Birthday Clothes (not birthday suits - don't worry) ;)

As promised, here are some photos of us modeling our new clothes!

First are the matching tees Mom gave us for Christmas. They were on clearance on the American Girl website for quite a while, so Mom thought she'd take advantage of it. Felicity and I have each been to the American Girl place in Chicago with Mom, so she chose Chicago ones for us. We never took photos of ourselves in them when we took the other post-Christmas photos - don't ask me why. Aren't they cool? Perfect for the 4th of July, I'd say.

American Girl Place of Chicago tees

That photo refuses to center. Arg. I'm sick of trying to fix it. Now on to the birthday gift clothes!

First up are our 3 new casual tees. They were advertised on eBay as fitting 18" slim dolls like Julie, and they do fit her quite well. As you can see, they are a little more snug on us AG dolls but still look great.

white and black tee

white and pink tee

white and red tee, denim jeans

The dark blue denim jeans Felicity is wearing in the above photo are also new. They are from ____ on eBay. Not only do they fit great and have amazingly accurate details (gold stitching, pockets, belt loops), but they also have a snap fastener, which will hold up much better than velcro.

Next up is another eBay purchase. I've had my eye on this shirt and skirt ensemble for a long time. It's made by the same Hong Kong-based eBay store that our 2 lovely pink and blue spring dresses came from. The skirt has a super tight waist band, which makes it a little hard to get on. It's worth it as cute as it is, I'd say, and the elastic will hopefully stretch out a bit in time.

turtleneck shirt and checkered skirt

Next, check out Julie in this sweet spring dress for 18" slim dolls. Pink really is a good color on her. Oh, how I wish it fit me!

pink floral dress

Up last are the 3 complete outfits made by American Girl.

This first one, the Frosty Party Outfit, was an eBay purchase. We all admired it in the catalogue back in 2011-2012 and are tickled pink to add it to our wardrobe. The soft, sparkly sweater will have to wait for winter, but the headband, skirt, and shoes are definitely going to be worn a ton long before then.

Frosty Party Outfit

According to Grandma, the last two outfits were bought directly from the American Girl website back sometime in mid to late 2012 when some sort of discount was being offered. First is the Weekend Fun Outfit. It came with a white vest, which Felicity refused to wear, lol. I think it looks better without it too. The floral shirt, pink sandals, and stretchy pink headband are all awesome. The capris are comfy once they're on. However, they are a little tough to get all the way on because they are rather narrow in the lower leg area.

Weekend Fun Outfit

Finally, here I am in the Feeling Great Outfit. I foresee this one being worn a ton too because it is so comfortable and will mix and match well. It comes with a wide stretchy headband to keep hair out of your face and pink and purple athletic shoes. No socks, but we often don't bother with them anyway.

Feeling Great Outfit

Thanks, Mom! We are 4 lucky dolls.

<3 Lily









Better Late Than Never

Mom's birthday has come and gone without us posting anything about it, but let the records show that we did see her briefly yesterday to wish her a happy birthday. :)

She was busy, busy, busy yesterday. She spent a big chunk of the day (8:00 to 3:30) doing greyhound-related stuff with her aunt: first the morning walk and then the annual Greyhound Spring Fling. Then she went to the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, with her mom. After that it was time for supper, presents, and cake (well, pie, actually. Dutch apple with whipped cream, to be more specific). 

What's awesome about Mom's birthday is that we often get stuff too! This year was no exception. Unfortunately, by the time all that was done, it was after 9:30, and she was too tired to do anything with us other than show us the new doll clothes she received. We will take pictures when we try them on so that we can make a post about it later. 

The weather yesterday was summer-like: high around 80 degrees, lots of sun, fluffy clouds. Luckily, there was also a cool breeze at times to keep the heat from being intolerable. What a beautiful day!

No word yet as to whether she's going to spend real $ on HI2 or if we'll be stuck paying exorbitant amounts of virtual $ to reinstate our subscription... We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Anyway, if you're reading this, Mom, thank you for treasuring us long past the age when it is "cool" to have dolls. You will always be a kid at heart no matter how old you get, and we love you for that. <3 <3 <3 <3 Have a great year!

Your dolls, 
Julie, Felicity, Lily, and Bethany

Horse Isle 2 Screenshot Fun

Hi peeps.

Well, our free 1 month subscription token to Horse Isle 2 expires in a few hours. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Mom will use some of her birthday money to help us out with a yearly subscription. (Her birthday is tomorrow, by the way! How lucky she is that it's on a Saturday this year!) We promised her that if she does dish out the $$ for the subscription, we will share with her. She can even buy or catch her own horses if she wants. :)

Here are a few entertaining screenshots we've taken over the 30 days we've had the free sub token:

Duck overload

Nose to nose with a wild Kathiawari

Decisions, decisions

A frequent sight: mining gems in the caves

Ye shall not pass.

Not something you see every day...

That's a meteorite, not... what else it looks like ;)

Green-eyed dog named BaskerVille

Lily's horse Yetta sniffing calla lilies

Hasta Luego,
Felicity

Our Yard in Spring

Okay, it's about time somebody posted something, so I will take a turn. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some photos of plants and flowers growing in our yard. Mom took them in early May - everything is maturing quickly and already looks different than these photos.

baby maple leaves

baby oak leaves, which are as soft as they look :)

myrtle

odd buds

pretty weeds

looking up

violets

weeping cherry

weeping cherry up close

That's all for now!

Horse Isle 2

Hi people.

Guess what? We have started playing a new online game. It's called Horse Isle 2: Legend of the Esrohs. It comes in a life cycle version where horses age and can breed, as well as the eternal version we chose where horses live forever and aren't breed-able. Horse Isle 2 is way better than Horse Isle 1 graphics-wise. (We never could get past the wonky-looking avatar horses of HI1 to consider playing it, lol.) 

Horse Isle 1. Yikes.

Horse Isle 2
That's our avatar on Galileo checking out a wild horse :)

We all share one HI2 account, taking turns playing as an avatar person that looks like Mom just for chuckles. With just one account, we progress way faster, and if we want to subscribe, we'll only have to buy one subscription rather than four.

The setting of the game is a huge complex of varied islands. You explore the islands from horseback, searching for and capturing wild horses, going on quests, playing mini-games, meeting other players, harvesting and selling items... I could go on and on.

The best part of the game is of course the beautiful horses. Every horse is unique, what with the seemingly endless combinations of breed, color, markings, height, abilities, and personality type. Each player can have up to 5 horses (to get more you have to subscribe, buy a ranch isle, and buy barns). We've each gotten to pick one horse to be ours, which leaves us with one extra slot for captured wild horses. Here are our keepers:

My (Bethany's) pick:
Ophelia the light dapple grey Dales - our first equine, a lovely but socially challenged pony

Felicity's pick:
Galileo the black chestnut sabino Calabrese - the first wild horse we lassoed, and a very handsome one at that

Julie's pick:

Ravine the primitive dun Nokota - a wild-looking softie who was lassoed by Julie

Lily's pick:
"Wild Horse" the grulla tobiano Warlander (Name pending. Don't rush her) - Lily found her in a forest hiding behind a tree so that only her white tail was visible

We can't wait until we and our horses gain enough experience so that we can ride around bareback! We also hope to meet some of the mysterious Esrohs eventually, but we've got lots of saving up and improving to do before we can seriously think about that!

April 21 :^D

GUESS WHAT, WORLD? IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

I have been too busy to post until now, but rest assured that my day has been spectacular. 

Unfortunately, downtown Grand Rapids has not been having a good day at all. West Michigan has been experiencing the worst flooding it's had in 80+ years. Our house is fine, though. We live on high ground and are far enough away from any bodies of water. The water level in the Grand River by downtown GR was expected to crest this evening. The news website tells me it is now holding steady at 21.8 feet, whatever that means. It sounds impressive. 

Here's a pic of what the river looked like this evening:

And here's what it normally looks like:

Amazing what too much rain can do! For the record, my birthday was the first precipitation-free day we've had for 14 days. Hooray for April 21!

Mom says it's time for bed. I get to sleep in her room tonight. ;^) Peace out!

Not A Good Day

Hi, all. Lily here. I wanted to post today about the Titanic because of the date and because Mom recently visited the Titanic artifact exhibit at the museum. However, not only is April 15, 2013 the 101st anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, but now it is also the day that two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Horrific, just horrific. I don't want to talk any more about that right now. The news is doing plenty, so back to the Titanic. 

At this Titanic Artifact Exhibit, each person who enters it is given a boarding pass. On it is the name and brief information about one of the Titanic's real passengers. Mom was Mrs. Leila Meyer, a first class passenger. Here is her boarding pass (I took a photo of both sides). You can click on each to see it full-size.

Mom got to see all kinds of Titanic artifacts. It's amazing how good some of the artifacts look after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for years and years. Below are a few photos taken from here, since Mom wasn't allowed to take any of her own while she was there. The artifacts were in glass cases with sensitive alarms that would sound if they were disturbed. These alarms went off several times while Mom was there (not ever her doing).

In-tact dishes. The plates still have beautiful designs on them.

Porthole.
The info said that passengers were not allowed to mess with them,
since they were very heavy and could easily crush fingers.

These dishes were neatly stacked in a wooden cabinet.
The cabinet disintegrated, leaving these dishes aligned like this on the ocean floor.

A replica of a first class cabin.

A replica of a third class cabin.
Often 4 total strangers would share this tiny space!

Close-up of an "iceberg" we were allowed to touch.
Some yahoos have apparently had contests to see who can keep their hands on it the longest,
eventually forming these handprints.

Some of the souvenirs sold in the gift shop.
On the far right, you can see a necklace containing a small piece of coal from the Titanic.

At the end of the exhibit, an entire wall was devoted to huge lists of who did and didn't survive, separated by first, second, and third class. The proportion of survivors to those lost could be seen quite vividly. A little over 60% of the first class passengers survived, a little over 40% of the second class passengers survived, and only about 25% of the third class passengers survived.

Mom found Mrs. Meyer's name among the first class survivors - Mom later read online that she was rescued in lifeboat 6. However, her husband, Mr. Edgar Joseph Meyer, did not survive. Since Mrs. Meyer was traveling to New York for her father's funeral, I guess she had to have a double funeral when she finally arrived. How terrible. According to other online information, Mrs. Meyer eventually re-married to Louis Ranger and lived to be 71 years old. She did not speak of the Titanic disaster. I wouldn't have either, had it been me.