An Award from Sara!

Sara (from Sara Loves American Girl) nominated me for the I Love Your Blog Award! :)

Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you. (Link them!) Sara has a blog that features all of the latest news from American Girl, her opinion of items that have been released, and even photo-shoots of her personal doll collection. It looks like a great blog and one that you should definitely check out. Sara, THANK YOU for nominating me for this award! This means a lot. :) 

Tell your readers why you started a blog and why you keep doing it. 

I started this blog mainly because other dolls out there were starting blogs of their own (notably my good friend, Inky), and I thought it'd be a great way to get to know other doll bloggers. Some of my classmates had started blogs before me (Lindsey and Anya), but they didn't feel like their lives were as interesting to blog about as mine was. They both decided to delete their blogs in favor of letting me blog in their place. My blog started out as a school assignment to report on life at an American boarding school. I blogged about certain events in my life, just like I do now. I've kept it up mainly since becoming a full-fledged traveling doll. For over two years (April 2009 - October 2011), I traveled the grand USA, visiting dolls in other homes. I documented my travel adventures on this blog as a way to remember them. Of course, a supportive group of friends and followers encourage me to keep on blogging, too, even if I'm currently taking a hiatus from traveling. 

Describe a usual day in your life. 

Since it's summer, I can't say that my day is all that usual. I will describe for you a typical day at Fair Hollow School for Girls during the school year. I wake up at 5:30 am, but I usually don't actually rise from my cozy bed until 6:00 am. When I am awake, I shower, dress, and eat a breakfast of turnip greens (yes, veggies in the morning!), before brushing my teeth and heading out the door. My twin sister, Juliette, and I walk to class together, and we often meet Nathalie and Chiara on the way. Juliette and I depart when Juliette reaches the dance studio - ballet is her first class. My first class is Algebra 1, followed by English, Civics, Physical Science, and then lunch! Lunch for me is usually a blueberry smoothie and sliced apples with peanut butter. After lunch, I have gym and Italian. When Italian wraps up, I usually meet my sister at The Copper Horse Pub & Eatery for a snack, and then I head back to my dorm to do some homework. Around 7:00pm, Juliette and I walk to the cafeteria for dinner (vegetable stir-fry, pasta, or something like that) and linger there for a while. After dinner, it's usually TV time in the student lounge for a few hours. Around 10:00pm, I'm back in my dorm on the computer. I try to get into bed by 11:30pm. If I'm having a sleepless night, I like to listen to my iPod in bed; my choice of tunes usually being something by Alizée or Carla Bruni. 

Tell your readers the best collab in your life. 

I've never been in a proper collab - I'm too busy for that! However, one might argue that our YouTube video productions are a version of a collab. We Fair Hollow students are collaborating on a stopmotion video. Our best collaboration on a video was probably our music video set to Rachel Platten's Overwhelmed, just because it featured a huge ensemble cast rather than just one or two of us. 

Tell your readers the worst collab in your life. 

Again, I've never been in a proper collab. However, our worst video was probably one of our first ones, just because we were still learning how to do stopmotion and how to work iMovie.

Explain what your blog means to you. 

This question is perfect for me because this post is actually my 100th post!  (YAY!) Yes, I know I started this blog at the end of 2008, and I'm just now - almost 4 years later - reaching 100 posts. I don't update like other bloggers, I realize that fact, but the important thing is that I do update. I didn't let my blog die!  This blog means a lot to me. It gives me something to do, other than schoolwork of course. It gives me a chance to tell people (and dolls) what's going on in my life; it gives me a chance to get to know others like me. I feel so much a part of this blogging community; I've so many friends because of it that I just don't know where I'd be if I hadn't started a blog. I've learned so much through blogging - how to write better, how to format photos into a post, how to take better photos to begin with, etc. I've been to places I've never actually set a foot in because I peruse and comment on others' blogs. The blogging world - and my own blog - means everything to me. Thank you, dear friends and followers, for embarking on this blogging journey with me, and I hope that we shall continue on together for many more years! Long Live the AG Blogging Community! 

Nominate 5 bloggers for this award. Make sure to let them know they were nominated. 

1. Super Inky

2. Pleasant Piper

3. Bolton Girls' Travel Journal

4. As Told By Susie

5. Wendy's Life 

~Sophie

McKenna movie-viewing party!

Salut, mes amis! 

As I'm sure you all know by now, yesterday marked the television premiere of McKenna Shoots for the Stars (which, coincidentally, fell on Bastille Day, a national holiday in France). McKenna is the second Girl of the Year movie to be released; the last was An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong in 2009. The McKenna movie reveals how difficult it can be for kids to balance school and recreational activities. McKenna has a passion for gymnastics, which often surpasses her desire to do schoolwork. (That sounds familiar, doesn't it, Juliette?!) 

To celebrate the movie premiere, Juliette and I each invited two friends to a movie-viewing party. I invited Chiara and Nathalie, my two best friends, while Juliette invited Jessica and Maura. We all dressed in our coolest pajamas and snacked on pepperoni pizza, fruit, and soda during the duration of the film.                   

 We were all pretty enthralled with McKenna. We are huge fans of Nia Vardalos, so we loved her as McKenna's mother. We also loved Josie, but wished that she'd been the central character as it'd be nice for American Girl to feature a character who is disabled. We also wished that Sierra had been featured more, and we felt that her character development was a little bit lacking.

Our favorite scene was probably Josie fulfilling her dream of riding horses. We love Kerris Dorsey (the actress who plays Josie) anyhow, so that really comes as no surprise! That being said, the scene where Toulane spies on McKenna and Josie in the library was a great one. Jessica, in particular, loved it as Toulane reminded her of a younger version of Nikita Mears (of The CW's Nikita, her favorite television show).

None of us are huge fans of gymnastics, but we were all enthralled with the rhythmic gymnastics sequences. We loved how closely related to dance rhythmic gymnastics seems to be! We all agreed that it would be fun to try. Who knows, maybe Fair Hollow School for Girls will add rhythmic gymnastics to their course list? Do any of you do rhythmic gymnastics?

Did any of you watch the McKenna movie last night? What was your favorite scene? What do you think could've been improved on?

~Sophie