{ Throw Back Thursday - Halloween 2014 }

My name is Harper and first, I have to apologize for the silly title to this post...especially since technically it's no longer "Thursday" at the dorm as we are on the east coast!  BUT, I figured it would still be okay since it's still Thursday on the west coast and in Australia and other parts of our big ole world, right?  Super, so glad you all agree!

So, yep, we have been super busy and not had even one extra moment to post about all the stuff that's been going down here at the dorm.  Some of the girls have been in after-school clubs like marching band, orchestra and chorus, practicing for their upcoming Christmas concerts.  Some of us have been busy after school with Edge Club and others, like me, with basket ball.  Boy, fall sure is an exciting and busy time of year!  AND, soon Christmas will be here and we are all super excited about that!

So now, back to my Throwback Thursday topic of Halloween though!  I know you guys are like, geez, Halloween?  Just go with me here, okay?  Now, lots of the girls were away Halloween weekend on a camping trip.  Since there were only four of us at the dorm with nothing to do on the Saturday after Halloween, we decided to throw ourselves a little party.  Hollie and I were the ones to get all the goodies together and decorate the kitchen.  We had loads of fun doing it too!   

We pulled out some of the decorations from last year and added a few more new things we made.  Hollie got to do most of the baking since our normal 'baker-chick', Cindy, was out of town.  :)  So, I got to add my own style to the decorations...I hung up the little paper bats from the ceiling and I really enjoyed throwing confetti all over the tabletop and floor.  Oh, making a mess and calling it a party is sweet! 

Hollie finished setting out the candies and cookies.  She really did do a great job at them.....they were all detailed and really added to the festivities. 

It was getting close to the time for Faith and Trey to arrive and Hollie was still flitting around the table getting everything "just so" when I saw Trey creep into the kitchen.  I knew by that mischievous look in his eyes that he was up to something.  All at once it occurred to me that Hollie had no idea he was standing right behind her.  Before I could utter a word, Trey took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his lungs like someone had just stabbed him in the butt with a knife.  It startled me so much too that I screamed back!

What happened next was one of the funniest things I have seen in a loooong time.....Hollie was so freaked out by Trey's blood-curdling scream that she jumped straight up and at the same time, did a complete 180 degree turn and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, she fell backwards into the table!  At this point I was laughing hysterically and thinking; Oh boy, Trey was soooo gonna get it now!

And just as soon as I had that thought passed through my brain, Hollie jumped at Trey, trying to lay hands on his neck!  In those few moments, Trey started backing up away from Hollie.  Oh, it was sooo dang funny.....I could tell he was genuinely afraid of Hollie!  What a hoot!

At that moment, I knew it was time to step in and save my buddy Trey.  If Hollie could, she'd finish the job and Trey is too good of a basketball buddy to loose him over a prank, so I ran over and squeezed myself in between the two of them.  "Okay, okay - let's all take a couple deep breathes!" I interjected.  

Hollie backed away and started her self-relaxation technique of  breathing "in through the nose, out through the mouth" to calm herself.  Poor thing, Trey totally scared her!  Apparently though, Coconut wasn't scared at all and decided to take advantage of the fact that Trey's Candy bucket had hit the floor.  She was trying desperately to snarf all the candy from Trey's bucket into her own. 

Just then, Faith arrived and saw exactly what that sneaky little Coconut was up to.  I told Trey to go and get some food.  Meanwhile, Faith and I saved Coconut from a guaranteed tummy ache by cleaning up all the spilled candies and putting them back in Trey's bucket.

As I was helping Faith, I could hear Hollie telling Trey about her Mummy Face English Muffin Pizzas.  Shew, thankfully, she had calmed down and wasn't trying to put a choke hold Trey!  That was a close call.

Faith and I returned Trey's bucket to him and told him to keep an eye on Coconut cause now that she'd gotten a whiff of the candy in his bucket, she'd for sure be stalking him and take an opportunity to steal a piece or two.

Faith made her way over to Hollie as they hadn't seen each other all week due to school work and stuff.  Hollie was telling her how she'd made Mummy Dogs out of Crescent Rolls and hot dogs with yellow mustard eyes. 

Since Faith and Hollie were catching up with each other's lives, Trey and I decided to go thorugh our stash from trick-or-treating the night before.  We did some trading of candies which was great as he and I don't like the same stuff so it works out super good to trade with each other.  Needless to say, Miss Coconut was hanging around to see if we left anything on the floor.  Not a chance!

As the afternoon came to a close, we all decided that the party was a great success and we'd have to do it again next year.  Hollie and Faith wanted a photo of themselves together since they are besties and they both had new costumes this year.    

Lastly, we all got together for a groupie photo - you know, like a selfie but not....a group instead - and even the canine's got in on it! 

  18 Inch Doll Outfits & 18 Inch Doll Accessories by:

Hollie, Faith & Harper's costumes by by American Girl®

Trey's Skeleton costume by dspencer6a0n~ eBay®

Mummy faced English Muffin Pizzas by Pippaloo ~ Etsy®

{ The Old Gray House ~ aka The Shell Shop 2014 }

Hello everybody!!  Christina has been nagging the crud-muffins out of me to get this post shared.....she wants to 'move on' to fun fall things, like carving pumpkins and costume parties!  She keeps leaving me little notes stuck here and there around the dorm that count down the days until Halloween.....goodness, that is SO Christina!  Soooo.....I am excited to finally be sharing about our visit to The Old Gray House a couple months ago.  We very much enjoy spending time with and talking with Ms. Mary Parr.  She and her husband own and run The Old Gray House.  Ms. Mary runs the gift shop inside and Mr. Dewey does all the gardening and handles the shells and cool rocks that he sells in the shacks outside.  They have been doing this together since 1988!  Dewey Parr is a grandson of the Gray family and he told us that the Gray family and their descendants have been living on Hatteras Island since the early 1600's!!  Wow!

Now, on with our visit.....as you more than likely read in the last post, we had to stop TWICE to let Christina have her photo taken with her head sticking thru those 'head in a hole' thingies.  I was really getting impatient with her but was really trying to have as much sisterly love as I could muster, even though I could have cared less about those silly painted boards.  So, I was super glad when she agreed to stop after the second one and go to The Old Gray House!  I could not wait!!!!  Here we are upon arrival!  I love this old boat they have out in front.....it's the perfect place for a photo-op!

We decided to go exploring out back before heading into the shop.  This year they added this really cool replica of the Cape Hatteras Light.  Goof-ball Christina suggested a game of "try and keep up with the light beam" which she convinced me to do with her.  It was fun except that I kept tripping on the shells cause my sandals kept falling off my feet!  Ugh!  I got so frustrated cause it let Christina win every single time!  Plus, those pointy things on the shells were totally poking the underside of my foot and it really hurt!  Christina didn't seem to notice my whining though.....she was too giddy, reveling in her multiple victories! 

After putting my sandals back on for what seemed like the 95th time, I looked up and Christina was gone...she literally vanished in a matter of seconds.  I called her name and there was no answer.....but trust me, I didn't get worried.  I figured she was up to something and muttered my thoughts out loud knowing full well she would hear them.  Within seconds, I heard her giggling and she jumped out from behind the lighthouse yelling; "Scared you, scared you......I bet you peed your pantaloons!!"  She didn't scare me of course and I didn't pee myself of course.....but I let her think she did cause that's was sisters do, right?  ;)  And then I had the delayed thought; pantaloons???  Okay now, THAT was totally random - even for my cray-cray sister, Christina!

Next I headed over to this really pretty bird bath.  As I got up close, I was mesmerized by the water.  I loved the way it was soooooo still that you could see yourself reflected in it perfectly.  It was so quiet and peaceful.......for thirty seconds that is, until I heard Christina yelling wildly; "Wheeee!!  Whoop, Whoop, Wheeeeeee!!!"

 I looked behind me and there she was, up in the trees swinging on these beautiful glass balls!  She totally freaked me out!  "Christina, honest-to-Pete, be careful!!!"  I should have known her reply would be that she was fine and that I should come and join her.  Yep, you guessed it, that was exactly what she said, word for word!  Boy, do I know my sister.  "No thanks, sissy!  I'm not crazy enough to get that high up in the air without some sort of safety harness!  Trust me girl, you got all the crazy genes in the family!"  I teased back.

Christina begged and begged me to join her but to no avail.  I mean it, seriously I did get ALL the rational, level-headed genes and there was no way I was climbing a tree and swinging from a glass ball!  Nope, not gonna happen!  She was so lost in her fun that she stayed up there forever.  Finally, I figured a way to get her down.....I challenged her to climb the gnarly old log I climbed last summer (you can see me here) and that got her down lickety-split!  :) 

Christina is much more nimble than I am and she scurried right up the log without even a huff or a puff!  She made it look so dang easy!  Sometimes I wish I was more like my little sis! 

The final stop had to be in front of the shack with all the buoys hanging around!  This is the second year in a row for me to have a photo standing in front of the buoys.  I love all the cool colors, shapes and textures!  Oh buoy, it was fun!  (Hee hee, did you get that????)

As we left to head into the shop and visit with Ms. Mary, I was surprised that Christina hadn't tried to scurry up the rope of buoys hanging right beside me!  You can be sure that I kept that thought completely to myself, lol!  She certainly didn't need me giving her any ideas as she has enough of her own!

So, in closing, if you ever drive down from Kitty Hawk or Nags Head to see the beautiful Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, right before you get to the entrance to the Light, be sure to look for the road on the left, opposite Conner's Grocery store.  You'll see a sign to the "Shell Shop"!  Be sure to stop by to say "hello" to Mary & Dewey Parr......you'll be thankful you did!

  18 Inch Doll Outfits & 18 Inch Doll Accessories by:

Christina's outfit is the Easy Breezy outfit 2013 by American Girl® Doll

Cindy's sundress & sandals are from GOTY Kailey's 'Meet' outfit, 2004 by American Girl®

Cindy's knit cover-up was purchased from a consignor who makes 18" doll clothes and sells them at The Old Gray House.          

{ Christina & Her Head-in-a-Hole Fun! }

Hi guys!  Your friend Christina here!  During our beach camping trip this summer, my sister Cindy and I were on our way to the Old Gray House in Buxton, NC (aka The Shell Shop) when I saw one of those "head-in-a-hole" standin thingies outside of the Frisco Sandwich Company.  "STOP!!!!" I yelled as loud as I could.  Poor Cindy screamed cause I scared her so bad, lol.  "Dang-it, Christina, you totally freaked me out! (pause) Oh goodness, I think I just wet my pants!" She gasped back at me.  I apologized and then jumped out of the car and ran up to the giant.....and I do mean GIANT pickle!  How cool is this!  I love, love, LOVE these things!

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I got back in the car and this time I sincerely apologized to Cindy.  My poor sister puts up with a lot from me.  By her silence, I could tell she was still sore with me.  But I know my sis, she'll be over it in a flash!  So, off to the shell shop we headed.  As we got into Buxton, we were good as gold and talking about what new things we might see at the shell shop this year.  We were so involved in our conversation that we missed our turn!  Whoopsie-daisy!  So, as we pulled into a parking lot to make a u-turn, I saw ANOTHER 'head in a hole' standin!

"WHOA" I yelled!  "STOP, STOP!"  I exclaimed.  "What now, Christina?" Cindy asked, rather exasperatedly.  I pointed out the over-sized "Fatty" sky rat standin and leaped out.  I knew I'd better be fast cause now I was really pushing Cindy's patience but I'm sorry, this was just too funny to skip!  Check out this Jabba-The-Hutt sized sky rat holding what was a triple scoop ice cream cone!  Hahahaha!  Boy, was I having fun as I climbed up the back and poked my head thru the hole!

I scrambled back down and into the car and immediately promised Cindy no more 'head in a hole' stops!  She was like; "Christina, you are totally cray-cray, girl!  You looked so silly with your little head peeking out that beastly bird's head!"  Whew, I was relieved that she was cool with it.  I mean, who doesn't like these things, right?  But, I agreed with her that we'd better get moving, cause I also wanted to get to the shell shop and go exploring!  Cindy said she is almost ready to share her post on that in the next few days!  You're gonna love it for sure!

Love to all you peeps from the most cray-cray girl at The Dorm!  ~Christina ♫

{ Besties at the Beach }

I was so excited to be able to go to the beach with my best friend, Faith.  We are always so busy at the dorm that we never really have time to just hang out.  Since we are both beach lovin' girls, we jumped at the opportunity to go on a camping trip to Outer Banks, NC.  It was certainly an eventful trip though!  No sooner than we arrived that we had to pack everything back up and leave as we were in the path of Hurricane Arthur.  We were able to return just 3 days later and caught this beautiful sunset.  The next day, we hung out at the campground and then off to the beach late that afternoon!  We wanted to catch low tide at 6:04 p.m. cause that is the best time to look for shells - our favorite thing to do at the beach. 

We both got matching pink buckets to hold any treasures we found.  (We must confess that we did copy Lanie-bug.  When she got this same bucket a few months ago, both Faith and I fell in love with it!  And, Lanie is such a sweetie that she was totally cool with us having the same buckets as she does.)  The sun was starting to get lower in the sky when we arrived and there was a nice breeze....tide was out when we arrived and the waves would crash and then flood over the sand revealing tons of shell pieces.  Honey came with us but ran off down the beach a ways all the while barking at every sea gull she saw.  Since we were the only ones on that part of the beach, we let Honey have some fun while Faith and I started hunting for treasures. 

After only 5 minuntes of looking, I spotted the top of a beautiful Lightning Whelk!  From past experience, I knew not to get too excited cause even though it might *look* whole, most of the time, the backs or the tips are broken.  "Oh please, please, pleeeeeze be whole!" I whispered.

As I picked it up, I was soooo excited to see that, yes, it was indeed whole!  There was a teeny bit missing on the outer lip but that didn't bother me.  And, the best thing about it was - it was empty!  Do you know what makes Lightning Whelks unique?  Unlike other univalves, the whorl is counter-clockwise.  Cool, uh?  I admit it, I am pretty much a shell geek.  I find them very beautiful and exceptionally interesting!

Here's a close-up of my special find!!  Isn't it beautiful???  Can you see the 'lightning' streaks that it gets it's name from?

As I was getting ready to put my special find in my bucket, I heard Faith squealing with excitement and so I gripped my shell tightly and walked carefully over to meet her.  I didn't want to break any other special shells by smooshing them under my feet but I was super excited to see what she found! 

As we got close to each other, I could see she was holding up a starfish!  Sweet!  Normally you don't find these up on the beach unless it is after a storm.  But, since I would definitely consider Hurricane Arthur a storm and a big one at that (ha ha), it made total sense that Faith found one!  "Let me see!" I called out.  She held it up and it was so cute!  I excitedly held up my find and it was funny.....we felt like we were both back in 2nd grade having show and tell!

Faith suggested we play with the beach ball before it got too late and I agreed that would be super fun!  So, we set our buckets up higher on the beach so the waves wouldn't topple them and then grabbed the beach ball.  Now, since there was a slight breeze blowing towards Faith, the ball would get caught up in the wind and get extra high before falling towards her.  This sort of frustrated her since it never actually came down when or where she expected it too!  I did giggle.....the ball definitely seemed to have a mind of it's own and Faith kept missing it over and over and over!  We had a good laugh about it!!  

Oh boy, when she did catch it, she'd do this quirky little victory dance that made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes!  Oh.My.Gosh.  I wish you could have seen it!  It was a riot!

I congratulated her on the catch but told her she should probably not do that dance when there were other people around, hee hee.  Truthfully, her dancing is really just a series of random bodily movements that have no coordination!  Thankfully, we were pretty much the only ones on the beach so her dancing abilities - or lack of - were totally safe with me cause she's my bestie. ♥

We tried a few more times but the breeze really made it hard to keep playing so I suggested we sit and watch the waves for a bit before doing some more shelling.  There was a HUGE, long log that was perfect for leaning on.....in actuality it was a telephone pole that Hurricane Arthur had deposited on the beach!  We stood there with our feet in the soft, warm sand.  We even saw a pod of dolphins swim by.  Everything was perfect and we were happy just to be quiet and take all of the beauty of our heavenly Father's creation.  It was truly an amazing moment.

As I stood there in that moment, it just confirmed to me again that late evening is my absolute favorite time on the beach.  Normally, the heat of the day has passed and the sun is dropping which casts an amazing warm glow on everything - even the white foam of the breaking waves has a warm glow on it!

We did a little more shelling before deciding to sit down around sunset and show each other our finds.  By this time, Honey had decided she needed a rest and came back to join us.  I swear she seemed to want to see Faith's treasures too because she kept sticking her long snout in the bucket!  Both Faith and I found a couple Lightning Whelks but neither of us found a Knobbed Whelk which normally is more common.  We both found some beautiful calico scallops and a few coquinas too!  Faith found a perfect sand dollar, a huge Cockle AND to top it all off, a small nugget of bright green sea glass.....she was such a lucky ducky!  I also found a couple Baby's Ears and a couple Buttercup Lucine's that had faded to total white.  I'd say we did pretty darned good!  We were both very, very happy with the additions to our shell collections.

Before the sun totally went down, I wanted to get a photo of Faith and Honey for my scrapbook.  Faith held up her most special find - her green chunk of sea glass.  I love Faith so much.....she is so much more than my best friend, she is like a sister to me.....I know we'll be besties for life!

The sun was dropping behind the dunes and we didn't want to miss it.  We stood and watched as it got lower and lower and finally, it dropped below the dunes altogether.  What a wonderful afternoon we had and the amazing sunset was the perfect ending to it.  

As we packed up to leave, we were excited to get back to the campground and see what Cindy and Christina did today.....they both were planning on visiting the Old Gray House (aka The Shell Shop) in Buxton this afternoon.  They go there every year together.  Faith and I hope to be able to stop and visit before we leave too.

  18 Inch Doll Outfits & 18 Inch Doll Accessories by:

Hollie's adorable swimsuit by Clarisses Closet ~ Etsy®

Faith's Tankini & Sarong Set 2012 by American Girl®

Pink buckets and beach ball by Lovvbugg ~ eBay®

{ Independence Picnic ~ 2014 }

Hello! I'm Mia and this will be my first ever post!  And, even though my post is almost two months late, I still wanted to share it here on the blog!  Back in the beginning of July, some of us girls at the dorm decided we wanted to have an Independence Day picnic.  We all set about planning the menu; star-shaped sandwiches, fresh veggies, cheese cubes, cupcakes, cookies, ice cream and bomb pops!  We set the date and texted a couple of our friends with the info.  We were all so excited when the day arrived!

Trey had invited his best friend Alden and he was the first to arrive.....Trey says he always on time.....something about a saying he has; "If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late.  If you're late, you're left behind!".  Yikes, I'd always be left behind according to Alden!  He's a really nice guy though and we had lots of time to chat before everyone else arrived.

I had not noticed that my tub of cherry tomatoes had tipped over cause I was totally into what Alden was saying.....this was not a good thing cause even though I hadn't noticed it, Honey most certainly had!  By the time I heard his snarfing noises, 6 or 7 of my yummy tomatoes were gone!  I didn't know that Honey liked veggies as much as I did! 

 

Not long after honey had his little appetizer, Trey, Christina and Faith arrived!  O.M.Gosh, they looked super cute!  I loved their outfits.  They both told me that they had bought a new outfits for today.  They both have really good fashion sense.  I'd take their hand-me-downs any day of the week!

 

Even Trey dressed for the occasion but then, he's kinda fussy about what he wears.  Most boys aren't but he always looks so swag.

 

We all gathered around the table.  "Oh Mia, you did such an awesome job of getting everything set up!" Faith exclaimed.  "It looks soooo yummy, too!"  I was really happy to hear Faith's compliment cause I had worked really hard to get it all on the table.  They guys sat right down and started to eat.....no shock there, right?  

I told Christina about Honey's little snack prior to them getting there and she decided to try and distract Honey while we started eating.  She was showing him a pine cone she found over under the trees and for now, he seemed content.  However, it seems that Meatloaf took over where Honey left off......he was trying to be really stealth in sniffing at my tomatoes too!  Little toot!  I'm glad that I made sure the lid was snapped down tight.  I wasn't loosing any more of my delicious tomatoes to these sneaky canines in the crowd!

Hollie arrived about 20 mins later and whispered to us girls that at the last minute, she invited her cousin, Charity.  She asked us to make her feel really welcome cause she is kinda shy.  "Well, of course we will, Hollie!" exclaimed Faith.  "You know how I love meeting new friends!  Tell us, what is she like?"  Hollie told us that Charity has an identical twin sister named Patience.  Charity is the quiet one of the two sisters.  But even though she is quiet, she is a very caring girl that loves to do volunteer work with her sister and the other kids from their school.  They both go to a small Christian School and are in 7th grade.  Charity has a little dog named Sugar that she takes everywhere with her.  A dog?  Another dog?!?!  Oh boy, I immediately thought of my poor tomatoes.....at this point, I was convinced that ALL dogs craved cherry tomatoes!  PLUS, Hollie had brought her 'small but mighty' Boo, who was now running around and barking with Honey and Meatloaf.  Yep, my tomatoes were surely doomed.

Pretty soon Charity arrived and Hollie ran to meet her.  "Hey everybody!  Come meet my cousin, Charity!"  Boy, I was struck by her gorgeous hair!  I love my red hair but hers was even more red than mine and it had beautiful long, soft curls.  Ohhh, she was sooo pretty!  And to think that there are TWO of them!  Her dog really was little.....it fit in a tote she was carrying over her shoulder.  It was so cute with it's little head sticking out of the tote. 

Hollie introduced all of us to Charity and it didn't take long before we were all having the best time talking about school, friends, family and yes, we did talk a little bit about boys.....but not too much, I promise!  The day came to an end way too fast and we promised to face time each other often since not all of us have texting.  By the time I packed up the left-overs, there wasn't much left.  BUT, I am proud to say that, YES, my tomatoes survived the furry guests and were only enjoyed but us humans, lol!   

Even though it was a while ago, did you have a picnic for Independence Day?  Or, did you do something completely different?  What kind of foods did you enjoy?  Did your furry friends try to eat your food? Hahaha! ~Mia ☮

18 Inch Doll Outfits & 18 Inch Doll Accessories by:

Hollie's & Mia's outfits by GillyGals ~ Etsy®

Faith's & Christina's outfits by JanieJumps ~ Etsy®

Charity's dress & tote set by EverythingNice4Dolls ~ Etsy®

Trey's & Alden's outfits by Minipparel ~ Etsy®