Nora's Fun Friday

Fun Friday (September 8, 2007)

Whew, it's hot here, so Jess let me wear her meet dress today. All I brought was long pants and jackets. Lindsey let me borrow her laptop so I could do my blogging in the morning.

At lunch time, I got to join with the family at the big table. Kaya was kind enough to share her foods with me. All the girls here are very generous.

Later in the day, one of the boys took me out on a real go-kart! That was sooooo exciting! I'm wearing Lindsey's helmet here, to protect my head in case we wrecked. I have a neat bungee cord as a seat belt so I won't go flying off the kart. This certainly was a thrilling ride for me!

He also took me a ride on the front of the motor scooter. That was a bit scary and my dress kept blowing up, but it was fun. Next time I'll put on my pants first!

After riding the kart and scooter for a while, I took a relaxing walk near the pond. Here I am among the beautiful cat tails. I ask my host if this is really where they grow cats, but she said they're just called that. The real cats are inside the house.

Here is Earhart taking a rest with one of the inside cats. Her name is Molly. Which can be confusing sometimes for the 'real' Molly.

As is typical in this family, Friday night is family movie night. I got my own flip-chair and my own bowl of popcorn. We watched some movie called "Kart Racer." It was about racing go-karts, of course! It was pretty good. I had a fun Friday in Tennessee.

Nora's first day here

We have a traveling doll at our house! A traveling doll is when someone takes one of their American Girl dolls and sends her to different hosts for a couple weeks at a time. The point being to learn about different states and countries. Traveling Nora (GT#23), along with her pet dog, Earhart, is originally from Wisconsin, but she came via her first host in Florida yesterday. She will spend two weeks with us before I send her on to her next host. Fun!

"It's been a long, hot week, Earhart," said Nora, "But I think we're almost to our new host's home in Tennessee." Nora and Earhart continued their journey down the lane.    

"Yep, this certainly looks like where we're supposed to be. Let's go up to the door and see if anyone's home," declared Nora.    

 Nora gets to meet all the other sisters who already live at her new host's home. "Boy, there certainly are a lot of other girls who already live here," Nora exclaimed. "Are you all traveling too?" "No," said Jess. "We all live here."    

Earhart is introduced to the other AG pets that live at his new host's home. Rascal (Marisol's kitty), Posie (Felicity's lamb), Tatlo (Kaya's dog), Sandy (Kailey's dog), Original Coconut, Coconut, Licorice, another original Coconut and another Licorice! That's not counting the two real cats and one real dog that are here!  

The other girls clear out a closet for Nora to be able to unpack and hang up her things. "Wow, I'm going to have a lot of fun at this house, I can tell," Nora exclaimed. "I'm glad I got to come to Tennessee."


After getting all unpacked Nora and Earhart decide to go on a golf outing.    

 Earhart has his own set of clubs and he and Nora head for the links.  

 "Wow, my club is a bit big for me, but I'll try this anyway." Nora declared.  

"This place is HUGE," Nora said. "Do we really have to walk it all?"    

"The flag is pretty big too, but I think I can manage to get it out of the hole," Nora added helpfully.

"The hardest part of golfing is trying to convince Earhart that he shouldn't be chasing the balls!    

"Wait, I see a beautiful pebble in here.....if I could just reach down a little further."  

 After her long day of traveling, moving in and golfing, Nora is greatly relieved to be able to get in her jammies and into a comfortable bed. "Goodnight!" she says.

Julie and Ivy

As many have heard, American Girl is releasing a new Historical Character, Julie Albright. She is representing the not so far past of 1974. Unlike with other new release dolls, her best friend doll, Ivy, is supposed to be released along with her. The scheduled release date is September 10.

I have seen pictures of these dolls from friends who went to the Premier at American Girl Place LA. She has long, straight, blond hair and dark brown eyes. She does not have pierced ears, although Ivy does. I don't want to publish any pictures of her because I don't want to infringe on AG's right to her pictures until her release date. Any picture you might find on another AG fan site is probably a photo-shop image of what someone thinks she should look like. The New York times released a picture of her on Friday, but I'm still going to wait until she's on AG's web site.

I have seen the Julie mini-doll for sale on eBay already. That is also against AG rules. The book sellers (who also sell the mini dolls) have received their orders of Julie's new books with intended release of the books earlier than the dolls, but still in September. Unfortunately some booksellers have not abided by AG's policy to not sell the books/mini-dolls until the correct date.

I hope to post pictures of Julie here soon....maybe when I get her! Wouldn't that be great! We need more dolls at our house!

Addy Walker

Addy joined us with Kirsten, but we sent her to the American Girl Hospital immediately upon her arrival as she had 'silver eye'. The hospital did a wonderful job!

Felicity has her hair done

We watched the Felicity movie again recently and Felicity decided she wanted her hair to be more curly like the little girl who portrayed her in the movie. So I worked on her hair a bit. I sprayed it down with water, then curled it up in these little sponge rollers. I then steamed it a bit with my steamer to get her hair hot and pliable. I let it dry for 24 hours. Here's the results.

Boutique and Bistro

The grand-opening of the American Girl Boutique and Bistro in the North Point mall just north of Atlanta is this weekend! Things have actually started happening there today. Let's celebrate this new store in our great south! It's about time we got an AG store in the southern half of the US.

Check out AG's site about the Boutique and Bistro - Atlanta for a list of all the grand-opening events. We plan on going down there next month, along with our Traveling doll. You'll read more about her when she gets here.

Felicity Merriman

Felicity came from Wisconsin to join our family on Saturday. She originally 'lived' in the same home as our very own Lindsey. They were glad to see each other again!

 

Felicity enjoying a spot of tea!

 

All together today, August 12, 2007

Kaya, Samantha, Lindsey, Jess, Kailey, Marisol, Mia, Darcy
Kirsten, Molly, Speaking Rain, Kit, Josefina,
Felicity
Just waiting for Addy to return from the hospital and then we will all be together!

Now we are 13

Here we are all together as of today, August 9, 2007  

 Darcy, Josefina, Kaya, Jess, Molly, Kit Samantha, Mia
Kailey, Lindsey, Kirsten, Marisol, Speaking Rain (formerly Kayafina)


Today is the premier of Julie, the new Historical Girl from the year 1974. Also there are "Best Friends" dolls for some of the girls: Nellie, Emily, Elizabeth. And as of today there is supposed to be a best friend for Julie: Ivy. Also when the new movie about Kit comes out, American Girl is supposed to release HER best friend, Ruthie. So it looks like it may be a never ending struggle to collect all the Historical girls!

Kirsten joins the crowd

We're about finished with our collection of Historical American Girl dolls. Kirsten came today, along with her sister, Addy, but Addy had silver eye, so we had to send her to the AG hospital for eye replacement surgery. Kirsten didn't have very much wrong with her. Here's her before and after photos:

I added some cheek and lip color to her face (after I scrubbed off all the dirt with baking soda water). I unbraided and spritzed her with downey water spray as I gently combed through her tangles. Then I re-braided her as I misted her with water to keep the fly-away hairs in place. The hair color didn't change at all...the after picture just happens to be in different light. Her hair color is like the before photo.

Kirsten is a 1996 Pleasant Company doll and she came from California. We'll add Addy to the collection when she returns from her hospital stay.

2001 Lindsey

Lindsey is the first American Girl of the Year that was ever produced. She was only available for sale in 2001. Our Lindsey arrived with her entire world collection (I know, not much with her!) from Wisconsin yesterday:

That means we have now acquired all the Girls of the Year that have been made (so far.) 

Lindsey (2001), Kailey (2003-04), Marisol (2005), Jess (2006), and Nicki (2007).

I'm sure Mattel will continue to make GotY since they've become such a collectors' item, so our 'gaggle of girls' will more than likely continue to grow. (BTW: Nicki is still in her box to help retain her value over the years. I'm not sure how long we can stand to make her stay "mint in box" though. She looks like she wants to get out and play with her many sisters.)

[edit: Nicki was out playing with her sisters within a couple of months!]