Playing outside!

Hi everybody! Callie checking in!!

It's been raining for a long long time and there hasn't been a lot of opportunity to go outside. It's really hard when you're active like we are to have to stay cooped up indoors all the time, so I was really, really glad when it stopped raining enough for everything to dry up a little. We ran outside and went our separate ways right away!! A couple of my siblings are into archery so they did that, and my baby brother Merlin wanted to take pictures!

I just wanted to flip!

It was a lot of fun, but it turns out we weren't the only ones outside enjoying the rare sunshine! Our neighbors (who are also my friends!) were outside too!

My friend Marisol came over. She's a dancer and one of her dance classes is at the same time as one of my gymnastics classes so we see each other a fair bit. I haven't seen her in about a week though!

Merlin got her to wave! She's clearly either heading from class or to one shortly after we got done playing since she's dressed for it!

We sat down and started to catch up. She was telling me about this new book she's been reading on ballet. Ballet is her least favorite and most favorite class. It doesn't come naturally to her but she enjoys working hard at it. And I was telling her about a new floor routine that my coach is trying to choreograph for me (floor exercises aren't my favorite exercises!)

But all of the sudden, our friend Peyton joined us with gossip! We had a new girl move in just this month and we've been working really hard to make friends with her but she's been pretty quiet so far. She's a long way from home so we aren't upset that she's shy!

Peyton plopped down with us to fill us in on the comings and goings of our new neighbors and then! She said that Saila--that's the girl who's our age--was outside and she was coming over to play with us! Finally!!

Merlin said we were probably being a little scary but I don't think Saila thought so. We weren't trying to jump all over her, honest!

And she looked happy to see us! We're really glad she came to play.

We sat and talked for a long time about school and our different activities and stuff. We're all pretty different! Peyton is super into video games and Saila told us all about some things that she did back home and promised that she'd teach us some of it soon!

Then Merlin--have I mentioned Merlin is *super* smart??--he said that he was sorry to butt in on our talk but maybe we could take some pictures of the four of us to send to Saila's friends in Canada! We thought it was an awesome idea. Here are some of our favorites!

Merlin says he doesn't know what we were all looking at here but clearly it wasn't the camera!

I think this one might be our favorite. Merlin promised he'd print one for each of us as soon as we all picked a favorite... and then he got shy and ran away! But that's okay, it was time for dinner anyway and my friends all had to go home. Saila promised to come over again very soon though. I think that everyone being so interested in what she had to say about Canada helped a lot with her homesickness.

I hope you enjoyed meeting some of my friends! Til next time!

Callie

Clothes
Callie: 
     Shirt: OG Precious Cargo
     Shorts: AG Sparkly Camp Outfit
     Socks: OG Heart and Sole Set
     Shoes: AG Heelys

Marisol:
     Leotard: AG Isabelle's Rosette Leotard
     Wrap sweater and skirt: My Life As...
     Shoes: AG Talent Show Set

Peyton:
     Dress: AG Kailey's Meet Outfit
     Shoes: AG Purple Espadrilles

Saila:
     Overshirt: OG A Real Cool Cat
     Undershirt: AG Ruffled Hoodie Outfit
     Skirt: Springfield Collection
     Leggings: vintage (handmade!)
     Shoes: Maplelea Go With The Floe runners

Making Candy

Hey guys, Wrennie here!

My friend Kanani came over to play today and we decided to do something a little different. We went to the international market down the street and got some candy making kits! Today we're doing molded chocolates:

Here is the front of the box:

Of course everything is in another language so I have no idea what any of it says but I'm pretty sure the company is called Meiji? I really like the pictures on the box!

Here is everything in the box:

There is a mold, three kinds of chocolate (strawberry, vanilla and chocolate), a stick and candy sprinkles!

The mold is pretty neat:

There is a heart, a strawberry and then lots of cones. They all look like volcanoes to me. Can anyone read what they say?

And did I mention the candy sprinkles?

Mmmmmmmmmmm

Like I said up there everything on the box is in another language!

That includes the instructions. But that's okay there are lots of helpful pictures and how hard can it be?

I want to make that strawberry. And it looks like the stick is for stirring in the candy!

I didn't realize it at first but the chocolate was pretty solid. And that wasn't going to work. So Kanani said we should put them in some hot water:

 Pretty soon the chocolate was soft enough to squeeze out and we got to work:

We layered the different flavors and added sprinkles and then it was time to let them chill! We covered the mold with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge.

And then we had to wait........

We were a little impatient and we couldn't go outside (it's SO muddy!) so we decided to play some Sims to pass the time:

Finally our chocolates were hard enough to take out of the mold:

 Aren't they SO cute!?

My favorite is the strawberry:

While Kanani loved the heart! She did a really good job on it.

Here is a close up of some of them:

You can see the one I kind of messed up there. I didn't get the candy stirred in right but man it was still yummy!

We had a blast!

And they were pretty good! The strawberry flavor was Kanani's favorite. It was pretty tasty and it smelled really good but I liked the chocolate with the candy the best.....and the vanilla with the candy.....and the strawberry with the candy....I think I just really like that candy!  This was also really easy.

And that's about it for today! 

I hope you guys enjoyed reading about our first adventures in candy making. I bought a few more kits so if anyone would like to see more things like this let me know. It sure was another fun activity to do when you're stuck inside!

Wrennie

Clothes
Wrennie: 
       Outfit: Our Generation Hip To Be Square
       Shoes: Our Generation

Kanani:
       Outfit: AG Sweet Spring Dress

Callie's second ever quilt block!

Hi everybody! Callie here. I hope everybody's having a good week!

So the last time I posted I made this super crazy bright red and green nine patch quilt block for one of my two blocks for this month. Here's my second one! The downside of having my second one done already is that I have to wait a whole month before I get new ones to make, but then I guess I'll post about some other stuff I'm doing!

Our second quilt block is called a Pennsylvania, which made me happy. My grandparents were married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and it made me feel kind of close to them to make this block! They weren't born there or anything and they didn't live there either, but it's still an important city because actually... well, I'm not sure how much family history I should go into but my grandma ran away from home to marry my grandpa there. Anyway!

This one looks kind of like a nine patch only the outside corners are a little more complicated. We had to make these teeny tiny strips for them and then sew them together!

sorry about the towel lol

This one actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. I guess I figured it'd be about the same time as a nine patch? But it wasn't! It took longer than that! Not that I am really complaining.

I couldn't find much on the history of this block which was sad. I don't know why it's called a Pennsylvania block either. I can't find anything that has said it has an origin in Pennsylvania or anything like that. I guess it's just a name!

We did get the blocks together and mom said "oh! It's an Irish chain!" So I ran to figure out what that was. It turns out an Irish Chain is just a name for a pretty pattern that you can make with blocks like this one (or with a nine patch, or with something called a double nine patch that would just be tiny this small and super hard) in single, double, or triple, and it's probably not really from Ireland but from America. 

also we're watching Ghost Asylum!

So I didn't learn a lot this time around. Bummer! But it's still a pretty cool block, because it carries a name from a state with a city that's important in my family. I hope my grandmother and grandfather would like seeing it! 

Love,

Callie

Outfit:

Dress and hair clip: AG Shimmer and Lace Party Dress

Necklace: AG Grecian Princess Costume
Follow the quilt-a-long here!

Play Date in the Garden

Hey guys, Wrennie here.

Today I had a play date with some new friends!

Come on Batman! Let's go!

I was really excited but also a little nervous. So of course I wore my lucky shirt and brought Batman!

We went to this place called Oaklawn Garden.

Isn't the sign super cool?

This is the first thing we saw:

There are lots of buildings on the property. That building is kind of a museum though they just got rid of a lot of stuff. There's still an old fire engine in there though. The orange thing with the bars next to it was the old jail and then next to that is the house!

We decided to come back to all that later and instead walked a little bit till we found a rail car and a caboose.

Anne, Zia and Me!

I guess I should introduce everyone now! These are my new friends Anne (she's the one wearing red) and Zia! We decided to set up a table and have a little Easter snack. Yum!

After that Zia and I decided to read a little bit on the steps.

It was surprisingly comfy!

Anne decided to go exploring for a bit while we read!

 After a while I decided to go find her.

Luckily she was pretty easy to find in her pretty red skirt!

We found these really pretty old graves.

They probably belong to the people who lived here and built the house but they were really hard to read so I'm not sure!

Zia wanted to read one more chapter in her book:

She's reading Anne of Green Gables!

While she did that I decided to go check out the caboose:

Hey guys! I'm waving to you!

Okay yeah, that was a little high up but still it was really neat to be up there!

There are about a billion trees!

  So of course I had to try a few out.

This one was my favorite. Check out that huge knot/hole! It collected some water so it was almost like a natural bird bath. Super cool!

After I got down Zia was ready to do some exploring too and we found this old sign:

It's kind of hard to read but it's from a school I think.

The first line says "County Board of Education"

Zia found an azalea bush:

But they're not blooming yet. We'll have to come back another time!

Did I mention there were lots of buildings?

 I found this one while I was climbing the trees, so I had to get a better look.

It had all sorts of cool signs and stuff in it:

 And I really liked the old door in the leaves!

Here was the old original power plant for the town:

You can still see the machinery and stuff.

It looked like it was going to rain soon so we quickly started heading back to the house. I wanted to check it out before we had to go!

On the way I found this teeny little door.

It's almost my size!

Finally here we are in front of the house! I don't know too much about it but I do know it's really old! Like it was built in 1854.

You can't go inside but you can go on the porch!

It's got lots of cool things. I really thought this door was neat:

It looks like is has wagon wheels or fans on it!

I got a picture of Anne peeking out behind the post:

She's really pretty :)

The porch also had all these cool lights:

I like them because they're all dusty and rusty :D

And then sadly it was time to go:

I got one more picture and then I had to say goodbye to my new buddies. But I had SO much fun! We're going to play together again sometime! Man what a good day. I hope everyone enjoys all the pictures!

Wrennie

Clothes
Wrennie: 
    Shirt: Batman shirt from The Beach Shack
    Pants: My Life As, Butterfly Tunic Set
    Shoes: Springfield Collection, Black and White Tennies

Anne: 
    Outfit: American Girl, Play Outfit

Zia:
    Outfit: American Girl, Samantha's Special Day Dress