." I said.

Suddenly my sister smiled and exclaimed, "I know!  Why don't we get out all our clothes and have a fashion show?"

"Oo, that sounds fun!  We could have a runway and everything!" Kit said excitedly.

Everyone helped bring out the shirts, skirts, shoes, pants and dresses.

 We didn't take as many pictures in the first round, but here they are!  By the way, do you like my new dress?

 In round two, Kit went first, ...

 ... then me, ...

 ... and Chrissa wrapped it up.  When she was walking down the runway, my sister did a very silly strut (or dance, it was hard to tell which), making Kit and I laugh.

"You're so funny, Chrissa"

"Why, thank you.  I try to be."

After she had finished, we all went "backstage", changed outfits, and redid our hair.

 Here's round three.

 After round three, we ended our show because our friend had to leave.

"Group hug!" Chrissa said. "I'm going to miss you, Kit."

"I will too.  Thank you for coming over!" 

"Thanks for letting me! I had such a great time with you two!" 

We walk Kit to the car where her mom was waiting, and sadly waved goodbye to our pen pal.  It was so fun seeing her again!

What do you like to do with your friends?

The Museum of Life and Science

 Hi all!  Guess what?  We're in North Carolina!  Well, actually, we've been here since Saturday.  Anyway, we came here mostly for my mom and dad's work, and also partly for vacation. Yesterday afternoon, we drove over to the Museum of Life and Science.

 After we bought out tickets, my family and I discussed where we wanted to go first.

"Girls, since it looks like rain, I think we should start outside." Mom said.  "Is that okay with you?"

"Sure!" I replied.

"Absolutely." Elizabeth added.

 "Than let's go!"

 Our first stop was "the farmyard".  There were pigs, a donkey, a cow and other such things.

 The cow was just standing in the corner of it's pen, in a slightly strange position, as you can see.

"I wonder why it's doing that." Elizabeth pondered. "That seems unnatural."

"Maybe it's stuck." I offered.

"No, that cow isn't stuck, it's exercising." Dad joked, making us laugh.

 Here's my sister and I in front of the butterfly house.

 It was kind of hot inside, but the prettiness made it worth it.

Almost everywhere you looked, butterflies were floating and flying thought the air.  Some of the pictures we took were a little blurry, but most of them were just fine.  Elizabeth stood still for nearly five minutes, (how, I'll never understand), and a butterfly actually landed on her shoulder!  It flew away before we could get a picture, though.

 After the butterfly house, we went on the Dinosaur Trail.

 One thing I noticed while we were walking is that North Carolina has many more trees and bugs than Florida.  On the bright side, there's less humidity.  It's still pretty hot here, though.

 You can't see it in the picture, but by this time, I was sweating.  When the trail ended, we moved on to the "in the wild" section.

 This is the black bear area.  We didn't really see any bears, but the waterfall was pretty.  I think if the bears were out in the sun they would have overheated.  I sure felt like I was.  

We couldn't really see any of the wolfs, either, except one whose head was sticking out of a cave.  By then, my whole family was ready to go back into the air conditioning.  There was a deep leather sofa next to one of the indoor exhibits (called "Falling Sand"), where we sat down to rest for a couple minutes.  It felt so good after the heat.

 "Falling Sand" was basically a projected screen with a little stream of particles going from top to bottom.  Every so often, a stream would 'dry up' and a different color would start falling.  What made it so cool was the "sand" would interact with your shadow.

 You can move your arms to throw the sand up, or gather it on you shoulders.

 It's so fun!  I could just stand there and do it all day!

 Next, we moved on the the "science" part of the museum.  Both Elizabeth and I thought the Cloud Basin was really neat.

"I feel like Elsa." my sister commented, lightly blowing on the mist and making it swirl.

 "This is fascinating and fabsome!" I laughed.

 After that, we walked over to the flying area.  The museum had a paper airplane launcher, so of course I tried it out.  We checked out some other fun stuff too, but I kind of forgot to take pictures of that.

Over all, I had a great time.

Where would you want to go on vacation?

Joy at Joann's

 Hello, lovely readers!  As you may have guessed, Mother dropped Chrissa and I off at Joann's Fabric yesterday afternoon.  Because of the rain, the lighting was slightly strange, so don't mind the strange picture coloring.

 Anyway, I was looking for dress fabric.

 "... something with little flowers and vines, I think." I was explaining to my sister as we walked down the isles.

 "What about this?" Chrissa asked, pulling out flowery blue fabric.

"Err - that looks almost the same as the dress I'm wearing, only lighter." I pointed out, walking over to where she was standing.

"On second thought, maybe not." Chrissa said, taking a look at my outfit and putting it back.

 "Oh, this is practically perfect!" I whispered, gently lifting out a beautiful fabric. "What do you think, Chrissa?"

 "Hey, how about this?" my sister wanted to know, holding out a rainbow striped fabric.

"I don't think that will work." I replied.  Chrissa laughed.

"I was kidding, of course." she smiled, sticking it back.

The only other pattern I liked was a pretty cherry blossom calico, but in the end I got the first fabric I found.  For the dress lining, I chose a deep pink.

 "I have my fabric, so what do you want to do until Mother comes to pick us up in a hour?" I asked Chrissa.

"I dunno, why don't we just wonder around?"

"Very well." I said. "Oh - wait.  We need to get the camera bag fabric for the design contest." *

"How could I have forgotten?" Chrissa smacked her hand to her forehead.  "Let's go."  After we had all the fabric, we just drifted around.

 "Do you like my fab hair?" Chrissa questioned in a funny accent with a boa on her head.

"It's just lovely." I laughed with her.

After the boas, we entered the yarn section, which Chrissa claims I spent to much time in.

 "Okay, that's enough, let's go." my sister insisted, grabbing my hand and pulling me away.

 As we were walking in the fabric section before we checked out, Chrissa discovered some soft, plush cloth.

"Ah, I could sleep in this ..." She wrapped the fabric around her arms. "You should make a blanket out of it, Elizabeth."

"Perhaps." I said skeptically. "I think we should go."

"Okay." my sister said with a sigh, pulling it off her shoulders.

After we checked out, Chrissa and I meet Mother outside and returned home.  It was so fun spending time with my sister at Joann's Fabric!

What's one of your favorite stores?

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*The Doll Wardrobe is having their Summer Design Contest (see link below), and I'm entering! (http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2014/06/summer-fdc-theme-announcement-entries.html)  

Birthday Gifts in the Mail!

 Hi all!  I hope you are having just as fab a day as I am.  When Mom and Elizabeth got the mail this morning, there was a late birthday package ...

 "Chrissa!" Elizabeth called up the stairs. "There's something for you from Lexie and Melodie!"

 "Really?" I exclaimed, running down and plopping in a chair.

"Yes - here you go." Elizabeth handed me a little stack of wrapped presents. "I'm going to go and finish my book."

"Okay!"

 To begin, I read the card.  It was so sweet!

Next, I opened up the first gift to find that it was a purse and held a matching wallet, and two other little presents, which I unwrapped to find ...

 ... a cute collar and leash for my dog!

 Immediately, I tried it on Chocolate Chip.  The collar fit her perfectly!  

Besides all those great things, the last gift held a beautiful scarf!  My reaction when I opened it went something like this:

"What. The. Lime. Peels!  This is soooooo perfectly FABSOME!!!!!"  I said, twirling around to admire it from every angle. "Now I just need a outfit cute enough to go with this!"

Getting late birthday gifts is like a ice cream sandwich on a hot summer day!  Thank you so much, Lexie and Melodie!

What would you want most to find under wrapping paper?