SPOILERS: GOTY 2014, Mini Isabelle at Target!

I was shopping at Target today, and you'll never guess who I saw. 

Mini Isabelle, GOTY 2014, was at my local Target!

I tried to buy her, in case it was already okay, but the register couldn't ring her up. The checker also looked pretty freaked out that I had her! I mentioned that she's the GOTY, so she's probably supposed to be kept secret until Wednesday. The cashier told me she was glad I was honest, because I could have gotten someone in trouble!

I had heard some rumors and of course seen other lucky girls' blogs who got to meet Big Isabelle early. But now, I can confirm it for myself. 

Isabelle is not only a ballet dancer - she also loves making ballet costumes!

I'm so, so, excited!!! I love sewing and costuming! I'm hoping that there will be some awesome supplies in my future - I especially want a sewing machine!

I also can't wait to read Isabelle's story to see what costumes she makes!

Plus, the best part is: one of my big people told me they'll be sure to get me my very own Mini Isabelle doll now, right on January 1st, because I was honest!

Here she is! Sorry the pictures are blurry, but I was using a borrowed camera.

Game Reviews

Remember how I told you that the whole family gets together to play board games after Christmas?

What I didn't tell you is that there's a relative who gets new board games every year. It's always really fun to see which ones they've brought.

This year, there were: 

Seven Wonders

Ticket to Ride:Asia

and

King of Tokyo

We loved all 3 of the new games.

My favorites were Seven Wonders and Ticket to Ride: Asia.
Well, neither of these games are brand new, but they're new to me!

Here I am at the end of Ticket to Ride:Asia

(I'll add my actual reviews in a bit!)

Ok. So, what did I like about each of these games?

I liked Seven Wonders because:

 I like history, and each player plays as one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. You can play with a lot of people, or just a few - it's 2-7 players. So, you can play with family, or at home with just a friend (or sister!).

The game is for 10 and up, and is also really easy to learn. On each turn, you pick cards to get goods, armies, science, and buildings. And, you can decide to build your "Wonder."  At the end of the game, which is played in 3 ages, you see who has the most points.  It's especially fun because it's always possible to do *something* on each turn, so everyone gets to play during the whole game. 

(find out more here: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders)

The other new game I really liked this weekend was Ticket to Ride: Asia.

The game is played like original Ticket to Ride. You get tickets that challenge you to build trains between cities all across the map. You get points for building more trains and finishing more tickets. Whoever has the most points at the end wins. But you can play this version in teams!

I thought it was going to be fun to have a partner to play with, and then I learned about the twist in the rules. You can't actually talk to your partner about the game, and you only get to show your partner one of your tickets. So, you're working together, but you don't know where your teammate is trying to go!

It feels really crazy to see your partner put a train on the opposite side of the board from where you want to be - but I still had a lot of fun playing this game!

This game was also super tough because I didn't know a lot of the names of the cities in Asia. Well, I do now. But, I had to work pretty hard to find them on the map!

I think I want to play the Europe version next!

(more: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/106637/ticket-to-ride-map-collection-volume-1-team-asia)

Game Day!

Christmas Day was a lot of fun. I got the copy of Anne of Green Gables I've been drooling over at the bookstore! But, we're still celebrating. I'll be sure to share with you everything I got soon, though. Today, I'm going to see more relatives. And, because there'll be lots of cousins, it's one of my favorite days of the holidays - it's GAME DAY!!!!

I'm taking my copies of Carcassonne and Dominion to share.

I hope they brought Settlers of Cataan this time!

Besides sharing presents, what are your favorite things to do with family during the holidays?

Pictures later... and, again, Merry Christmas, everyone!

And happy Boxing Day... and, just have a great weekend!

Cookies on the Counter and Presents Under the Tree

After we were done baking, we traveled to visit family for Christmas Eve dinner and church. Christmas Eve dinner is one of my favorites. We eat special traditional foods... but we'll celebrate that again for everybody at church at the beginning of January, so I'll tell you more then.

We took our cookies with us. Look how they turned out! 

The cranberry cookies always have spots of the best color red. They taste AND look like Christmas, to me!

Here's my plate to leave out tonight.

Look how pretty the flowers and Christmas trees turned out!

Everybody puts each other's presents out on Christmas Eve, if we've gotten them wrapped yet. So, we also added more presents to the pile under the tree.

Look at all of this! It's a lot, but it's also for 11 people (and dolls!).

I love the penguin bag I found for Anna's present.

I admit that Anna and I snooped around a bit. I guessed that I'm definitely getting a book. I hope it's the pretty Anne of Green Gables I saw at the bookstore! There was also something super heavy, and I have no idea what it is, at all!

And, definitely, time to sleep.

Good night!

and

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies!

Today is Christmas Eve! I finally got to start making our Christmas cookies. 

I made chocolate chips, brown sugar stars, cranberry cookies, and spritz.

The spritz are a lot of fun! We don't get to eat food coloring a lot, but we're allowed to color the dough for these. Anna picked green, and I think it looks like Play Doh.

Spritz cookies are fun because you can make fancy designs pretty easily. You fill this tool - it's called a cookie press - with the dough.

You put a cover on the end, and that's the design it will be. I made red flowers, Anna made green Christmas trees.

You squeeze the handle of the cookie press, and hold the end with the design down on the cookie sheet. Mine came out in flower shapes!

It takes some practice. Can you guess which cookies I made first?

Then, you can add colored sugar or jimmies. 

You can pour on the decorations however you like.

I also made chocolate chip cookies with super big chunks.

Here the first sheet, ready to go in the oven!

We'll leave some out tonight for Santa... and then we'll get to have some tomorrow.

Well... and we had to sample our work today, too! :P

Merry Christmas!

Making Christmas Goody Bags with AG Crafts Stamps

Yesterday, I gave out Christmas goody bags at Sunday School. I made them last week, during the big ice storm. I was so upset that it wasn't possible to go out and buy decorated Christmas bags and more things to put inside. I thought and thought, and then I remembered my mom using plain brown lunch bags to wrap things in sometimes. I could have bags decorated for Christmas, even if the ice storm kept me inside!

Here's how I made them:

I used plain brown lunch bags.

A Christmas stamp set.

The AG Crafts Gift tag set. This came from Michael's, and I'm not sure if they make it anymore.

Crayola Washable Markers

Crayola Colored Pencils

...And Pipe Cleaners

First, I set up stamps I liked, and picked the color crayons and colored pencils I wanted to use.

I started with the snowman stamp from the Christmas set, with the word "From" on it from the AG set.

It still looked really plain with just those, so I made another stamp with the fancy stars from the AG set.

Before: 

And, with the fancy stars:

I also drew a fancy squiggle under the stamped design, and colored in the snowman and stars.

Then, I got together the treats to give out:

There's stickers, jelly bracelets, pop pencils, candy canes, and Tastycakes.

I couldn't find the bouncy balls I picked out, but I hope everybody likes these things.

I couldn't go out and buy ribbon to tie the bags, either. 

I looked for something else, and found sparkly pipe cleaners in with my craft things. 

To do what I did, you need to fold over the top of the bag and punch two holes near the top. Next, use the pipe cleaners to close the bags like I you're using a twist tie, then curl the ends around a pencil. The ends will look springy like a fancy curled ribbon, but they'll stay that way without getting as tangled!

 I was so excited with how the goody bags sparkle!

So, yesterday I gave out the goody bags, and even got my own! There were two little presents, so I knew I needed to share with my sister, Anna.

 This bag is huge! 

 Anna dove right into the bag, to find the first present.

We got a pink flower... 

 ... and a blue flower!

 Our flowers are solar powered, and dance when they're in sunlight.

We love nature, and this is such a fun way to remind us of the outdoors when it's too cold to grow things!

P.S. I was asked, so I want to mention it... I wasn't given any products for this post. I mentioned things I really use - Crayola products are some of my favorite kids' art supplies. I like using washable markers with stamps because I can change the colors a lot, but washable markers won't work if you think your project will get wet. And, I use that AG Crafts Tag Making kit a lot!

Dickens and Christmas Windows at Macy's!

So, you may be wondering how Sunday went, what with all that ice.

We finally made it out of the house a whole hour late! 

Boy was the weather funny - there was so much ice and snow at our house so we were late, most other people didn't even make it to church, but some people only ever got rain!

Later Sunday morning, after we dropped off the toys, we stopped to see some special holiday displays at the big Macys on Market Street. My big person wanted to show us the same Dickens display she saw when she was a kid. She didn't know where to find it until right after it closed last year, and it turns out it was right at Macy's all along! 

Well, I was excited to see it. I love "A Christmas Carol." Does anyone else remember seeing the book in the Molly and Emily movie? Anna was excited that, at the other end, she would get to see Santa.

The Dickens Village is a display that you walk through, to see the story of "A Christmas Carol." This thing's been around since way before Macy's was here, but they fixed it up so people can see it again. There are dolls in each scene (3 times as tall as me, but the big kids all thought they were short!) that are mechanical, so you can see what's happening in the story while you read about it.

Charles Dickens himself welcomed us with a speech:

There were shop windows with pretty clothes:

And puppets and toys:

I want the trumpet. And one of the fancy dresses.

And then the story started, and we saw Scrooge and the charity guy:

And Tiny Tim:

And Cratchit:

And then we saw this:

If you don't know what that is, well, let me tell you, that's Marley's Ghost. He was just one of many we stumbled into. And Scrooge doesn't stop shaking! 

I thought it was a little spooky, but mostly fun and a little funny. Anna is still having nightmares! 

Anna got so scared, we had to leave quickly, so she didn't have to look at the other ghosts. I'm going back to see the rest and take more pictures - it's open until New Year's. If you like this story and you're in Philly, I think you should go, too. Just, maybe don't bring any little sisters!

How do other little kids make it past the ghosts to get to Santa?

We looked at Macy's windows outside next. Every year, they do something different for the Holidays, and it's fun to see what's new. This year, there were mostly fun things that remind me of Philly, especially at this store, at Christmas. Can you guess which ones were our favorites?

This one shows Virginia mailing her letter to Santa! I've never seen the cartoon, but I like this story, too.

She's so cute! Wouldn't she make an adorable doll?

Here's a window to remind people of the Dickens Village. I think the ghost in this one looks friendlier!

Here's the Wanamaker Building's eagle, which is right smack in the middle of Macy's:

I don't know where this is, but the two people dancing really move and look so elegant:

This one shows the light show! We go see this every year, and I love the music and how all the lights look like they're dancing. We're hoping to go back especially to see the light show soon, so I'll tell you more about it another day.

Did you guess which are our favorites?

Anna's is the light show!

And mine is the Dickens Village!

Have a fun week!