Winnie's World!

Halloween!

2011-11-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

Did everyone have a good Halloween? I did!! I went trick or treating dressed as a pumpkin (mom made my outfit with felt!), and got a lot of goodies.

When I got home I dumped out my candy haul to share with my new sister. Dezhi doesn't exactly seem to enjoy Halloween, she asked me why everyone wants to dress up as ugly, creepy things. (Is she calling ME ugly? Hope not!) Mum says I'm quite a cute little pumpkin. It was a fun night, my favourite candy- Gobstoppers- were given out at several houses!

Love, Winnie

I Have a Sister?!

2011-10-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

You will NEVER guess what happened to me today. When I arrived home from school there was a girl in my room. She waved and said in a funny accent, "Hello, Winnie!"

It turns out that this girl is my half-sister. Her name is Nadezhda and we have the same mum but different fathers. She has just MOVED HERE to live with us from Kazan, RUSSIA.

I am not at all sure about this...I rather like being a spoiled only child! Nadezhda is way too touchy-feely. She insisted on hugging me and kissing both my cheeks and I don't even know her!

She seems nice enough though, and it may be kind of fun having a sister. She is older than me by almost two years, and brought pretty clothes with her, maybe I will get to wear them! And now I understand mum's reason for giving me a Russian dictionary. How about that?! I'm sure I will have a lot more to say very very soon! Do we look anything alike?

Love, Winnie

Update on my fish!

2011-10-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

Do you remember my clown fish and angel fish I got for Christmas? I was looking at an old photo of them today and noticed how big they've gotten in the past year! Look at this! I named the clown fish Nemo and the angel fish Ruth, after a friend of mine back home in Wales.

January:

Today:

Aren't they pretty?

Love, Winnie

A Mysterious Gift...

2011-10-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today I was scouring the new American Girl Wishbook with Madalina and my mum interrupted us to give me a book.

It was one of her old books, a Russian dictionary. Now I know mum loves Russia and the language and has been there and everything, but what does that have to do with me? I speak Welsh and English fluently and learn Spanish AND Chinese at school. Why should I need to know any Russian?? Mum just winked and said the book, "might come in handy."

Anyone have any ideas? Love, Winnie

End of Summer Sleepover

2011-10-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now! Before everyone went back to school I had all twelve of my friends spend a week at the beach with me- What a blast it was!

We played tons of games, stayed up way too late, and even cooked for ourselves!

Trouble only arose once, when Nellie, Rebecca and Xiaofei decided to play with my paint spinner unsupervised...Here they are when the paint was still IN the spinner. The after picture is too chaotic to post!

Only one sad thing dampened the fesitivies- Xiaofei, my friend from music class, is moving! Her dad got a new job across the country and I will miss her a lot! She was half the reason I even went to music class (I'm not very good at guitar, let's be honest!) I'm not sure what I would do if any of my other friends moved away, especially my best friend, Madalina. Let's hope no one else leaves for a long time!

I hope you enjoyed my entry as always, love,

Winnie xx

Still keeping cool

2011-07-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Mum took me back to the beach almost every day for two weeks! I almost got sunburned...er, melted.

I love the water though! I have collected so many neat shells. I'll take them home and use one of my marine books to figure out what sort of creatures used to live inside! Here's a photo mom took to make a Wish You Were Here! postcard.

The outdoor shower of the beach house is another great way to stay cool!

I hope everyone's summer is being as good to them as mine! It's been so nice hearing from all of my friends here on blogspot!

Love, Winnie

Beach Babes!

2011-07-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

Well today I raced down the beach in my new bathing suit! I couldn't wait to play!

The water was great! It was really windy too so I didn't have to worry about getting too hot.

My friend from music class, Xiaofei, came with me for the day. She doesn't like to swim though.

Even though she wouldn't go in the water with me, we had a fun time playing beach ball!

Love, Winnie

My July 4th!

2011-07-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

Did everyone have a nice time celebrating Independence Day? I sure did! It was my first July holiday in America and it was a blast! We went to the beach and watched the fireworks being shot off the pier.

Maybe I just loved it because we stayed at the beach all afternoon, waiting for it to get dark. I love to wade on the shore looking for marine life! We saw little crabs and tiny fish, but that was about it. It was very crowded! Everyone wanted to see the fireworks. It was a great display.

Love, Winnie

Long Time, No See!

2011-07-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been forever! I apologise for that! I am a very tidy person most of the time, but somehow my desk became unorganised and I misplaced my password lists! It has been very trying to be without my Blog for so long! Thank goodness, this morning I was rummaging through my desk, and found my password! What a relief. What has everyone been up to?? I see that I have more followers now- I'm so touched!

So, what I have been up to: LOTS! I went on my very first plane ride! It was really exciting. Kirsten and Molly helped me pack for my trip- as you can see, it took strong Molly to get my suitcase shut. (I don't travel light!) But the trip was fun, I went to Cape Cod. It was too cold to swim, though, this was back in May.

Something more recent is that I am taking guitar lessons! I really like guitar even though it is so hard to play. I think I have been getting better. I made a new friend where I take lessons. Her name is Xiaofei and she is from Guilin, China. That's very far away! She likes to practice her violin...and her English! We did a performance together after the first two months of lessons. Afterwards, we had a sleepover.

Oh, last but not least! Wayyy back in January I got to visit ANOTHER aquarium! Check out the video here: Winnie at the Aquarium

And then I went to visit the USS Battleship North Carolina with Madalina. Here's the video for THAT: The Battleship

I promise to update more now that I've my password back. I think it is something I won't ever forget again!

Love, Winnie

Happy New Year from the Coast!

2011-01-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

I spent my new year on the east coast. It's a lot different from the coasts of Swansea, which are much colder and have lots of rocks and cliffs. Here the sand was so soft and the waters were calm and the temperature was almost 65! I even got my feet wet!

(Psst! Remember, you can click my pictures to see them bigger!)

Madalina is trying to teach me to play the guitar...I think it's too hard, but since she lent me hers to practice on, I brought it to the beach and spent part of my afternoon attempting to play it. Madalina is very good, I wish I knew how she got that way because I'm making NO progress.

At the end of the day there was a gorgeous sunset:

What did you do on New Year's Eve?

Christmas Reveals...

2010-12-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas day was awesome! All my friends and I discovered our stockings full of goodies from Santa. And later I unwrapped the best present ever:

Here it is- my very own aquarium! I am now the proud owner of a Clown fish and a Flamed Angelfish! I haven't named them yet. They're babies now but I will feed them and take very good care of them so that they grow. I have lots of books on fish so I will raise them very well!

Did everyone else have a good Christmas? I know at least two of my friends did! Felicity got a beautiful Gala Gown and Kirsten got a winter blouse and beautiful Swedish skirt. My best friend Madalina is Jewish so she got her gifts weeks ago at Hanukkah. She loves her new coat, hat, and Star of David necklace! What did YOU get this holiday season?

Super Squee!

2010-12-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

Today was the best day of my whole life! I got to go to an aquarium! Mum took me to Discovery Place where they have lots of neat exhibits with live animals. There was a Frog Forest, a Jungle, and last AND best, "World Alive," which was an assortment of aquariums! You can click my photos to make them bigger.

Here I am, leaping up and down in excitement!

Wow! The first World Alive tank was an example of a marsh pool. I was ecstatic to get so up close and personal with the fishies!

Next was a tank of Garden Eels. I have to admit they're a little creepy.

In the Jungle, I got to climb a rope bridge that looked down on the forest floor! I kinda like heights now!

Here's the Frog Forest, these two friendly guys looked quite cozy.

The grand finale- my most favourite animal in the world...sting rays!!! It was super to see them so close. This one swam up against the glass to tell me hello!

After all the excitement, we ended our day with a relaxing trip to the 3D movie theatre. We saw a documentary about sharks! All the marine life seemed to pop out at you as though you could reach out and touch it- sooo cool! They showed the whale shark at the end, which is my favourite shark.

Thanks for looking and sharing my day with me. So far this is the best Christmas ever!

Snow!

2010-12-15T13:25:00.000-08:00

We were surprised this week with a winter snowstorm! I was really happy at first because it reminded me of Swansea. I bundled up and went out to play in it.

I found snow not quite to my liking, though. It was even colder than I remembered! Brr! A lot of my friends love snow since they used to live in Finland, but I'm glad I didn't live there! I did go on a hike in the woods today, and it was really a beautiful winter wonderland! But soon I ran back inside and warmed up.

A Christmas Carol

2010-12-11T01:11:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, I made a poster for a lunch I'm hosting next Saturday to benefit a local children's home. When I went to hang it up on the bulletin board at our community center, I found out A Christmas Carol was playing at the local theatre that very night! I told Nellie about it and she bought us tickets! She is a great friend and always doing nice stuff like that. I've never been to a play before so I was really excited to go!

Both of us dressed in our holiday best. We got to sit on the second level in the box seating, I felt like royalty! We had a superb view and it was a really great performance. My favourite character was the Ghost of Christmas Present. He always seems so jovial and makes me laugh! Nellie and I both loved it and clapped long after the rest of the audience had died down. Nellie kept our tickets, I think she is going to put them in her scrapbook.

What fun holiday activities have you done with your friends so far?

Stuff I love

2010-12-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

I'm playing secret Santa with my friends and we had to write down things we like. So I decided to post it here, as well! These were the questions...

1. Favourite colour: Blue

2. Favourite hobby: Clothes shopping!

3. Favourite film: Finding Nemo

4. Favourite food: Cookies. And candy...doesn't matter what kind, though I do love Gobstoppers! I have an eternal sweet tooth.

5. Favourite animal: Any kind of skate or ray. Especially manta rays!

I want to be a marine biologist so that I can study them up close. I loooove sea life. Mum says when she was a kid she went to the San Francisco Aquarium and got to pet Bat rays! I want to go to the Georgia Aquarium and see the mantas there. I read about the first one to be introduced to America, in 2008!

I spend too much time on the internet, at least my mother thinks so! I love watching YouTube videos. My favourites are AG ones of course. But I watch a lot of ocean videos, too. THIS VIDEO has to be my favourite of all time! It's so calming, and I soo have to get to Japan one day and see this in person! Look at the whale sharks and those giant manta rays!!

P.S.- The Advent Calendar has started! View it HERE! I'm in the intro video, and a few others throughout the Advent. I think my friends really shine as the true stars, though. I'm not big on acting.

The Advent Calendar

2010-11-29T13:16:00.000-08:00

My friends and I are having a lot of fun acting for the AG Advent Calendar mum posts on YouTube every year! We have done a lot of rehearsing! Would you like to see? Here's a photo of Elizabeth and Lissie going shopping for gifts. You'll have to wait for the video to see what they're buying!

It's been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. We're almost done making the videos, now I'm anticipating how people on YouTube will like them! Of course I'm hoping they'll share the viewings with their dolls! Well, that's all for now, I'll be sure to post a link up when the Advent Calendar begins. Oh! We also took a Christmas photo of all of us. Aren't we a cheery group?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

My friends and I are home from school for the holidays! It was quite a complex affair getting everyone packed up to go home!

We had a great Turkey Day. Addy and I went on a hike around the lake. It's very pretty and surprisingly warm here. I'm so thankful for my friends and family...and to finally be able to enjoy a sunny day. At school in the mountains it is always raining! What did you do for Thanksgiving?

Fundraising Poster Fun!

2010-11-20T18:35:00.000-08:00

Today I helped mom make a fundraising poster for Worldvision. We're gonna collect change from neighbors and mum's classmates at university. Then we'll donate it to help impoverished people eat! I had fun colouring the poster to measure how much we've raised so far! We hung it up outside our door and I think it's very pretty.

My friends and I love to help the less fortunate...Felicity and Rebecca told me about freerice.com, where you can play cool trivia games and each correct answer donates rice! Check it out! Also, if you'd like to help mum and me raise money for Worldvision's Animal and Agriculture Fund, CLICK HERE!

My first post

2010-11-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hello, Winnie here! Mum said I should make this blog to meet new friends. What should I talk about? I know! This weekend I did one of my favourite things- went shopping! And where better to go than American Girl Place? Elizabeth and I had a great time in Atlanta.

I got a new Christmas dress and a camping outfit. I can't wait for the occasions to wear them! Well okay, I'll be honest...I already tried them on! How do I look in the Ruby and Ribbons dress?