New York, New York.

Dear bloggers, please listen to this song while reading this blog post.

Yesterday we were in New York City.
We took the bus from our hotel into the city and then from there, had to walk to our destination. Times Square and Broadway.
We went to Times Square not to see the big ToysRUs. Not to see the big McDonalds. Not to see all the big screens and advertisements. We went to see this guy:

George M. Cohan. American entertainer. He wrote the number #1 song of World War 1. It was called "Over There" and inspired the troops going over the Big Pond. It continued to inspire soldiers through the Second World War and is probably still inspiring people. It inspired me to do a report on George M. Cohan.
Here is a short biography.
George Michael Cohan was born in 1878 to parents who traveled all over the country as Vaudeville actors. George M. grew up in the theater business. He learned to dance, play violin, write skits, and act. As he grew older he took over the family's act, "The Four Cohans" and began selling his skits.
From 1900 to the early 1920's, George M. Cohan wrote, produced, and acted in over three dozen Broadway hits.
Cohan's life was the theater. His temper left him with little close friends. Cohan was very patriotic and there was always a flag in his musicals.
He was called, "The man who owned Broadway" and "America's first actor." He is the only composer ever the receive a Congressional Medal of Honor (he received it for lifting troops morale with his song "Over There") and the only Broadway actor to have his statue put up in Times Square.
He is a great American and a character to study. He died in 1942. There is a movie based off of his life (Yankee Doodle Boy, or something like that. It starts James Cagney). It doesn't follow his life exactly... But it's got a lot of his great music in it!
Some of the songs he wrote were, "Over There," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Yankee Doodle Boy," and "Your a Grand Old Flag."

Here are some more pictures of Times Square:

And now it's time for ironic signs.

This has been ironic signs.

Hee hee, I can find a Sherlock Holmes reference anywhere:

We went to the big, two story McDonalds for lunch (Grama's request).

Then we walked to Grand Central Station (passing 5th Ave. on the way).

Grand Central Station:

I caught a flash mob on video while we were there!

After Grand Central Station, we went to the American Girl Doll Store in NYC!!!

Sadly I was not able to bring a doll along on the trip... So Tintin explored the store with me!

Some displays:

While I was running around looking for something (and getting lost at the same time....) Tintin wandered off by himself.

In the bathrooms, there are doll holders, so you don't have to hold your doll while you do your business.
I didn't have a doll.... But I came up with a different solution.

After all this torment, Tintin has decided to hate me.

I have been saving money for some months, knowing that I was coming here. Here are my purchases:

From left to right (starting at the top): Josefina's Dress and Vest; Addy's Plaid Summer Outfit; Black NYC American Girl exclusive tee; Josefina's accessories; Emily's accessories; and Kit's Reporter Dress.

Starting with Addy's Plaid Summer Set....

I had originally wanted Marie-Grace's Summer Outfit (or whatever it is called... It's limited edition) but it's quite expensive. I absolutely love Addy's collection and this dress is very close to the Marie-Grace one, for less money. And it come with more items!
The dress is absolutely ADORABLE. I can not wait to put it on Addy! It's a gorgeous pale pink plaid. The apron is very good quality and the pockets are real. The shoes are possibly the most adorable AG shoes I own. They are very good quality and cute to boot (no pun intended)! The hair ribbon is also good quality, although it's a bit short. I wonder if it will go all around Addy's poofy hair. We shall see.

Josefina's Dress and Vest:

This whole outfit is very high quality.
The dress looks exactly like something Josefina would wear to a fiesta. It has little ruffles on the sleeves and around the neckline and altogether, it is a very cultural-looking dress!
Personally, I like it without the vest, but the vest is very cute as well.

Emily's Accessories:

Emily is Molly's friend, who is evacuated from England to the USA during World War 2. She comes to live with Molly's family.
I do not have Emily (although Jamie looks a lot like her) but I just had to have her accessories. It comes with a sweater, a scrapbook, five pictures, a coin, a ration book, and dog tags! After studying WW 1 and 2, this is the perfect set for me! Especially since in a few weeks, I will be getting my own dog tags for completing a class on the World Wars.
The pictures are stickers which you can stick into the scrapbook as you choose.

Josefina's Accessories:

Some dolls do alright with their accessories, but Josefina really isn't complete without her shawl. As well as the shawl (which I believe is called a Rebozo, but don't quote me), this set comes with a necklace, a coin, a hancerchief, and a purse.

Kit's Reporter Dress:

Everything (well... not everything.... I despise Kit's new pajamas and her new bed sheets, and her party dress. Kit is a TOMBOY! She hates pink! So why is half her collection that color??? American Girl: please read the books before making items for the historical dolls!).... As I was saying, almost everything in Kit's collection is absolutely adorable because it is from the '30's. Family's like Kit's made clothes out of feed sacks.
This dress has an adorable pattern of flowers in the primary colors. There is also a red hairband, white socks, and very cute red shoes. I can't wait to put this outfit on Kit! My only regret is that I didn't get the reporter set to go with it.

Finally, the black NYC tee. I don't have much to say about this one... Only that it's adorable!

I thought this picture looked rather like the Red Indian Tintin took a picture of in Tintin in America (sadly I can't find the picture on Google Images):

And of course you can't go to NYC without getting an I heart New York shirt.

All in all, it was a very good day! Thank you for your prayers.
Only once did we think we were in danger... We had the walk signal and started to go across the crosswalk, when a car turned and just kept plowing ahead. She nearly ran over my mom! We waited for her to go, then crossed... We looked behind us and what do you think we saw? She got pulled over by the police!

Today we went to Valley Forge but as this blog post is very long already, I think I will post it and save Valley Forge for tomorrow.

American Girl and an Inchworm

I went to the American Girl Doll Store on Saturday to meet a girl named Ali. She makes videos of her dolls and puts them on her Youtube account girloftheyearstudios. A lot of people watch her videos and recently she got 10,000 subscribers on Youtube so she decided to come to the AGP to visit people.
I went and met her! She's really nice.
Here is a picture. We are each with our look-a-like dolls.
(And yes, ShiningHisLight, my mom let me put a picture of myself on my blog!)

I also bought the Basketball outfit, as I have been wanting it for awhile so Rena can be a wheelchair basketball player.


No, she's not miraculously healed, she's standing so you can see the outfit better.

Aww... Cute Rosey in the background. The poor dog has a flea that my mom is desperately seeking with a comb.


A number of nights ago I was getting ready for bed when I spied an inchworm in the bathroom! I wonder how that got there...
I took a video because it was so fascinating. It made me think of the song "Inchworm". Too bad I couldn't find anywhere to download it.
Mom and I looked at the worm under a microscope and boy does it look strange! It looks like something you'd see attacking earth in an old alien movie. It was pretty cool...
Then we misjudged where we put the microscope down and accidentally squished the inchworm.. Oops!
Enjoy the video!



An update on NaNoWriMo... I now have 22,000+ words! I'm about 44% done. It's exciting! I've never written this fast before. I've never written this much before either. My first novel was only 16,000 words and that took me all summer to write!
Perhaps the most exciting thing about NaNo is that whoever finishes their 50,000 words before midnight on November 30th gets 5 free copies of their novel self-published from a website! =D My mom had a great idea to have my first novel as "Part 1" and my current novel as "Part 2".
But now I must get to school... Homeschool doesn't mean no-school!

Welcome to the Blog! and American Girl Doll Place

Hello and welcome to the first post on my new blog! Check back often for new updates.

Yesterday my parents and I went to the American Girl Doll store. I bought three outfits and the doll wheelchair. Below I will show a picture of the outfit and my review of it.

Here is Rebecca's School Outfit modeled by the lovely Samantha.
I love this outfit. It's simply adorable. The sweater is pretty heavy, perfect for walking to school on a cold winter's day. The buttons on the sweater are a bit hard to do and undo, just like real buttons.
The shoes are very similar to the shoes that come with Samantha's Sailor Outfit, except these are black instead of black and white. These black boots are much easier to get on the doll than the black and white ones. These have velcro on the back, while with Samantha's sailor shoes you have to do up the tiny buttons on the side.
The tights that come with this outfit are made of the same material regular tights are made of. They are a very clear white and I can get them on my doll very easily.


This is what the outfit looks like without the sweater. Underneath, instead of a separate skirt and shirt we find a dress. I like how it is one piece. It makes the outfit stay straight on the doll. The skirt of the dress is absolutely ADORABLE!! I love it. It is black and white checkers and pleated.


The final item that came with this outfit is the hair ribbon. It is made out of a study fabric and ties nicely. For $28 you get an outfit that has great quality, is very cute, and comes with many pieces! Way to go American girl!


Here is the second outfit I bought. It is called the Cozy Sweater Outfit and it is modeled by lovely Jess. I LOVE this outfit. American Girl only came out with it recently, on the 30th of August I believe.
The sweater is very high quality, although it feels like it could stretch easily just like a real sweater. The sweater is knitted which makes it very cozy and soft. I wish I had one!
The pants are stretchy, gray, tight, sweat pants.
The shoes are knitted as well with two buttons. The only way to get them on is to pull them on. I found this hard to do this and it took me about 5 minutes. Eventually you figure out a way to shimmy then on and over the gray pants. Although it is hard to get them on, the shoes definately make the outfit and are very cute.
This outfit also comes with a stretch one-piece hairband.


The final outfit I bought was an exclusive outfit - meaning you can only get it at the AG store(s). Kit is modeling this outfit and looks as if she should be on the beach with sunglasses and some sort of tropical drink!


The shirt says American Girl Seattle. At every AG store I go to I get a T-shirt with the logo and the name of the store I went to.


The pants are very adorable. They are very detailed and look exactly like something you would find at the mall.


The final thing I bought was the American Girl wheelchair. I bought it for my handicapped doll Rena (who you will see more of later in this post).
This wheelchair is very high quality. When you push it away from you it rolls straight, despite it's front "shopping cart" wheels.


Here is Rena being pushed by Kit.


The chair has actual brakes that work!


My Dad enjoyed the AG Store to...



This is Ezri Dax from my favorite TV Star Trek. Star Trek has 5 different TV Shows (Original, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise) with different characters.


I got my doll Rena for $6 at our local Goodwill thrift store. Her skin was very dirty, her fingernails painted, and her bangs chopped off. I wanted to re-wig her but my Mom convinced me to let her cut Rena's hair to see if it could be styled differently.
I was surprised and happy to find that the outcome of the haircut makes Rena look a lot like Ezri Dax!




My Mom and I have plans to make Rena a Star Trek uniform just like Ezri's! Pictures soon.
Stay tuned until next time...