Monday, August 20, 2012

Adventures with Aveline: Part 1

Hi everyone, it's Reese! Today I bring you the first part in the blog series called Adventures with Aveline. Although Ava isn't here yet, I wanted to give you some general facts about her.

-Aveline is from Paris, France and she speaks fluent English.
-She is 15 years old.
-Aveline has two younger sisters, one of whom is going to study in Colorado.
-In Paris, she owns a family-run bakery with her family.

We will be going to the airport to pick up Aveline tomorrow! All of our family is coming to greet her. Shortly after, at the beginning of September, we will leave to Washington D.C. for Ridgeway Academy.

Everyone is really excited, but also nervous. Have you ever visited another country before?

Love,
Reese <3

Saturday, August 18, 2012

A Foreign Exchange Student!

Hi everyone, it's Reese, and I have some pretty major news! I know that this is my second post in one day, but I can't help but share this news. We are hosting a foreign exchange student!

Her name is Aveline and she is from France! Aveline is 15 years old and she has light skin, brown eyes, and dark brown hair. She actually looks a lot like me! This is a picture of her that she sent to us:
Isn't she gorgeous?

Aveline will be arriving in a few days before we go back to school. If you don't remember, we go to a boarding school in Washington D.C. called Ridgeway Academy. It is similar to the high school equivalent of college.

I suppose that this can be a blog series similar to Fighting for Emma.  I will call it, hmm, Adventures with Aveline. Yes, I know it's cheesy. XD

I am so excited! Our mom has only told us this information, but we are all so excited for Ava to arrive soon! She will be with us for the 2012-2013 school year. You will be seeing her in many blog posts and videos. I can't wait!

Love,
Reese <3

Anna's 14th Birthday! :)

Hi everyone, it's Reese! Yesterday, August 17, was my cousin Anna's 14th birthday! :D My cousins Anna, Maggie, Katie, and Grace are visiting all the way from California!

We all had so much fun yesterday! Annie is really good friends with Samantha and Nellie. They were together all day. We all had chocolate cake and pies for dessert.

It was so amazing getting to see family that I see only a few times per year. You might think that since we don't see each other often, we are not close. Actually, it's the opposite! We talk all the time on Facetime (iPod Skype), texting, and phone calls.

I know this isn't much of a post, but I just wanted to give a birthday shout-out to my amazing cousin and friend! Happy 14th birthday Annie!

Love,
Reese <3

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Summertime and Shows Part 4

Hi everyone, it's Reese and Emma! Today we will be discussing tech week and our show, Beauty and the Beast. I (Reese) will be typing in purple and I (Emma) will be typing in pink. The black represents both of us talking.

Where should we begin Emma?

Um, let's start with the last few days of tech week.

Okay! You might remember tech week from Summertime and Shows Part 3. I talked about it a little in that post, but not much. We'll tell you more about it now.

Tech week was so crazy! It was so difficult to run back and forth to the theater downtown. We had to be in full costume everyday. Most days, we didn't even eat dinner!

When you are living tech week, you just want it to end. However, now I kinda miss it...

On Friday, August 10, we had to be at the theater at 5 pm for a 7 pm performance. You might be wondering, what takes 2 hours? Well, we have to get into costumes, do hair and makeup, and do mic checks.

People began arriving at the theater around 6:30 pm. By 7 pm, the theater was packed! It was nervewracking to have so many people there, but at the same time, it was so exciting!

Backstage that night, I had no idea where my costume was, as it was not where I had left it backstage the day before. The "Belle" number was about to begin and I would have missed my cue if it wasn't my my understudy Courtney. She had found my costume with Mr. R. and quickly helped me change. I rushed backstage, right in time for my cue! :)

The performance was absolutely wonderful! :) Being my first show, I made so many new friends and I am so excited for the large fall show. 

Before we went on, everyone was so nervous. I was especially worried about my "Beauty and the Beast" scene at the end. Luckily Reese would be in that scene as well and she and Courtney reassured me.

The other two shows on Saturday were just as wonderful! To be perfectly honest though, I think out best performance was on opening night!

One of the problems that always strikes is the microphones. We have to make sure the mics are on and working. It was a pain to put a mic on with my yellow Belle dress!

We were prepared for a few of the mics to go out. Unfortunately, some did. It was the closing scene of Beauty and the Beast when it happened. The curtain was about to open when a buzzing noise came from my mic and it died. I did not have enough time to go get another mic from the sound table and by that time, the curtain was rising. We were in our places and I had to sing at the top of our lungs to be heard.

At the end of each performance, we all took bows. When Chris (Beast/Adam) was bowing with me, Courtney joined us as well. She definitely deserved it as much as the rest of us. Courtney and I are now great friends!

The show was such an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Belle is actually my favorite Disney princess!

After the final show, it is always a tradition to go out to eat. The cast decided on Friendly's. It was so much fun to be there at 9 p.m.! :)

Yeah, that was so much fun Reese! 

I am so glad that we participated in the production!

Me too! I made a few new friends and had so many amazing times!

Thank you to all of the cast and crew, and of course, Mr. R.!

Love,
Reese <3 and Emma :)

P.S. Anna's 14th birthday is tomorrow! Our cousins are visiting us tomorrow through Sunday! :) Happy early birthday Anna!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Summertime and Shows Part 3

Hi everyone, it's Reese! Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, but this should explain why.

Tech week (the week before opening night)is this week for Beauty and the Beast is this week! It is so crazy busy, fun, and exhausting all at once. One of our biggest problems seems to be microphones. It's hard to find mics for your scene because there are only about 8 usable mics. The sound stage crew is working really hard to fix it though!

I am so proud of Emma! She and her understudy Courtney are working so hard. It must be difficult to be in almost every scene.

I am really happy with my role as Mrs. Potts. It is a good sized role for my first show. This is Emma's first show here at Ridgeway, but she has been in shows in the past with other theater groups. I get to sing Beauty and the Beast at the end of the show, which I love.

Mr. R. is going insane over getting the final parts of the show ready. Everyone is putting in so much work for 3 shows. I love the little community formed by the students that do the show.

I am typing this on my iPod right now, as we have rehearsal every day for 4 hours. I need to go get in costume now and rehearse. I'll update you after this weekend!

Love,
Reese <3

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Massachusetts Vacation Day 6: Wellfleet, Chatham, and Dennis!

Hi everyone, it's Reese! Here's what we did today (Yay, it's on time!):

This morning around 11:30, we drove about 45 minutes (with traffic) to Wellfleet. We went to the flea  market. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything doll-sized! :( We were there for about 30 minutes.

Next, we drove about 20 minutes to Chatham. After taking 15 minutes to find a parking spot, we walked to the upper deck of the pier. We saw seven seals and many boats. It was so amazing; I loved it! :)

We were going to eat lunch there, but none of us really were in a fish mood, so we decided to head home and eat there. By this time, it was 2:30 p.m., and we were all starving! After we drove home, we made lunch.

Around 5 p.m., we decided to head to our favorite beach, Mayflower Beach in Dennis. (We were actually going to go to a place called Breakwater Landing in Brewster, but we couldn't see any water. It might have just been low tide, but we went to Mayflower Beach.) Unlike Monday, the tide was very low this time. I think we walked about two football fields just to reach the ocean! Low tide is my favorite because there is so much sand! We took some photos there and we will eventually compile them into a photoshoot for YouTube. I think they are some of our best photos yet! :D

By the time we left around 8 p.m., we were all getting pretty hungry. After driving around Dennis, we found a pizza place (that I can't remember the name of). We ordered a cheese pizza and decided to drive around Dennis during the 20 minute wait time. Our first stop was driving past the house my mom and her family rented in 2008 and 2010. (Fun fact: Maggie went to Cape Cod in 2008! :)) We then drove to Scargo Tower, a tall tower on the shores of Scargo Lake. We climbed the spiral stairs inside and reached the 20 feet top. The view never gets less amazing! It is truly breathtaking. :) After we took some photos at Scargo Tower, we headed back to pick up the pizza and drove home.

It was a pretty long day, but it was a lot of fun! We plan to go back to Skull Island before we leave on Saturday. We don't know what we are doing tomorrow, but I'll keep you posted. I miss everyone back home, but I don't want to leave on Saturday!

Love,
Reese <3

Massachusetts Vacation Day 5: Yarmouth!

Hi everyone, it's Reese! :) Sorry for the lag, I've been trying to catch up! Here's what we did yesterday:

Around 11:30, we decided to go to a place called Skull Island in south Yarmouth. It has go-karts, adventure mini golf, an arcade, and batting cages. Yarmouth is only about 30 minutes away, so we decided to go.

First, the boys in my mom's family decided to go on the go-karts, I however, did not, because I am a doll. None the less, it seems like something Anna would love. xD There was an hour-long wait just to ride the go-karts! According to the boys, it was very fun.

Next, we ate lunch in the car since it was so windy outside. It was fun to hang out and chat. I had a turkey and cheese sandwich with chips. Yummy! :)

After lunch, we decided to play the adventure mini golf. It was very fun! However, around hole 5 we began to feel rain drops. Around hole 6, it began to drizzle. Then at hole 7, it was pouring. Chaos ensued as most of the mini-golfers ran inside and received wooden coins for another free play of mini golf.

Back at home, we all got into our pajamas, as the rest of our clothes were soaking wet. We watched television and I played on my laptop. For dinner, we wanted to cook chicken on a stick (that's what we call skewered marinated barbecue chicken. It's one of my favorite dishes!), but tit was still pouring outside. None the less, we resorted to Plan B. In the end, we cooked the marinated chicken pieces in a frying pan and served them over pasta. They were still delicious though! :) Afterwards, we ate ice cream and relaxed until bed.

Today we went to Wellfleet, Chatham, and Dennis! Look for that post tonight as well! :)

Love,
Reese <3