Wellie Wishers!!

Surely you know that I'm uber obsessed with AG's incoming doll line for little girls. I've been gushing over them all day and borderline starting online fistfights with people intent on spoiling my fun.

Some are upset with the Bitty Twins' impending retirement, but let me ask: how many of you have bought BTs new for yourselves? Likely never, right? Cute though they may be, intentionally selling dolls only in sets is not good for business. Of the stories I've heard of parents buying from the BT line for their daughters, almost all of them get a single doll by asking in store. Keeping up awkwardly sized furniture, multiple sets of clothing, etc., is not cutting it for AG. Especially since the 5-7 year-old range, BT's intended age group, is seeing older sisters getting posable fashion dolls. Slightly older looking baby dolls aren't enough anymore.

And that's okay. Times change. The Hearts 4 Hearts Girls line from Target proved that tiny girls can be responsible enough for dolls that aren't babies or Barbies. With the dolls constantly flying off the shelves, it's a mystery as to why the line was discontinued.

But American Girl is, rightly, stepping into the opening left by H4H. By providing friends that look like them and are meant for them, they're not only capitalizing on one of the naggiest age groups, they're giving little girls respect they so crave. Baby dolls are good in their own way, but to feel as though they're being excluded from the "big girl" crowd hurts. And now they don't have to be. Now they can have dolls sized just right for them, dolls that dress like them and have similar interests.

And it's so nice to see doll lines that focus on little-girlhood. The primary American Girl lines are supposed to represent the same, but they've always been more interested in tween interests, in that desire to grow up as fast as possible. At least in their characters and products. Lea Clark, especially, that minor enemy of mine, with her plucked eyebrows and evenly tanned skin, Grace Thomas and her lipgloss, or Isabelle Palmer's love of hair dye and extensions--these are not little girl things. Whether I approve of that is a different blog post altogether, but it stands that being a little girl is not something celebrated, no matter what the slogans say.

The Wellie Wishers have pigtails and braids. Their faces are bright, enthusiastic, and unashamed in in that enthusiasm. Their adorably accurate outfits are wildly patterned in ice cream and smileys, and their individual rain boots are perfect for exploring. It's wonderful.

Some are spamming hate on American Girl's Instagram page for these dolls. "Why would you copy Hopscotch Hill School dolls when they failed last time?" they cry. (As though the little girl doll market wasn't the most booming it's been in ages!) Do not do this. If you hate the line, keep it to yourself. Negativity and rudeness is terrible no matter what, but there are children watching. They model and emulate to figure out the world and being awful about something that was meant for them, not the nasty people making a fuss, shows them a world that doesn't welcome them and teaches them to be the same to the next generation. For their sake, hold your tongues.

("Why are kids on Instagram???" Because many people allow their children to look at American Girl's page every day. Some allow their kids as young as 8 to have their own accounts to look at toys. It's not a safe practice, but it happens. Keep this in mind.)

Now that I'm off my soapbox, let's talk about fun stuff.

The Wellie girls align more-or-less to the first five original American Girl of Today dolls: #1 is black, #2 is a medium-skinned girl with bangs, #3 is a white blonde, #4 is East Asian, and #5 is a redhead, so I'll use those same numbers to keep track of the WWs.

Observations:
#2 seems to have freckles just under her eyes (a new type of freckles oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!!!)
#3 has a beauty mark under her left eye
I can't decide if they have the same mold or not. #4 looks like her eyes are longer, #1's mouth and nose seem wider, and I would swear #3's eyes are wider set while #2 has a more square face than the others. But maybe that's just the magic of good faceups.
Their medium and dark skin are both much darker than the main AG girls. A lot of people have been clamoring for this and the WWs look great for it.
Their limbs are very similar to AGs, but their fingers look longer?
They seem to have a bit of eyelash paint on their faces, so they likely don't have sleep eyes. I may be wrong, though! AG might exceed my expectations by pulling off their standards with extra, better features.

The WWs are just generally far more beautiful than the main AGs. They have adorable faceups where AGs are lucky if their lips are painted, the WWs' eyes aren't weirdly round (much more eye-shaped), their eyebrows are actual eyebrow-sized, and they all have eyelid folds (looking at you, Classic mold). That's pretty much my only apprehension about making the WWs little sisters to my AGs.

(Aside: wouldn't it be so cool if the WWs forced American Girl to step up its faceup game? These dolls are so plain, and I don't want them "made up," but I do want them to not look like blank-eyed... doll blanks. Think of how individual each doll would look if she came with one of so many different faceups! I'll keep dreaming.)

Hopes:
Books! With beautiful illustrations like the concept video! That feature all the girls being friends and exploring! Books!!
Lots of extra outfit sets (I desperately need polka dot overalls for them)
Accessory sets with nature and adventure themes (backpack, binoculars, magnifying glass, butterfly net, fake flowers, jars of ladybugs and fireflies, flashlight, maybe a book with animal footprints and types of birds?)
TEA PARTY SETS OH HOLY COW
Dolls and stuffed animals for them would be amazing
Tiny pets for them--proper bitty kittens and puppies and bunnies and birds
That many more little Wishers join the lineup as time goes on, with new molds and colors and textures.

I've been dying for a "little sister" line of dolls for years, and I'm so happy that wish is being fulfilled in such an adorable, sweet way. Long live Wellie Wishers!

Easter with my cousin

It's Claire! This post is a quick one about spending Easter with my cousin, Anne.

Hopefully you've read the tab with our bios, so you'll know that Anne is very... prissy. It's not a bad thing at all. It's just a bit awkward when I'd be happy living in a tree house and she's fit for a palace.

Actually, our relationship reminds me of Samantha Parkington and her grandmother's. Samantha was always trying to climb everything in sight (sound familiar?) while her Grand-mere wanted her to settle down and be a typical lady. I'm still in the convince-your-cousin-that-you-can-be-a-lady-and-play-outside step.

Here I am with my beautiful American Girl doll, Helena! She's the historical Nellie but I gave her a new name. It's kinda funny that I'd pick her when I'm so close to Samantha in personality, but I wanted a lookalike, too.

Here's my beautiful princess of a cousin, Anne! Doesn't she look even more like Nellie? 

We had just come from Easter service, so she was still in her Easter dress. Me, I didn't want to ruin my dress, so I changed in the car ride over to our grandparents' house.

The flowers were out in force and the sunshine felt so great on my skin after the seemingly endless winter.

 Doesn't my hair look pretty here? A lot of people are embarrassed about having red hair, but I love it. It makes me stand out and it's something I have in common with Jack and Anne and most of the rest of my cousins.

Don't let her know I said this, but Anne's a wee bit dramatic. Sure, I love laying in grass, but never to pose! I really don't know what she was thinking.

There's really nothing prettier than fresh flowers.

For all that I tease her, I really do love my cousin. She's my voice of reason at family get-togethers, at church, at school, at, well, you get the idea.

My adventure at the range!

It's Claire again! This time I'm going to tell you about the fun I had at a shooting range a few years back.

My parents like doing target practice and all that, but I'm more an archery girl (what I wouldn't give for a bow of my own!), so I was allowed to wander around in the awesome forest right next door.

I always have to do a "ta-da!" pose whenever I get somewhere new. Even though I have siblings, I haven't lived with them since I was a toddler, so I don't constantly have other kids picking on me for being silly. So I can be as silly as I want.

Here's the entrance to the forest. I guess there's someone's little cabin there if you go far enough. At least, that's what Mama told me. Maybe she just didn't want me going too far?

Izumi came with me to take pictures. She didn't want to be in front of the camera this time, but she let me have all the ones with me in them!

We found a deer print! Izumi is a city girl, so she wasn't then used to seeing signs of wild animals everywhere. 

Look at this great creek! It was way too cold to go wading in it, but I'd love to come back during the summer.

Could you imagine Anne's horror if she saw me sitting here? It looks really muddy, but it was mostly straw. I wonder where it came from?

I soooo wanted to climb across this tree branch. Izumi told me that it would probably break under my weight and that if I fell, I was on my own. 

So we found this thicker, safer log to climb on. I mostly just wanted to practice my balance, anyway.

I think Izumi was on a low branch to get this picture.

My best friend can take better portraits than some professionals!

This is kind of a gross one. We found the disembodied hand of some wild animal here. Both of us shrieked when we saw it, but then, of course, we needed proof for future generations.

Look at these rocks by the creek. Don't they look like stone books? Evangeline would have loved them.

This is me pouting about the freezing water. 

But I cheered up significantly when we saw some little fish! Or maybe tadpoles. I don't know.

Come on, what's a Claire Adventure without a little tree climbing?

One day I'll get Izumi to try climbing more than a foot off the ground. One day.

I hope I can come back here soon! It's been way too long. Maybe when the endless snow lets up.

My vacation to Monongahela National Forest!

Hey, everyone! This is my first post on this blog! Actually, it's the first post of any kind on the blog. It's kind of an honor.

Anyway, my name is Claire Fleming, and I'm going to tell you about the time I spent a few weeks of beautiful summer in the even more beautiful Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. 

Before we get started, you must understand that "Monongahela" is pronounced "mah-NON-gah-HAY-la", not "mon-non-GAY-lee-ah". If you say it the second way, any proper West Virginian will boot you from the state. I know this because my mom and little brother live there, and I've been lectured many times.

So anyway, in 2012 I got to go on vacation here with my dad and step-mom! I've been a few times before, but it had been a few years.

This is me on a pit stop. The gas station we stop at in Wheeling has the greatest frappes you will ever have in your life. And there's this huge hill that's super fun to climb up and roll down until your parents make you stop.

At the Blackwater Falls campground, there's a big, golden field through the woods, right next to Pendleton Lake. I spent probably most of my time here. It made me wish I had a big dog to play with in the sea of grass. Taffy's really cool, but she's really lacking in the tug-of-war department.

This place is so big and the grass is so tall that I could totally see a deer or a black bear wandering in and not even noticing me. I'm actually kinda disappointed it didn't happen.

I spent some time just laying around, feeling the grass tickling my face while I breathed in the purest earth scents... until bugs started crawling on me. If nature has one fault, it's probably bugs.

Once you go beyond the field, there's a great playground! It was dedicated to a kid who died, which is a real bummer, but I'm glad that something good could come from something bad.

If surfing is this easy, I'd like to try it for real! See that building behind me? That's the discovery center. Or is it the nature center? I don't remember, but it's full of cool bones and diagrams and stuff. You just can't take photos inside. 

You know me, though. A forest is nothing without some prime trees for climbing.

 Fun story about this trip! I got into the car barefoot, remembered I didn't have shoes, and I asked my dad to grab my shoes for me while he went back in for his wallet. For some reason, he grabbed my ballet flats instead of my boots, and I didn't notice until we were hundreds of miles from home.

So after a few days, we ceased bumming around the campground and took a day to go out to Dolly Sods! It's a beautiful mountain with acres of flamingly bright wilderness, not to mention the rocks! You'll see what I mean. This is where we had a picnic lunch halfway up the mountain.

This is the trash can at the picnic site. It looked like a bear had tried to get into it! This was the year I finally really understood why my parents were so strict about putting food--good or bad--away for the night.

Now we're getting to the fun part! The top of the mountain is strewn with these huge chunks of stone. They're everywhere. Dad said they probably got like this when the Earth was flooded.

Some of the bigger rocks make chasms that I could totally fall into. Dad made me hold his hand when we jumped from rock to rock. Mama said some of them reminded her of the ruined city in the Chronicles of Narnia, and how they spelled out "Under Me". I didn't really remember that part. I had to ask Evangeline when I got home. She's better at remembering fantasy stuff than I am.

Look at these super cute flowers we saw everywhere! I still have no idea what they could be. Maybe some kind of mountain rhododendron? 

Jeez. If I had so much as tripped, I'd have been gone. It's really harrowing. (I told Izumi I'd find a way to use that in this post!)

It's views like this that write books.

On our last day in WV, we went for a peaceful drive around Germany Valley. It's got all these rolling hills and farms and cabins. I'd love to live here one day.

And look! Lilies! This place has everything!

That's surprisingly all the pictures I have for now! I'm sure if Miss Izumi had come with me, there would be thousands more.

I hope when we go again this year I can visit all my favorite places that we missed then!