Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Here are some photos of us in our Easter finest:

Aren't we lovely?

 

We did not wear these dresses outside for our Easter egg hunt outside, though. It was a cold, cloudy day here, but luckily the rain cleared out in the early morning. Instead of hiding tons of eggs and having an egg hunt free-for-all, this year we each had a dozen eggs of a specific color to find. Felicity looked for green eggs, Bethany for purple, Lily for yellow, and me for blue. Felicity was looking the longest because her eggs blended in so well with the grass and trees.

 

I polled my sisters on which Easter candy was their favorite. Here's what each of us said:

Bethany's favorites are Peeps, but only when they're not stale. She thinks the chicks and the bunnies are equally cute.

Felicity likes milk chocolate bunnies. She always eats them from the ears down.

Lily likes Starburst jellybeans. Her favorite flavors are watermelon and orange.

My favorite Easter candy is the Snickers peanut butter egg. They are bigger than Reese's peanut butter eggs and just as yummy.

This is Spring?

Great Grandma flew back home from Florida yesterday. Guess what was waiting to greet her?

That's right: snow! And lots of it. It continues to fall today, and there is no significant weather warm up in sight.

It's been meteorological spring since March 1, and today is the spring equinox, which marks the first day of spring on the calendar. You'd never know it by looking outside here. Some places in the world are already enjoying spring-like weather. China's cherry blossoms are apparently blooming beautifully. But...

Okay, so this is an exaggeration. Mom wishes they'd plowed the roads this nicely yesterday, though. It took our snowplow service until the overnight hours to finally come and plow out our driveway. Not cool.

Somebody Mom knows on Facebook posted this gem this morning. Ha ha.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody.

Since my last name is of Irish origin, I figured I might as well post today.

Did you know that we have the Irish to thank for 4 equine breeds? Well, we do! Here they are:

Connemara Pony

Kerry Bog Pony

Irish Draft Horse

Irish Sport Horse

My favorite is the Connemara Pony. =)

Okay, enough education for the day. I will conclude this post with two cute photos of some green-hooved drafties. They were in some St. Patrick's Day parade a few years back.

Daylight Saving Time Sucks

The Princess Bride: a classic. Sidenote, though. Websites seem to agree that the correct term is "daylight saving time" with no "s." Who knew?

What is the deal with switching back and forth between daylight saving time and... um... non daylight saving time? I understand that if we didn't do the DST thing, we'd have less light in the evenings. So, DST is good because it saves $$ on lights, makes people feel like they can go out and do things after work, etc. 

What I want to know is why we don't just stay on DST all year round. It gets dark ridiculously early in the evening without it. Who really gives a rip about when the sun rises in the dead of winter? Newsflash: it's going to be depressingly late no matter what. 

The sleep disruption and general confusion of the bi-annual switching doesn't seem worth it to me, especially since whoever's in charge seems to make the non DST window smaller and smaller every year. Let's just make the permanent switch to DST and be done with it.

In other news, Mom drove our great grandma to the airport today. She's headed for a week-long vacation in Florida. I asked Mom if I could come along for the ride to the airport, thinking maybe I'd be able to sneak into great grandma's suitcase while no one was looking. No such luck. It's a school day. Ugh.

Right now Grandma's in the air over Tennessee about to cross the border to Georgia. Check it out.

I wonder if there was any turbulence over that band of rain. I wish I was going on a trip. Maybe I have a shot if the family goes somewhere over spring break... Come quickly, April.

Wintry Wednesday

It's another snowy day in West Michigan. We've been stuck in quite the winter weather pattern for most of 2013. It's unbelievable that we are still below average snowfall for the season, since we just get wave after wave of new snow. It's like we're living in a snow globe. I guess having virtually no snow in December got us majorly behind.

There's plenty of snow out there now. We got several inches of heavy, wet snow on top of what was already there last night/this morning, which caused lots of 2-hour-delays for area schools. The roads are very sloppy, according to Mom. It would be good snow for making snowmen and snow forts in, but it's awfully deep for us dolls. Maybe I'll still be able to convince my sisters to venture outside later. 

Speaking of snowmen and snow forts, are some fun snow creations I just had to share. I hope they brighten your day!

Saige

Let's take a closer look at Saige Copeland, Girl of the Year 2013, shall we?

Saige doll, meet outfit, and book: $110

American girl describes Saige as having "bright turquoise eyes and long auburn hair." She also has freckles and pierced ears. Pretty doll, I'd say, though when I heard the doll was going to be from New Mexico, I was kind of hoping for more of a Mexican-American look (dark hair, dark eyes, and medium skin). Maybe AG thought this'd be too much like Josephina? I think Saige's indigo meet outfit is very cute. I love the turquoise ring and the geometric belt. I wish the outfit was sold separately from Saige so that we could add it to our collective AG wardrobe. Oh well.

I'm not a huge fan of her name. Spelled like it is, it seems less like "sage" as in the herb or as in a wise person and more like somebody with too much time on their hands took the name "Paige" and started rhyming. I've always thought the name "Paige" is lame. Who'd want to be named after an errand boy or a sheet of paper?  At any rate, "Saige" is a billion times better than "McKenna" *shudders*. I have a few choice words for whoever started the Ma/Mac/Mc + Whatever naming fad for girls. Like: What. Were. You. Thinking? 

The clock's a-ticking, McFelicity. Save your first name rants for your own post, why don't you?

Will do, Malily.

Anyway, when I first saw Saige's picture, I was surprised at how much she looked like me. Here are 2 photos from DollDiaries.com that compare a clone of me to Saige and to Nicki, GOTY 2007.

Felicity clone and Saige

As you can see, we do share a strong resemblance but are nowhere near identical. My hair is a slightly different shade of reddish-brown, I have those little pin curls by my face, my eyes are green, and my face is freckle-free. You can't tell from this photo, but when my hair is down, it's not nearly as curly/wavy as Saige's, either.

Felicity clone, Saige, and Nicki

Saige looks similar to Nicki as well, but their hair colors are quite noticeably different. Nicki also has a side part instead of a center part and blue eyes rather than turquoise.

Saige's Accessories: $28

I think these are all cute items! It'd be fun to mix and match them with Saige's various outfits. However, I don't think earrings in general are the greatest idea for AG dolls: talk about hair snags waiting to happen, and with us hair doesn't grow back. I bet young girls would have trouble keeping track of such small pieces too. The asking price for this seems rather aggressive to me, but the reviews on the AG website agree that they're good quality, at least.

Parade Outfit: $54 with hats, $34 without

Of all Saige's outfits, this is by far my favorite. The hat and helmet jack up the price of this outfit, but it's also sold without them. I like the helmet more than the hat, though I wouldn't really want either at these prices. The jeans, boots, and patterned shirt are awesome! Maybe I can get Mom to ask for them for her birthday.

Sparkle Dress: $30

This is outfit is okay, but it doesn't really speak to me. I like the length and fullness of the skirt, the gold sparkles, and the defined waist. I don't really like the asymmetric neckline or how the pattern of the sparkles up top is different from the pattern of sparkles on the bottom - they don't even try to make the two patterns flow together. It makes sense for a girl from the southwest to pair this dress with the cowboy boots, but I'm not a big fan of them. And even though I know mixing metallics is all the rage, it looks off to me to add a silver necklace to this ensemble.

Pajamas: $24

I like the color palette of this outfit - unusual but fun. The only thing I'd change would be to do away with the ruffles on the cuffs and neck of the shirt. I think they look out of place on casual sleepwear.

Sweater Outfit: $34

This one definitely gets the thumbs-down from me. The tank underneath is okay, but the rest... ugh. Unless you're in an English riding competition, pants don't need to be that tight. I'm aware that hermetically sealed pants are "in" right now, but I think it's one of those looks we're going to look back on in a few years and mock like crazy. The sandals: rather blah. The gladiator look will never be for me. And finally, I've got to be honest about the elephant in the room here: the sweater. I think it's atrocious in both print and cut. There's something almost violent about it. Seriously, I may have nightmares about this sweater chasing me down and eating me tonight. 

Picasso, Saige's fleabitten gray horse: $132 with tack, $94 without

I think it's cool that AG went the extra mile to make this horse a fleabitten gray with off-white mane and tail. From a far-away look at the Saige book cover, I was expecting a solid "white" horse (that's light gray to horse people). The moveable head and foreleg are also neat, though I wonder if having one non-weight-bearing leg would make him more prone to tipping over. The price is... yikes. AG is selling the palomino and chestnut non-poseable horses for $75 each - that includes their tack. Does adding posable joints, swapping simpler English tack for the flashier Western, and throwing in a scarf, clicker, and tiny "horse treats" bag justify a $57 increase in price? AG apparently thinks so.

For the record, Mom is not drooling over Picasso the way she was over the chestnut horse. He would look out-of-place next to our quartet of non-posable beauties. Talk about a big relief! (A 5th horse would be fine, but a 5th doll to go with him? No way, Mom. No way.)

Hot Air Balloon Set: $150

I think it would be great fun to fly in a hot air balloon, so I like the idea of this set in theory. I think it's rather impractical, though. How often would it really get used? And it would take up a ton of space even with the balloon part deflated. I like the accessories, especially the binoculars, bag, and camera. Too bad they aren't sold separately (though even if they were, they'd probably be $28 or something ridiculous like that.) 

Painting Set: $48

It'd love to have that easel and the painting supplies! I think Saige's paintings and drawings are gorgeous. My favorite is the one on the easel of Picasso. However, I wish this set included some blank canvases and/or a blank sketchbook. If you want to inspire creativity in girls, why only include already-finished pieces of artwork?

Rembrant the Border Collie: $24

Aww. What a cutie. Border collies are such elegant, athletic dogs. I'm not sure I could handle the typical intense, high energy border collie personality, though. The Rembrant in the Saige books probably had a ranch to run around in to keep him busy. =) The only negative thing reviewers have to say about Rembrant is that his leash is permanently attached to him. That could get annoying for him, poor guy. For $24, you'd think AG could afford to invest in a leash clip of some sort...

This concludes our review of Saige and her accessories. We hope you enjoyed it! Time for us to go to bed. MacBeth over and out. =^)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow, I never thought I'd be the one posting today. Valentine's Day isn't a holiday I get excited about. It doesn't get us out of school, and if you don't have a "significant other,"it seems rather pointless. At least it's a good excuse to eat candy. My personal favorites are those heart-shaped Reese's. Yum!

It's also an excuse to post some cutesy photos!

First, I challenged my sisters to find me the cutest Valentine's Day stuffed animal photo they could. Here are the entries:

Bethany's pick

Julie's pick

Lily's pick

My pick

Cute, indeed. Don't they just make you want to hug something? Now to put you into cuteness overload, enjoy these 14 heart-themed photos for the in honor of February the 14th:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

The end!