Sunday Lunch with a Friend

Salut mes amis,

On January 5th, I got to visit the American Girl store in the Washington, DC area! I hadn't been able to visit a store since my August 2012 visit to Natick, so I was pretty excited to see all of the new clothes and accessories that had been released recently. I also met Isabelle Palmer, Girl of the Year 2014. She's a ballet student from Washington, DC, and her story reminded me a lot of my twin sister's. I know she and Juliette would get along!

Isabelle and I chatted for a while, and when I started to get bored with all of the dance talk, I started playing with her cat, Tutu (seriously, who names their cat "Tutu"?!).  Isabelle also showed me all of the fun things in her design studio; I was particularly impressed with her sketchbook full of costume designs.

I said goodbye to Isabelle and wandered around the store for a bit. I decided to pose with the Isabelle photo op:

When the Isabelle area in the store became too crowded for me, I wandered elsewhere. I met Marie-Grace's sweet dog, Argos. He wanted to come home with me!

Finally, it was time to meet up with the real reason I came to the store: Inky! Inky and I have been trying and trying to meet up again since my visit to NYC, but our plans always fell through. I was SO EXCITED that I was able to meet up with her today. We decided to have a late lunch in the café. We had a lot to catch up on! She'd just gotten back from a trip to London, so - of course - I had to ask all about that.

After lunch, we decided to explore Isabelle's design studio together. Inky wanted to check it out for her friend Coral who also dances. When our guardians were out of earshot, we started whispering ways to sneak me back to NYC. Unfortunately, my guardian caught me before I was able to get into Inky's car, but hey, it was worth a shot!

It was SO good to be able to reconnect with Inky, even for such a short time. I wish I could see her more often!

Do you have friends who live faraway? How often do you get to see them?

Ton amie,
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

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

Le 13 février: un jour du film

We had a special day at school on February 13th. It started out like no other...we studied fractions in Math, followed by a book discussion in English, followed by lunch, gym class, and then Science...or so we thought. Just as we were about to open our science books to Chapter 4, the intercom blasted a message, "Will all students please report to the auditorium?"

At that, everyone leapt up excitedly. "What could it mean?" several of us pondered. I glanced at Nathalie quizzically, "Did we do anything wrong?"

Nathalie shrugged her shoulders, unable to guess, but urged me forward, "Let's hurry and get the best seats in the place. The "best" seats were the ones in the back, obviously, where students could get away with talking and not be heard.

Once all of the classes filed into the auditorium and found their seats, a girl stepped up onto the stage in front of the large movie projector that was now paused on a DVD menu. This girl, Anya Romankov, was none other than the unofficial class president, the peppy girl who made sure we all stayed in line. Popular? Not really, but not a nerd either. You know that girl who always seems to be increasingly nice, never ever having a bad day? That's Anya. Figures she's a cheerleader, too.

Anya cleared her throat, trying to get our attention, but it wasn't until another student gave a loud whoop! that any of us settled down to listen.

"Ahem, as you know, I am your class president, and as class president, it's my duty to expose my fellow classmates to certain films that provoke discussion. It has also come to my attention that a certain amount of bullying may be taking place under our school roof, and...," Anya started.

"Bullying?" I scoffed, "Since when?"

Anya didn't hear me, of course, but several students that did snickered.

She continued, "...with the release of "Chrissa Stands Strong," I figured that it wouldn't hurt to watch it. So...after our vice president, Isabel, passes out cookie samples from her mother's bakery, let us get this party started!" Anya gave a fake-sounding cheer, much to our dismay.



"We're watching Chrissa?" Nathalie gasped, "Why?"

"Supposedly we have an onset of bullying," I giggled, but I wasn't looking forward to the movie showing at all. This movie was the LAST movie I wanted to be caught watching, and I most definitely wished to be back in science class--I was one of the rare few who actually LIKED Science. "Hey, Bethany," I poked the girl sitting in front of me in the back, "Definitely pay attention to this movie because YOU'RE the one to blame for us having to watch it."

Bethany turned around, her green eyes flashing with anger, "Yeah, and I suppose the little French girl never gets into trouble..."

"Me? I get into the trouble? Je ne pense pas... [I think not]."

We quieted down as the movie began to play...which I guess wasn't that bad for a direct-to-DVD flick...but I definitely won't be watching it again. The funny thing is that Anya seemed to be ENJOYING it. I swear that girl has issues...or maybe it's just American girls period. Seriously, I have't met a single American here that has been nice to me, though--is France really that bad? Or am I over-exaggerating things?