Valentine Crafts with Inky

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

This weekend, Inky and I got out her craft supplies and set them up on her dining room table. We were making valentines for our friends!

I made pink valentines, of course! I used stickers with kitties saying "You're the Cat's Meow!" and stickers with honeybees saying "Bee Mine!" I think they look beautiful.

To help keep our energy up, Inky's Mom made us a plate of sugar cookies with pink frosting and sprinkles. Not only were they delicious, but they were the perfect cookies to eat while making valentines.

Inky and I dressed in our best Valentine outfits. I wore my valentine skirt and my special pink and red argyle tights. Inky wore her new narwhal tee. The dinner room looked perfectly lovely with all the heart garlands that Inky and I had made.

Before long, we had made enough valentines to send to our friends all over the country. (Of course we made some for our families too!)

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Make sure to give your family lots of hugs and your friends lots of high-fives!

National Zoo & Washington Monument

Remember how Inky and I went to Washington, DC to see the Mariinsky Ballet with Inky's aunt? We actually got to stay for the entire weekend. While we were there I got to fulfill one of my goals for the year- I wanted to see a real, live Giant Panda! Inky and I had the chance to visit the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park- aka, the National Zoo.



We started out at the Panda Pavilion, where there is a big gift shop full of panda-themed items. There is a big panda statue outside, so we had to climb on it for a photo.



Then, we went to the Asia Trail- the section of the zoo where the pandas live. There is a big building with different exhibit spaces for both kinds of pandas- Giant Pandas (my favorite!) and Red Pandas (Inky's favorite!). We saw two big adult pandas eating bamboo. There were some little exhibits for kids to look at. In this photo, Inky and I are playing in one of the crates the zookeepers use to keep the pandas active and busy.



In the outside exhibit area, the red pandas were exploring their exhibit. Just like Giant Pandas, the Red Panda's main food is bamboo. Inky told me she loves to eat bamboo shoots in stir fry; we promised we'd ask her parents to make some for us.



There is a cute statue in the Asia Trail of two little red pandas, so Inky and I had to have our photo taken there too. Inky kept saying she wished she had a magic cupboard like the book Indian in the Cupboard, so that she could make the big panda statue come alive! I thought that might be a little scary, but a baby red panda would be pretty cute.



After we visited the pandas, we walked around the rest of the zoo. Most of the animals were inside, because it was very cold. Luckily, we found the Small Mammal House. There was a big statue of an aardvark outside. We had to take a photo to send our parents. The National Zoo really has a lot of animal statues!



As we left the zoo, we walked past the cheetah exhibit. Don't they look a tiny bit scary in their den? I bet they were cold- none of the other African animals were outside that day.



We stopped by the gift shop on the way out. Inky and I decided to buy each other a present- but we're going to keep them hidden until Valentine's Day, when we'll surprise each other with our presents.

After that, we rode the DC Metro to the National Mall. It was really cool! So far, I've only been on subways in New York City and Washington, but Inky said I was a pro. I figured out our route all by myself!



There's a ranger station near the Washington Monument; we went there to turn in our Junior Ranger workbooks. The Junior Ranger program is a little bit like Girl Scouts. Kids can do a little workbook about a National Park and then earn a badge. Inky and her friend Violet have about twenty badges each, but this was my first one. I was proud to earn it in our nation's capitol. When the ranger swore us in as official Junior Rangers, I knew I would keep my promise to protect our nation's treasures.



After we got our badges, we had to go to Union Station so we could catch the train back up to New York City, where Inky lives. Before we left, Inky snapped this photo of me in front of the Washington Monument. We had a great trip! I hope I'll be back someday!

A Night at the Ballet

For the past two weeks, I have been visiting my friend Inky in New York City. This weekend, Inky and I took a special trip. We had tickets to see the famous Mariinsky Ballet, who had come all the way from Russia to perform at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

We packed our fanciest dresses and rode the Amtrak down to Union Station in Washington. It was my first time in the capitol of the United States! Inky had been before, but I was so excited to see all the different monuments and buildings as we drove through the city.

After we changed into our best dresses (from Melody Valerie Couture!), we left for The Kennedy Center. We had dinner in the Kennedy Center Café. It was delicious! I had Caesar salad and portabella mushroom ravioli with artichoke hearts.

After dinner, we sat down in our seats. We sat in the orchestra section, which means we were on the bottom section of the theatre. When the conductor walked in, everyone clapped and clapped. We listened quietly to the overture and waited for the curtain to rise.

When it did, I was thrilled! We were seeing a ballet called Chopiniana, which is also called Les Sylphides. It was beautiful. All the ballerinas wore long white tutus and there was one handsome gentleman dancing with them.



During the intermission, we had lemonade and cookies in the Members' Lounge. After that, there were two more ballets, Firebird, and Scheherazade. They were both very exciting, but I loved the first ballet the most.

On our way out of the theatre, we stopped to have our photo taken in the lobby. The big beautiful chandeliers gleamed above us. It was a magical night. I will always remember my first time seeing a world-famous ballet company. I'm glad Inky was there to watch it with me.

Have you ever gone out for a special evening? What did you wear?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!



Do you have any goals for 2012? My resolutions are to keep my room clean and to blog more!

I've been so busy over this Christmas break that I haven't had time to tell you about my Christmas! I got lots of great presents, I can't believe how lucky I am!

Christmas morning I ran down the stairs as fast as I could. I have a hard time sleeping in, but my mom makes me stay in bed until 8 AM.



There was a huge pile of presents for me under the tree!



I love wrapped presents. It's such a wonderful feeling when you're about to be surprised!!!!



Check out this cool book! Lots of great ideas for slumber parties. My mom says that this year I can finally start to have sleepovers!



I also got this fun game, it will be great for late night partying!



Next up were new roller blades!!! I'm so excited to go out and try them. Aren't they so cute?



My friend Inky sent over some presents from New York. I knew about one of them, but then my mom surprised me another package from Inky. It came a few weeks ago and she decided to hide it and save it for Christmas.



Look at these comfy moccasins. Inky always knows exactly what I'll like.





Oh wow!!!



These hedgehog babies match the hedgehog family I have in my room!!! Soooo cool, thank you Inky!!

Then there was only one present left..



Wait...! It can't be, can it??



This is Cécile's holiday dress! I told my mom I wanted Cécile for Christmas, but she said that I already have 2 American Girl dolls and that Santa probably couldn't bring me a third.

But then I spied a big box behind the tree, I hadn't noticed it before.

Looks about the right size..I am sooo excited.



Holy cow! IT IS!!



Isn't she beautiful?



I can't believe I got so many cool presents! I am so lucky.



Then I had to go get dressed for our big family Christmas dinner. I got Cécile dressed, too. :-)

Merry Christmas!!!



and...Happy New Year, again!!

Here is a behind the scenes picture from my New Years shoot, I wanted you to see my cool sparkly butterfly clip!



Can't wait to see what 2012 is like!

Paper Snowflakes!!

Here it is, the middle of December, and we have no real snow on the ground yet! So I decided it was time to take care of that problem myself. I have made two new friends at my new school, so I invited them over and we made beautiful paper snowflakes together!



This is Kennedy, on the left, and on right is Jayda. I was nervous to start at a new school after we moved, but I shouldn't have been. Kennedy and Jayda are so much fun, I'm glad I met them.

Do you have any snow at your house yet? What fun things are you doing to decorate for the holidays?

Hooooooppy Hooooolloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!! I hope you've had an amazing day filled with lots of tricks and treats! It was the most beautiful day here today, blue skies and not too cold. Perfect for Halloween - I didn't need a coat this year.

I did something a little different with my pumpkin this year, doesn't he look crazy??



And this year for Halloween I decided to be one of my favorite animals - an owl! I worked so hard on this costume, and I love it.



What were you this year for Halloween? Did you get treats, or give tricks?

Shopping with Suzie!

Fall means Back-to-School, and Back-to-School means time to shop! My friend Suzie and I went shopping for some fall necessities at our favorite shop, Georgell.

Suzie is the best shopping buddy because she has such unique taste - she is so fashion forward and she helps me be brave enough to try new things!



One of the most important necessities in anyone's closet is underwear. Shopping for undies can be a little uncomfortable sometimes, but you've got to do it!





Wearing clean undies is something you should always do, but I think something else we should all do is wear CUTE undies! Even though no one else knows, it makes a day that much more special.



One of my favorite things to shop for is SHOES!!! It's so fun to try all the different kinds on.



These boots are so Suzie. Doesn't she have amazing style?


Glad she was there to give me advice as I shopped!





But the very best part of shopping is enjoying a cupcake on the restaurant patio after it's all done. Suzie and I felt so grown up sitting out there!



Do you like to go shopping? What is your favorite thing to shop for?