USAG - Week Two - Kaya's Escape

This week for our book club we voted on rules (and consquences for breaking those rules), our name, and signed up on the treat sign-up-sheet.

Our name, USAG, went through some revisions.
"Just The American Girl Club."
"What about Girl's Rules?"
"Cooler Than You Club."
"Cool-kids club?"
"How about Girls And Their Dolls In A Cool Club?"
"I know! The American Girl Club That Has American Girls In It Club!"
"Lets go back to what American Girl is: American! Why not The Sweet Girls Of America?"
"Liberty Girls?"
"Freedom Fighters?"
"USA Girls?"
"The AGC, for American Girl Club?"
This is a complete list of all the suggested names that we suggested. We finally settled an a really classy name: The USAG.
You know? United States of America/American Girls? It's an acronym. A classy acronym.

I also created a treat sign-up sheet. Every week someone different will bring a snack.

Our rules are as follows:

1. All dolls must wear clothes
2. No swearing or profanity
3. No smoking, drinking or drugs
4. No boyfriends/boys
5. You must wear clothes
6. Everyone needs to read the book before the club
7. Opinions must be thought over, not just discarded or revoked
8. Keep all responsibilities (e.g., bring the snack if it's your turn)
9. You must always keep an open mind
10. No electronics (cameras excluded)
11. No inturrupting

For any infringments:

• 1 infringement = 1 smack on the bottom
• 2 infringements = 1 kiss on the cheek (for my youngest sister, who enjoys kisses on the cheek, no kisses all day)
• 3 infringements = Your age of smacks

Anyway, this week I wrote on a whiteboard and even made a setup for it.

I don't know if you can see it, but the dotted-off "Kaya" square says the name of the American Girl, the year her books are based off of, and her state(s). Kaya lived in Washington, Oregon and Idahoish area.

It has Kaya's World, my whiteboard and dry erase marker, Kaya's Escape, and my papers for our sign language activity.

I have decided that the carpet will be the center hub of our activity. It is where we will gather in between activities.

The first activity was communication between tribes. In the book Kaya's Escape, Kaya and a boy named Two Hawks, from another tribe called the Salish, communicate by sign language. I found some papers that have Native American Sign Language on them, and we played around with that.

We spent a good 15 minutes figuring out what was on these pages. It was surprisingly really, really fun!

Then we told stories from Kaya's tribe. There was one at the back of the book, about how Coyote turn Ant and Yellow Jacket into rocks. There was another story about how Coyote turned Black Bear into a rock. I guess that's what Coyote did best. I think we told each other 4-5 Coyote stories, at which point we had to hurry - we had to be done soon enough for another activity.

Then we started to play Capture The Horse. In the book, Kaya, Speaking Rain and Steps High are captured - with quite a few other horses - by an enemy tribe. So we were both going to be enemy tribes to each other, and capture a horse...and maybe a captive or two. We played by the basic rules of Capture The Flag, with horses instead of flags.

My younger sister decided the dolls should watch a movie instead of running around and playing.

Snowflake's team - "The Weirdos" - hid her here.

Mack's team - "The Disney Princess Stylers" - hid him here. Not sure how he enjoyed that!

Then, during our treat of "Camas Bulb Cakes" (really just some vending machine pastry), we discussed different tribal ideas and things. This week was really fun!

Which American Girl Are You? Quiz

Here is a little quiz I made with google forms. It was really fun to make. Go try it! What American Girl did you get?

American Girl Book Club

We have now started a family American Girl book club. This book club will surround all 13 historical characters, retired or not. We might have some trouble with Rebecca and Cecile and Marie-Grace due to a lack of their books, but we will do our best to fit all of the books in.

It will go in order of the year each girl lived in. For instance, first we will read the Kaya books, then Felicity, then Caroline, then Josefina etc.

Every week we will read a book. For instance, week one - this week -  we read Meet Kaya. Next week we will read Kaya's Escape, and so on.

Every meeting will have a craft, an activity, a discussion, a treat, and if needed, some housekeeping, such as sign-up-sheets for making treats each week.

This week we read Meet Kaya. For our craft, we made corn husk dolls. We slightly simplified them. My youngest sister didn't want to spend too much time on hers and simply tied a sting around four corn husks. She named it "Redfeather". Another sister - only slightly older - did the same thing, and decorated it much too much. I don't know what she named this doll.

We did a little discussing during this craft, such as, "Why did the girls in Kaya's time have dolls?" and "What were some of the important duties of the women in Kaya's village?" We discussed some indian customs, and talked about how some tribes did ifferent things. We had a boy doll and a girl doll, and so we got onto the subject of Brown Deer, Kaya's sister, and the courting dance. we discussed marriages in indian tribes. We decided the discussion during our craft would suffice for that meeting, and we decided not to have another discussion while we had our end-of-meeting treat.

We all gave our AG dolls our corn husk dolls. That is, all but the youngest (the blonde, wearing blue) who doesn't have an AG doll yet. She gave hers to her baby doll.

Then, because Kaya enjoyed racing, we had a relay race. We had 10 stuffed animals on one side of the "racetrack" and the 6 of us split into 2 groups on the other side. We had to run across, pick up a stuffed animal, run back, hand it to the next person in line, and go to the back of the line. Then the next person in line does the same thing, until all the stuffed animals have gone from one side of the racetrack to the other.

This is the start of the stuffed animal pile.

Then we had our treat. It was simply chocolate covered strawberries. We had them sitting in the refrigerator during the meeting. It was the women's job in Kaya's village to pick the berries, so I thought it was indian-ish.

I can't wait for the next meeting!

New Addition Fashion Show

Josefina Montoya has come into our family! Before she came, we had Samantha Parkington, Margret (Kit) Kittredge, Kirsten Larson, and Cassandra Hatton. Now, we have added Josefina Montoya to the list!

Kirsten was able to attend our little celebration, though limited by a wheelchair. We really need to fix her leg!

So, to celebrate our new arrival, we had a fashion show. Here's some pics:

Samantha puts on the coat she will style in the show.

Kit prepares for the show, too.

Cassandra styles Kit's hair.

Samantha buttons Josefina's(!!!) shirt.

 

She shows Josefina the styling chair. After all, she needs to be shown around her new home! Cassandra explained - in detail - how to do most of her hairstlyes. Josefina was able to pull away...eventually.

 Kirsten ties her shoe. Her right leg it the broken one.

 Kirsten and Blondie wait in line for the red carpet!

 Josefina and Cassandra stood together.

 Samantha and Kit waited in line, too.

 Josefina went first.

 She was a bit nervous beforehand, but she was happy she had done it once she was done.

 Top view

And now her outfit! She wears brown sandals, pink leopard skin leggings, a pink skirt with orange ruffles and a bow, a purple shirt with butterflies, and gold earrings. Her hair is done in a simple braid.

Cassandra went next. 

She enjoyed herself. 

And now her outfit! She wears black mary janes, A soft yellow dress with flowers at the neckline, and a simple green band for an interesting pop of color. Her hair falls on her shoulders, loose.

 Blondie is such a sweetheart. Although not an American Girl doll, she has helped us on many an occassion - including today's fashion show! She is one of the dolls' greatest friends, and I think she deserves to be put here for that and for pushing Kirsten's wheelchair. She is wearing a green jumper over a simple white shirt. Her hair is done in a wild ponytail!

 Kirsten and Blondie on the runway

Kirsten was so excited to be here. 

And now her outfit! She wears black lace-up boots, a black winter skirt with red and blue lining and flowers at the waistline, and a white sweater. Her hair is done in a simple braid.

 Kit also enjoyed herself. 

 She loved getting cheered on!

And now her outfit! She wears pink and white tennis shoes, a flowery skirt, a pink shirt and pink sweater, and a pair of pink headphones for her mp3 player. Her hair is down, cut in a bob.

 Samantha realized halfway through the runway that she had forgotten her hat.

 She did her best to roll with it.

 She also loved the crowd, but she was a little self-concious because of her hat-ruffled hair!

And now her outfit! She wears a plaid skirt, white shirt, and a grey-and-white checkered coat. She was meant to wear a hat, but it didn't appear. Her hair is down and loose.

Welcome Josefina!