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 7: Victoria, B.C.

Victoria, B.C. was our last stop! When we got off the ship, we fell in love with this bush sculpture of a mama and baby killer whale. How cool is that?

We didn't get to explore Victoria too much (guess I'll have to come back!), but to culminate our British experience, we HAD to ride the infamous double decker bus. It was just like the Night Bus in Harry Potter - wild ride and all! We rode on the top level and hoped that our driver wouldn't crash into anything.

Our last towel animal of the cruise was this little monkey who we found hanging from a clothes hanger. Isn't he cute?

So, that was our cruise. I know, I know, it wasn't the most exciting one, thanks to the weather, but that couldn't be helped. I still had a LOT of fun spending time with new and old friends alike, and it was a treat for me just to go on the cruise itself. I've never experienced anything like that before.

Marsali's mama surprised us all - me, Marsali, Novya, and Taryn - with our very own souvenir cruise shirts. Here we all are in our new shirts, which read, "I sailed Holland America, Alaska 2011."

Well, I am currently on my way home as we speak. It has been about a week since I left Oregon, so I should be home really soon. I hope so! I SO need to stretch my legs!

Talk to you later,

Sophie

Day 5 and Day 6: Ketichikan and another day at sea!

So, our fifth day on the cruise found us visiting Ketichikan, Alaska. Fun, right? Not really. It was so wet that we didn't bother to get any photos. If you'd like to see what Ketichikan looks like, see this album from 2008! It hasn't changed much since then, as I've been told.

We got off the ship to do a little shopping and to stretch our legs, but no sight-seeing was in our schedule.

We spent Day 6 at sea, staring at the seemingly endless water before us. We encountered stormy weather again, and some people were feeling sick. Luckily, we were feeling well enough to spend the day on the lido deck.

Here are some photos of what we saw on our last day at sea:

See more photos HERE.

~Sophie

Day 4: Tracy Arm Fjord

Today, we encountered more rain - what a "surprise"! Needless to say, I was more than a little discouraged by now.

The girls and I spent a lot of the day looking out at the beautiful scenery that lay before us. In addition to the rain, we saw icebergs, waterfalls, and even dolphins and sea lions!

When we got bored, we took turns roller-blading around the halls, which amused us greatly. Marsali and I also spent a lot of time just chatting, catching up as girlfriends tend to do.

By the way, how do you like our outfits? Marsali's mama sure worked hard to outfit us well on this cruise!

At the end of the day, we were greeted with another towel animal - an elephant! Isn't he cute?

To see the full album - complete with lots of Alaskan scenery - click HERE.

~Sophie