Oh dear.

Hi! This is Josefina.

Happy Labor Day! I've never actually heard anyone wish someone a happy Labor day, but, whatever.

Yesterday, my mom took her annual "Back to School Picture" of Kaya and me.
I included it in this post, just because I could. Sorry it looks so grainy, I don't know why all of the pictures that have been put on here lately look that way. They aren't actually all that grainy, but somehow they get messed up in the transition to blogger. I tried to fix this one in Picnik, but it made it worse.

Anyway, Mom wouldn't let us have all of our pets in the picture, because of how many we have.
Also, Coconut likes to chase my lizards, so it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.
Sombrita and Coconut were the only ones allowed to have their picture taken. They did pretty well together, except for when Sombrita tried to eat Coconut's ribbon.

Well, that evening, Mom was putting the picture on the refrigerator by the other ones, when she noticed something.
"Josefina," she asked. "What do you plan to do with Sombrita when school starts?"

I stopped sorting my pencils for a moment to think about that. It hadn't even crossed my mind before.

Sombrita isn't really the kind of pet that you can leave somewhere. All of the other pets I've ever owned haven't required much supervision. I mean, you don't have to worry much about fish, lizards, or turtles when you're at school. But Sombrita is a different story.

I had thought that she was getting better about not devouring everything in sight, but I guess I was wrong, because about a week ago she relapsed into her old habits.

I would like to think that she would be okay by herself at home... let me rephrase that. I would like to think that our home would be okay if she were left by herself.

I've been thinking about it all night, and I still don't know what to do about her. Mom is gone in the mornings, and so is Dad, so she really can't stay home.

Maybe I can take her to school with me??

Josefina

I'm home!!

Hiya! This is Kit, posting from her home computer!
Well, yesterday morning was the last little bit of time I had at my grandma's house. We had a nice breakfast, and by nine o'clock, I was headed to the local train station. It made me sad to say goodbye, especially since I knew that I probably wouldn't see my Grandma, or any of my new friends, until next summer. I guess it gives me something to look forward to.
As my train pulled out of the station, I waved back to them until I couldn't see them anymore. Then I settled down for the long ride ahead of me. It took a couple of hours, but by early afternoon I had arrived at my destination. My family was waiting there for me. After we got all of my stuff together, we went to one of my favorite restaurants for a late lunch.
All in all, I had a very pleasant day.

I'm glad to be home.

In other news, there is going to be an orientation thing at the school tomorrow. Sigh. I'm just glad that real school doesn't start till next week sometime.

Kit

Hello from the "new" library

Hello! This is Kit.
For about the past month, I've been visiting my grandmother, who lives way out in the country. I would have posted about it, but the only place that has a computer around here is the "new" library. (It's not really new, but it definitely seems that way when compared with the "old" library.)
I only heard that there was a computer here at all about yesterday, so that explains my absence. I don't know what the other girls have been up to; maybe they were all just to lazy to post.
I've had a very good time here, actually. I always do, but this time has been especially fun.
I met a nice girl here named Anna. She looks a lot like my friend Dakota, actually. Anyway, apparently Anna visits her grandmother here about every year too. I had always thought that she lived here, because I usually see her  around sometimes, like at Sunday school.
She thought that I lived here as well. Strange coincidence, huh?

We've been having a lot of fun together. There's not a whole lot to do here that would really be of any interest, but we've done a lot of playing outside. I've gotten a lot better at climbing trees this summer. :D

I have a lot more that I could say, but right now Grandma is motioning to me to finish up soon so I had better wrap this up.

I'm sad that summer is almost over. I have to be back home by next Monday, because school is going to start soon. Such is life, I suppose...

I wish that I had some pictures to put in this post, but, unfortunately, I didn't bring a camera here with me. Hopefully by the next time one of us posts, we'll have something more interesting to post about than why we were gone for nearly a month. :P

Kit

Jenna's Thoughts

Hello! This is Jenna.
I could spend a long time talking about camp, but you probably already know enough about it from Kit's letters, which sum up the experience very nicely.
Not a whole lot has happened since then, except for that I went to an amusement park with Dakota a few days ago. It was fun, but there wasn't much about it that would be interesting for me to write, or for you to read.
So, aside from those things, the only thing that has really happened to me is that I entered the fourth round of The Doll Wardrobe's photo contest. I'm #7, and Mimi's friend is #18. If you would vote for us, it would be greatly appreciated. :)
Here is a link to the page with the photos: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2011/08/activity-four-photos-voting-starts.html

Well, if you do vote for us, thank you! And if you don't, then that's okay too. :)
By now you're probably wondering why exactly I called this post "Jenna's thoughts" when there isn't a whole lot of actual thinking going on here. I'm kind of wondering that myself.

Bye!
Jenna

Rushing River 2011, Letter 5!

Dear Mimi!
It finally stopped raining, for good mostly! We have had several beautiful days that we have spent hiking, canoeing, bike-riding, and swimming. We've also had several camp fires, complete with marshmallow roasting. (I don't know where the camp people found wood that was dry enough, but it worked out somehow.)
The camp instructor people decided to forgo the educational stuff, and let us just enjoy ourselves for our last days of camp. We still learned some stuff, but it wasn't a major part of our day or anything like that.
In short, the end of our time at camp has been a lot better than the beginning. :P
Well, by the time you're reading this, we will probably be back home, or at least on our way back.
Bye!
Kit

. . . . . . . . . .

And sure enough, they were all back before I had even managed to finish typing this post up! They're all very tired, but maybe one of them will post something soon.

Rushing River 2011, Letter 4!

Dear Mimi,
Camp has been much the same for the past few days. It has actually stopped raining a couple of times. Unfortunately, with this heat wave going on, a lot of water evaporates, leaving the whole camp filled with dense fog. When it's not raining, it's so muggy, and so hard to see, that we stay inside anyway. It's getting pretty tiresome, living in such small quarters with like, everyone I know. As Samantha said about the cabin, "It's pretty 'squeezy'."
All I have to say about this is that I'm glad our cabin is pretty close to the mess hall. Otherwise, you could bet your bologna that I'd skip a few meals.

Kit

Rushing River 2011, Letter 3

Dear Mimi,

It has rained... and rained... and RAINED ever since the 13th. It has gone beyond the point of being funny.
We haven't actually been able to do any camping stuff ever since it started raining.
A couple groups of campers gave up and went home a couple of days ago, although the camp did promise to let us make up for all of the days of camp that we missed. I guess that they didn't feel that it was worth it.
Our group might have decided to come home too, if it wasn't for Mrs. Morgan, the lady that took us all here. She wanted to stick it out, so we have to too. Now we couldn't come home even if we wanted to, because the ground is soggy and it would be pretty dangerous to drive in. I can't even try to stand up on the outside ground without quickly sinking a couple of inches.
Thanks a lot, Mrs. Morgan.
I wonder why it always seems to rain when we come here. Oh well.

Kit
P.S. Everyone says hi, and they would have written to you too, but this is the only piece of paper we have in the cabin. (Yes, we are all now in the cabin. The tents were leaking.) All of the other paper is in the supply closet by the nurse's office.

Rushing River 2011, Letter 2!

I don't know why this didn't get here until today.... :P

Hello!                July 12, 2011
                                                              

Today we woke up to the crazed screeching of a bugle. This is just my opinion, but I don't think that they should let their bugle player drink coffee.
The sudden noise was quite a shock. In fact, it startled me so much that I fell out of bed. It was unpleasant, to say the least.
After I picked myself up from the floor, I looked out of our window into the blue, misty world beyond. Apparently the camp people had decided that we needed to wake up earlier than we had last year; it was only 6:15 in the morning.
The first thing we did was a nature hike. I have to admit, it was not especially fun. It was hot and muggy, and we hadn't had breakfast yet.
Breakfast was a bit of an ordeal. They served oatmeal, but they hadn't made enough of it, so a lot of people ended up eating at the concession stand.
The nature lecture was about chipmunks.
For the craft time, we made "track trackers", which are handy things that help you identify animal tracks.
Then we had recreation, where we played a few rounds of hide-and-seek.
For lunch we made sandwiches.
After lunch, it was the organized sport time, where they try to teach us how to do something. Today we learned about how to canoe. It was very basic stuff, but still valuable to know.
In free time we mostly ran around and goofed off, although we did try out the high ropes course. It was pretty laid back for the most part, except for when we met three strange girls. I was playing with Jenna and Libby, when the aforesaid three girls sauntered over. Another camper informed us that they were known as "Sneaky Pita", "Nervous Nellie", and "Average Jody".
They came over and challenged Libby to a race. Libby, being rather competitive, accepted the challenge, and they went ahead and raced. I'm not really sure who won, because in the final stretch of the race one of them tripped, and because they were running on a slight slope, they ended up rolling back to the finish line at about the same time.
I'm kind of hoping that we don't run into any of them again while we're here.
So, that's how today went. Not amazing, but not at all bad either.
I'm thinking that I might switch to only writing you every two days. Not that I don't like writing, but there are only a couple times a day when we have time to write letters, and they are few and far in between.
I'll send some more pictures next time I write a letter...
Bye!
Kit

Rushing River 2011, Day 1

Although they never mentioned it here on this blog, the dolls all decided to go to summer camp again this year. Like last year, Kit agreed to write me all about the interesting stuff they do at camp for my enjoyment, and for yours.
Just a few minutes ago, I received my first letter from her, which I have typed out below.

Hello!                                                                         July 11, 2011
Camp has been very fun so far!
The bus ride was much the same this year. I brought a book with me to read, but I didn't get to read much of it because a lot of people were singing songs to pass the time. After a while, I put my book away and sang with them. After all, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
After about three hours, all of us were pretty hoarse, but still enjoying ourselves, sort of. When we saw the entrance to Rushing Rivers, the singing was stopped, and a cheer filled the air. Then the bus driver, who was pretty tired of us, asked us (rather loudly) to please be quiet. We sat quietly after that.
After check-in and stuff, we had orientation. We were assigned cabins and teams at that point.
Unlike last year, I was put into an actual cabin, instead of a tent. It was a pleasant change.
I am in Cabin 1. Because it is the largest of all of the cabins, more people are put in there.
I was pleased to find out that Molly, Kirsten, Samantha, Kaya, and Rilla will all be staying in Cabin 1 as well.
Cabin 1 is quite spacious, which I was glad of. The tent I stayed in last year was a bit.... petite.
My only real complaint is that it is very hard to get into my bed, which is the top bunk on the right. It's low enough that it doesn't "need" a ladder. You can see from the pictures I sent that a ladder would be helpful.
I guess I still am luckier than Kaya, who is also on a top bunk. Her bed is a lot higher up and narrower than mine is!
For the rest of the afternoon, we mostly unpacked, and got ourselves acquainted with some of the other campers from our teams. We just finished an early dinner that was mostly made up of chili. I suppose that we will probably play some games later.
Well, I have to stop writing now, because one of the camp counselors is now picking up letters to be mailed.
Bye for now!
Kit

*Untitled post that secretly sort of has a title*

Hello! This is Jenna. (I couldn't think of an actual title for this post, because it's sort of here and there.)
First off, Happy 4th of July! I know it's a day late, but, I was busy yesterday!!
As you probably know, a couple of Saturdays ago, I had the photo shoot. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, look here.
Well, in short, it went very well! I had a lot of fun. I was very pleased with how the pictures turned out, so (after obtaining permission) I asked Mimi to enter a selection of my photos into a photo contest! That's what the picture on the side is. It's pretty much identical to what we entered, just sized differently and stuff.
Now to the point of this story. Would you mind voting for my picture? It's #37. While you're at it, if you could vote for #33 as well, that would be great. It is not our picture, but it is a picture by one of our close friends. To vote, all you have to do is send an email to nora.demington@gmail.com and specify which photo(s) you would like to vote for. You have to get your vote in before July 14th, I believe. 
Here is a link to the contest page: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2011/07/activity-three-entries-start-voting.html
Thank you!!


Jennifer