Disney Dolls for Halloween!

  The dolls decided to dress up as Disney characters for Halloween this year. I had so much fun dressing them up and listening and singing along to all my favorite Disney songs! Some of the dolls are entering the AG Playthings photo contest, and they want your help as to who should be entered in the side by side character resemblance costume. So here they are with my comments:

Ever since I got this costume, Ruthie has always been Snow White. 

 I included all the Cinderellas here cause I think Isabelle resembles both dresses in one way or another. (plus, Cinderella is my favorite Disney princess!)

Alison as Sleeping Beauty.

The original Disney Princesses.

Maggie as Ariel…..her fins go aaaall the way up!

I couldn’t make a decision whether Alissa or Sophie should be Belle, and they both wanted to be Belle so badly, I said we can have two Belles and I included both! This is a close up of Alissa, and later in the princess lineup, you’ll see Sophie in her dress. 

Can you believe Aladdin is ‘borrowing’ Ruthie’s play outfit trousers from 1934? And the vest is from the 1999 Hippie outfit! Josefina makes a perfect Aladdin. Rose is wearing the magic attic genie outfit. Too bad it’s not turquois. 

Here is the princess line up with Sophie in it.

Kaya kept her meet outfit on to portray Pocahontas. 

I love these pairs! Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts.

And Peter Pan and Tinkerbell! Nicki is the only one wearing a hand made costume (I knitted). 

Jessie and Woody: Logan is the only boy who didn’t mind dancing with the Disney girl dolls!

Pocahontas and the pairs!

Tatiana borrowed Jess’s shirt to make a great Moana. 

Suki is the anti-princess: Venellope. 

Jess had taken her role as Mulan to heart singing Reflections all day long!

By this time, I was actually running out of blond dolls to use as Disney characters (can you believe that??) and I had to beg Elizabeth to get out of her Colonial garden dress and dress as Rapunzel. It took a lot of persuasion (She hasn’t been un-Colonial in years now), but she’s graced the doll room with this beautiful gown that makes her look the part. 

Felicity had no qualms changing from her Colonial summer dress into a mosh glosh of 1864 school skirt, fairytale cloak and modern rock shirt to become Ana. Chloe looks stunning as Elsa. 

Madeline allowed Melody to borrow Peeps to become Tiana in the Princess and the Frog.

Rowena looks just like Merida in this dress.

Four friends of mine came over and I tested them individually on who could name every Disney doll. Many of them had a tough time naming Ashleigh as Esmeralda but I think she looks pretty good.

So here’s the line up one more time:

Ruthie: Snow White

Isabelle: Cinderella

Alison: Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Maggie: Ariel (Little Mermaid)

Alissa/Sophie: Belle (Beauty and the Beast)

Rose and Josefina: Jasmine and Aladdin

Kaya: Pocahontas

Lily and Megan: Alice and the Queen (Alice in Wonderland)

Nicki and Willow: Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

Logan and Savannah: Woody and Jessie (Toy Story)

Jess: Mulan

Elizabeth: Rapunzel (Tangled)

Felicity and Chloe: Ana and Elsa (Frozen)

Melody: Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)

Rowena: Merida (Brave)

Ashleigh: Esmeralda (Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Way back in 2014 my dolls dressed as Disney Princesses: Disney Princess Gala!!! (photo shoot) This year’s is far more extensive!

And just for fun, this is a really really neat human/character resemblance site: https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/07/31/disney-characters-real-li_n_7910070.html
Let me know who you think is the best character resemblance in the comments! 

Heather

Lights Shining in Winfield Mounds

Kaya has been the Historical American Girl of the year all year this year, and I’ve done nearly nothing to honor her. Kaya has had a number of adventures previously though. The most extravagant being her visit to Jamestown. This past weekend, Kaya and Kanani went on a discovery adventure trying to find the Winfield Mounds. 

“Just think!” Kanani exclaimed, “Native Americans lived and worked, and played and ate right here where we are a thousand years ago. It’s pretty cool to think about, isn’t it? And here we are, searching for the one and only place of evidence of their lives here.

 
“Yes!” Kaya responded, “We’re searching for three mounds of earth. The only sign that remain from those people. They were probably used as burial sites.”

Kanani scrutinized the ground closely, “Or maybe… maybe it’s not the only evidence. Look here! I think this is a syllabary!” Kanani pointed to some writing on a log.

“What does it say? I can’t understand it,” Kaya asked watching Kanani’s face. Kanani’s eyes went wide, she pressed her lips together and then grinned sheepishly.

“Um….it says….’I have to pee.'”

“What?!” Kaya’s mouth dropped open and her eyes narrowed, “No it doesn’t.” 

“Yes! It does! I swear! And….I have to pee!” Kanani gave a giggle and raced off into the underbrush. 

Kaya puffed out her cheeks and made a face at the log. Kanani didn’t usually tease her like that….but it couldn’t say that for real, could it? Whatever, she thought, shaking her head.
When Kanani rejoined her, they walked for a short time and came to a T in the road. They had received directions from friendly neighbors to turn left and then go right. They turned left at the T and walked down that path until they reached a fork in the road where they turned right. But they were walking and walking and not finding anything. 
“Do you think this is the right path?” Kanani asked. “We’re doing everything we were told to, but it seems like we’re walking for an awfully long time.”

Just then Kaya heard loud shouts and music nearby that made her gasp and stop in her tracks. Kanani stopped too, “Indian war cries!” 

“Will we have to fight them?” 

“Not unless we decide this is the wrong path to the mounds and turn around.” 

“I think this is the wrong path to the mounds,” Kaya said immediately, not wanting to fight any terrifying Indians. 

“Yes, we should probably go back,” Kanani agreed, “Let’s try that other path.” 

They walked back and entered the new path that exhibited mushrooms and other edible food which to them seemed a far more promising path. That is, until Kanani stopped the hike once more. She held out her hand in protection of Kaya. Kaya gasped, “What is it? Is it a bear?” They both heard rustlings in the leaves. 

“No. It’s a fly.” 

“A fly!!”

“A bearfly. And I shall be your warrior and save you!” Kanani made kung fu fighting gestures in the air, “There!” She said in satisfaction, “Now I am well fought and warmed up to fight the other Indians from the other path because this path is definitely not the right one.” 

“How do you know?” Kaya asked, but her answer was right in front of her. The river stopped the path from going any farther. They went back the way they came and down the path they’d started on in the first place. And indeed, if they would have gone just a few feet farther than before, they would’ve come to the mounds a lot earlier. “Look! Here’s the first one!”

Kaya could see a raised clearing, like a hump in the ground. “Archeologists found 2000 pieces of shards and stone tools here which confirmed to them that these are real Native American Mounds.” 

 “A real place, where 1000 years ago people lived, and loved, and believed and died here.” 

“Yes!” 

“Oh look! Look how beautiful!”

The dolls had come upon some of the most beautiful fall colors of the forest. “Fire branches! Do you know what the Pikunii did with fire?” Kaya asked.

“What did they do?”

“They would take burning coals from one campfire and carry them to another fire, sometimes many miles away, so the the same fire was used for every campsite.” 

“Wow, that’s really neat,” Kanani said, “We even do that today, don’t we? Spreading the gospel Light of the Lord, that’s been the same light since before the beginning of time even! Way longer than a thousand years!” The dolls found the second mound just as they started singing:

“This little Light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!

This little Light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine….”

“Can you imagine the effort it took these people to build mounds like these? Hauling dirt around with just some tools? It makes me wonder how long it took them to build something like this.” 

“It is really big and amazing!” Kaya agreed.

“This is so fun to do with you!” Kanani cried, leaning over and giving Kaya a hug. Kaya’s heart and body gave a great leap. She skipped out into the sun and danced for her warrior who had fought the bears, the flies, and the war cries for her. 

Kanani joined her in the dance, both their little lights, shining brightly together. 

The End.
Behind the Scenes: My boyfriend came to visit me from VA for the very first time and we had the best time together! He’s into archeology so we went to the Winfield Mounds and brought the dolls along (he loves the dolls just as much as me! Isn’t that the best?). After getting lost trying to find where to park and stopping to help someone who had a flat tire, we hiked down the Prairie Path to find the mounds. Everything that happened to Kanani and Kaya happened to Tim and me. I was his ‘yellow haired squaw’ and he was my great warrior, saving me from terrifying tribal Indians with their bike riding radio cries, horrifyingly huge flies, and scary bears! We ended the night with his first experience of deep dish pizza! Thanks to him for helping me pose and position and take pics of the dolls.

-Heather

Communication at a Distance

The final week of the doll photo competition is School:

BEEEEEEP! BEEEEP!

Sonali groaned as she slithered out of the covers and dragged herself out of bed to shut off her alarm clock. Today was the first day of school and she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. And it wasn’t really school itself, it was more the getting up part. “I’m going to have to get up super early for 180 more days! And this is only day ONE!” she moaned, “How am I ever going to survive?”

“Aw, don’t complain, other people have it far worse than you – the humans have it really bad,” Lindsey replied, eating popcorn for breakfast that had never gotten put away from last night’s movie watching,  “Many of them can’t even go to school because of the sickness that’s pervading the world. They have to figure out how to communicate without being near each other.” 

“They’ve been doing that for while,” Savannah said, “You’d think they’d be good at it.” 

“Really?”

“Sure! And not just adult people, but girls our age too! And they do it in all different ways! Remember Kaya and her story? She was captured by another Indian tribe, 

so she built a rock cairn and put a feather underneath the top rock. Her father found it and was able to rescue her.” 

“And even more different are the colonists. Do you know there was another reason ladies wore huge balloon ball gowns with pocket hoops and corsets?” 

“Wasn’t it just to look beautiful?” Sonali asked. 

“Yes, but it also kept the men away from sniffing down their necks!”

“Tahaa!” Lindsey laughed, “I bet all the men had bad breath! Can you imagine! No wonder the ladies wanted to keep distance.” 

“Sometimes people couldn’t communicate because they didn’t speak the same language. Look at Kirsten.

She used a stick to write in the sand to send messages to her Indian friend, Songbird.” 

“Speaking of songbirds, I know another songbird who helped saved many lives!” Kennedy recalled, 

“Harriet Tubman would use owl calls, or gospel hymns to tell slaves when it was safe to escape or when it was too dangerous to come out of hiding on the underground railroad. She used a whole network of people, some even in disguises to help hide the runaway slaves and keep them safe.”

“But sometimes it’s good not to hide, sometimes it’s good to speak out,” Savannah said,

Do you remember when Samantha spoke out in the public speaking contest about the horrible conditions of the factory Nellie was working in?”

 “Hey that reminds me of another book I read,” Sonali said, “Malala’s Magic Pencil is a true story about a girl who also couldn’t go to school. She lived in Pakistan and the Taliban forbid women from going even though she used to go. She decided to write a blog and then a book about it and people read it and she became famous. She became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace prize!” 

“Wow! That is so cool!” Kennedy exclaimed.

“Some girls use other things besides pencils to communicate. Jacky Faber lived on ships most of her life. She used maritime flag signals to send messages to other ships.” 

Savannah added, “Much later during World War Two, Morse Code was used a lot. 

War ships would encrypt messages using it. 

It’s a seeing and hearing language. Molly knows how to tap it out on her desk and Emily can write it out in dots and dashes.”

“Today, we do social distance communication on the computer, but wouldn’t it be fun to try a ‘new’ way from the past?” Kennedy wondered.

 “I think that’s a great idea! And much more fun too,” Sonali said. She was excited about what they’d talked about and wondered if she could tell her teacher about it to do at school too. 

“And look!” Lindsey started laughing even harder, “Madeline and Camille are already putting our prattle into practice! Tin can telephone!”

Have you tried different ways of social distance communication?
-Heather