Le 22 août: La fête de l'anniversaire!

Salut mes amis,

Since I was traveling on our actual 14th birthday (August 9th), Juliette and I decided to celebrate our special day on a later date. It was important to us to have a party together with all of our friends from school. We decided to hold the event on Wednesday, August 22nd from 2-4 pm in the Fair Hollow recreational room. Do you like our party invitation? We picked a set of them up earlier this summer!

This is what Juliette and I decided to wear for the day. I'm on the left, while Juliette is on the right:

Our first party guest to arrive was Chiara Martini, a fellow foreign exchange friend of mine. She is from a small town outside of Florence, Italy! 

Juliette's friend Jessica McConnell arrived next:

Maura Cassidy, another good friend of Juliette's, struggled in next, her arms full with two rather large boxes:

Finally, our last party guest arrived - my very best friend, Nathalie Thibodeau! Nathalie's another foreign exchange acquaintance; she's from Montréal, Québec, Canada:

Now that Chiara, Jessica, Maura, and Nathalie had all arrived, the party could finally begin. We decided to start off with a classic party game: Musical Chairs! Juliette and our friends got into place around a group of chairs, while I prepared to turn on the music:

When I turned the music on (Fifty Sixty by Alizée), the girls moved around the group of chairs, some even dancing to the music while doing so. When I turned the music off, they all quickly scrambled to secure a chair. The problem was that there were five girls and only four chairs. One girl was going to be chair-less and, therefore, out of the game. That was Chiara! 

The game continued. Jessica was out next, then Maura. Finally, only Juliette and Nathalie were left with one chair to walk around. Who would secure the chair and be the winner?

 When I stopped the music, both Juliette and Nathalie dashed over to the chair. There was such a ruckus being made that I wasn't sure who had won at first. Juliette was clearly sitting on the chair, but . . . wait! Did I see legs sticking out from underneath her? I sure did! Both Nathalie and Juliette were trying to claim the chair, but Juliette was barely hanging on. She soon found herself on the floor beside the chair, which means that she was out of the game.

. . . so Nathalie was declared the winner! As a competitive figure skater, she takes winning very seriously, even winning a little party game! She screamed with delight and called herself the "Champion of the Chairs" for the rest of the afternoon. Silly Nathalie! 

After playing Musical Chairs, we decided that it was cake time. After our teacher lit the candles, our friends sang Happy Birthday to us - in French and in English!

The French version goes like this:

  

Joyeux anniversaire à vous,
Joyeux anniversaire à vous,
Joyeux anniversaire Sophie et Juliette,
Joyeux anniversaire à vous!

We decided to have cupcakes instead of an actual cake. We ordered them in a variety of colors and flavors, so that everyone could pick their favorite:

When the singing stopped, Juliette and I made our wishes (nope, I'm not telling you what we wished for!), and then we blew out our candles:

We all must have been hungry! For several minutes, there wasn't much talking as we dug into our cupcakes, tortilla chips, and juice (or milk): 

Juliette and I both opted for cupcakes with chocolate icing - yum! In addition, I had chocolate milk. Juliette was more sensible and chose plain white milk:

When we finished eating, it was time for PRESENTS! I won't bore you and post them all here (though you'll be able to see them on my Facebook page in a few days), but we got some fantastic things . . .

. . . including our very own camping tent! This was a gift from our teacher:

My friend Marsali sent us a tin of French candy. Thank you, Marsali, the candy was delicious! 

Our fellow twin friends Quinn and Trinity sent us a lovely card and a bag full of presents, including . . .

. . . pink hair extensions and princess wands! Thank you, Quinn and Trinity! We loved everything.

Maya and Katherine, the friends I met at the Natick American Girl store, sent us . . . 

. . . the Weekend Fun outfit! I've been wanting this outfit so badly. Thank you, Maya and Katherine! This will get a lot of use: 

Our friends Susie and Tessa had some gifts for us as well, both of which they wrapped in American Girl catalogue pages (how thrifty!):

I received a stuffed otter whom I named Oliver, and Juliette received her very first UglyDoll: a pink one named Wippy! Thank you, Susie and Tessa! We love our new stuffed animal friends:

Maman and Papa sent Juliette a new LL Bean purse; isn't it cute?

For me, Maman and Papa sent a brand new backpack, notebook, and water bottle:

When we finished opening presents, we decided to take some fun group shots with our friends. From left to right, we have Chiara, Maura, me, Juliette, Nathalie and Jessica: 

Here we have Chiara and Maura posing for a picture and then Nathalie and Jessica posing for a picture:

And, finally, the birthday girls: 

What was your last birthday like? What kind of presents did you receive? Did you have a birthday party?

~Sophie

Day 3: American Girl Natick!

Salut mes amis, 

On August 8th, I got to visit American Girl Natick (the Boston area Boutique & Bistro) again! While I'd been before, I was super excited to be able to meet up with some dear friends from YouTube. We were going to have lunch together! (I'm also told that there was shopping involved, but that's another story!). 

Once we made it into the store, I zoomed (no pun intended!) over to try out Julie's new Volkswagen Beetle! Since Julie was already seated in the passenger seat, I found a seat in the rear, put my hands up, and squealed with delight. Julie said that her mom would be out in any minute to give us a spin in the car, but it took her long enough! I bet Ivy could've driven us . . . 

Once my friends arrived, we headed up to the second floor to get seated for lunch. While our table was being prepped for us, I took a photo with the McKenna photo-op that was available:

Soon I was seated at the table in my very own cushy pink chair! The waitress took our orders and left us to it. 

 These are my friends! Maya is on the far left, while Katherine is seated next to me. We got to know each other better by playing the conversation starters ("Table Talkers") while we waited for our food to arrive.

 Maya:

Katherine:

 As my starter, I ordered this leafy green salad:

Then I ordered this dish of gluten-free pasta, complete with broccoli and chicken. Yum!

Finally, as a birthday surprise (since my 14th birthday was the next day, on August 9th!), Maya and Katherine surprised me with ice cream for dessert! They'd told the waitresses to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me, and boy, was that embarrassing to be the center of attention throughout the whole of the restaurant (but in a good way)! Still, it was a sweet thing for them to do, and I'm very grateful that I got the chance to spend time with them! 

After lunch, the grown-ups did some shopping, but I wasn't allowed to see what they bought. I think some of what they bought were birthday presents for me, hehe! However, Maya and Katherine brought a new friend named Phoebe home, and I got to meet her briefly, too.

That was quite the day! I loved meeting up with friends at an American Girl store! Celebrating my birthday there was extra fun, too.

Have any of you ever celebrated a birthday at an American Girl store? What was it like?

~Sophie