Best. Week. Ever!!

Cousins are the best. 

'Nuff said.

Well, okay, I'll elaborate. Last week we had our CBCs (meaning our Cousins By Contract) over for an epic visit, and we had the best, most swellest time ever. We had 11 kids all under one roof, and boy! was it loud! But tremendously fun! You probably already know all of my siblings (Beth Grace, Jessa Bri, Doofus, Teddy, and KT Bugs), and in this post, you'll get to know our CBCs: Kathryn, Count Bob, Uncle J, Sebastian, and Max (pardon me if I got the names wrong).

(And by the way, I apologize for this posting earlier. I stuck a bunch of pics on a draft and then it accidentally got published before I got to write anything. So, yeah... my apologies... And pardon the positioning of the pics... I was having fun.)

Beth, Kathryn, and Jessa. The first pic we took after they arrived! As you can tell, they are all very, very happy!  

Our CBC's parents had to go to meetings somewhere far away almost all week long, so we kids did our best to keep a cheery face as they drove away. As soon as the car was out of sight, we all ran back to the house in delight, screaming our excitement at the top of our lungs walked slowly back to the house to comfort ourselves with gingerbread cookies and lemonade.

Everyone knows the absolute best thing about epic visits with cousins (cousins by blood or by contract) is taking absolutely way too many pictures. And on the left there, you can see Count Bob doing exactly that. I think on our camera alone, we managed almost 700 pics in about six days. Epic win!! As for Count Bob and his camera, I simply have no idea how many he took.






You cannot get together with cousins without playing any games. So, we did. And we played a lot of games. Hide and seek, tag, scrabble, duck duck goose, LOTR Trivia, and The Fellowship of the Ring board game (pictured right). 

They were all fun, but I believe that the most memorable game was probably LOTR Trivia. My brother Doofus and I are huge LOTR fans (so much so that we could probably quote the extended LOTR all from memory), and Count Bob is becoming quite a LOTR expert himself, so everyone expected one of us to win the game. Beth and Uncle J teamed up in a fun, let's come in dead last team, and astonished us all by winning the game! 

One of the nights we kids made dinner (save for me, as I'm terrible in the kitchen; I washed the dishes), and we chose to do an Italian theme. Beth and Uncle J (right) made six pounds of meatballs (a bit more than we needed, but very delicious!), and Count Bob experimented with a new bread recipe and made some excellent garlic bread. :)

It was an *excellent* dinner. If you really want to know who everyone is, we've got from left to right: Uncle J, Doofus, Sebastian, Count Bob, Max, me, and KT Bugs. And please ignore the fact that I've got noodles hanging out of my mouth. How else are you s'posed to eat spaghetti? Okay, I'm seriously not really that sloppy of an eater...

KT and Max being silly... :D













They did just about everything together, including brushing their teeth. 

See what I mean? They even spied on us together while the older kids were swimming in the pool. We have the cutest little siblings in the world. :)

 

That's a weird picture of Doofus... He hardly goes anywhere without his cowboy hat. Not that he's a cowboy. He really doesn't even like horses that much.... anywho! Moving on...

We absolutely have way too much fun with cousins. Pictured right is Uncle J eating a gingerbread cookie. I think we made 14 cups of flour worth of gingerbread cookies and devoured them all. Yes, we have way too much fun. And I believe we may eat a little too much as well, but we won't dwell on that. 












Yeah....... way too much fun.... *ahem* That's Beth and Jessa doing what we did most of the time: laugh. 

Notice the matching shirts on Uncle J, Doofus, and Sebastian? They were our epic (can you tell I like that word?) CBC Week shirts. We all wrote our names on the back of our own shirts, and then everyone else put their John Hancock on the front. We even had our classy blood cousins sign them. :)








Teddy and Sebastian playing chopsticks. Yes, we are all true proficients on the piano, even more so than Lady Catherine de Bourgh. 

Our epic CBC Week happened to land exactly on Beth's and my birthdays (you will recall that we were born exactly one year and one day apart, making it rather hard to celebrate separate birthdays, but we love it anyway). And so, instead of just having some boring old party, we invited our classy blood cousins over (Toria, Em, Capt. Oblivious, Gherkin, Samwise, and Bear) and had a costume party! With awards! Epic!!  Beth was the only one who knew who everyone was, and the rest of us had to wait in suspense until the big night to find out who everyone picked to be for the party. And that's everyone pictured there on the right. Allow me to go a little in depth with each character. :)

*Ahem* First off... To your left is Doofus playing Ernest T. Bass and Sebastian plaing Barney Fife, both from the TV show Andy Griffith. Doofus got The Most Obnoxious Character Award (for obvious reasons) and Sebastian got Best Character Imitation (he had Barney's whistle and everything!).  

Here we have two characters from The Lord of the Rings: Em as the lovely elf Arwen and Bear as the loyal hobbit Samwise Gamgee. Em got The Prettiest Costume Award (would you just look at that dress! ah! love it!!) and Bear was given The Most Creative Costume Award (you know, I don't think I've ever seen hobbits wear cowboy boots before...). 






Sweet Teddy came as Pippi Longstocking. Her costume was one of the easiest to put together (well, at least from my family), as it only required me sewing a simple dress and then collecting all of the accessories. The purse holds her gold coins (we couldn't find a trunk she could cart around), and yes, her socks are mismatched. Her hair Beth braided with pipe cleaners to make the braids stick out just like Pippi's did. And would you believe that I made her dress from an old shower curtain? Teddy won The Most Colorful Award... as you can clearly see. 

Is it possible to have a costume party with no one showing up as the greatest mind behind costumes ever? Sink me, m'dears, of course not! Count Bob arrived smartly attired as Sir Percival Blakeney from The Scarlet Pimpernel (complete with a snuff box and monocle, earning him The Most Ostentatious Costume Award). And of course, the steadfast figure in black beside him is none other than Chauvelin, portrayed brilliantly by our blood cousin, Gherkin. He won Everybody's Favorite. Epic. 

Jessa's costume, on the other hand when compared with Teddy's costume, was one of the tougher ones to put together. Her shirt/tunic/thingummy required over two hours at the sewing machine, but I was pleased with how it turned out. You should recognize her as Susan Pevensie from Prince Caspian. She got The Most Accessorized Award as her costume included all the intricate belts, bow, and arrows, and arm piece...

Another funny story about costumes: this one is made out of an old bed skirt and tablecloth. But they worked out nicely for Beth's Lorna Doone costume. Beautiful, ain't it? Uh, Lorna Doone... she's from Lorna Doone... just so you know. :) The lacing on the bodice took me forever to sew, as I had to put in buttonholes by hand for the string. As it was our birthday party, Beth and I were the ones who handed out the awards, so she and I didn't get any. We just got all the presents that everyone brought. :D

Ah! Captain Oblivious and Kathryn as Ted Nickerson and Nancy Drew from the awesome Nancy Drew movies (I'm talking about the old mysteries with Bonita Granville which are beyond awesome)! Nancy comes equipped with her swell camera ready to snap photos of suspicious characters, and Ted wouldn't be caught anywhere without his tennis racket (doncha know, he shovels coal with it). Captain got The Most Humorous Character, and Kathryn we awarded with The Most Famous Literary Character. 

Toria won The Best Hairstyle Award, and how could she not? As Jane Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, I'm certain she could not be that beautiful for nothing! I loved the little curls framing her face, and the moment I saw her I knew exactly who she was. Beautiful, beautiful! :)

Here's Uncle J, CBC. With that cloth wrapped around his head and those chains dangling from him, no one could mistake him as the ghostly Jacob Marley from the classic Dickens' tale A Christmas Carol. Beth and I gave him The Most Epic Costume Award... which he so richly deserved. 

Little KT Bugs was the cutest little bugs ever! She was Gretl von Trapp from the popular musical The Sound of Music. Her hair was previously up in braids, but she took them out before we could get a picture of her. And as you can see from the little badge she's holding up, she won The Cutest Costume Award. :) Max was Maxwell Smart, adorable in his suit and tie (and yes, he's hanging onto the Scarlet Pimpernel). Beth and I gave him with The Most Original Costume Award. 

And then last, but not least (if I may presume to call myself not least), to your right is Astrid and Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon played respectively by yours truly and my classy blood cousin, Samwise. And no, I didn't hit him with my axe, saying, "That's for everything else." Samwise actually made the little notebook Hiccup carries around and drew the map of the Viking village in it, a touch that I greatly appreciated and for which we gave him The Most Authentic Costume Award.

Awards all around!! From left to right: (back row): Capt. Oblivious (being oblivious to the camera), Count Bob, Doofus, and Gherkin; (front row) Bear, Sebastian, Samwise, and Uncle J. It was a swell party!










But our splendid CBC Week was not all fun and games! No, indeed, for we were (almost) daily required to work for 30 minutes out in our garden. We older, responsible children carefully planted lettuce and mulched and picked more beans than we care to remember....

... while KT and Max wreaked havoc by playing tag and running through the rows of corn. 

But all of our diligent work was rewarded with a cool plunge into my family's pool. Unfortunately, the water was a little on the way too cool side, so we alternated between playing Marco Polo in numbing waters and jumping out to play tag and thaw out in the grass. 

To the right: one of those thawing instances. Count Bob took advantage of his exit to attack the innocent swimmers with erupting geysers spouting maliciously from pool noodles. 

It was great fun. Obviously, as Doofus gives it all a thumbs up! :)

This post is by no means in chronological order so far, and I'm not going to put it so now. Here we are at night standing and waiting and watching the meteor shower that the Lord marvelously put in the heavens. We didn't see very many meteors shooting past, but it was definitely an awe inspiring experience.








And, as always: take lots of pics!! I think the bright camera flash killed Doofus there....

Sebastian, Teddy, and I laid down in the road (don't worry, we live on a dead end which no one travels down at eleven o'clock at night) to see the meteor shower better. 

And now we're getting into a few random pictures of the week. This is Doofus and me, sitting around trying to wake up after staying up until 2:30 the previous night talking about Spickens. Spickens are evil, and if you don't know what they are... consider yourself lucky. That probably means they don't know who you are, either. ;)








And we spent way too much time reenacting songs. We would play them off our computer and mouth all the words while acting it all out, and acting very dramatically, I might add. I think this pic was one of Sebastian, Doofus, and Uncle J reenacting Watch Your Footwork from The Happiest Millionaire. We watched The Happiest Millionaire twice while they were here, and it is quickly becoming one of our favorite CBC movies. Again, please notice the matching CBC shirts. :)

Kathryn and Teddy monitoring the music for the reenactments. Besides The Happiest Millionaire, we did songs from Beauty and the Beast (including one of the best songs not included in the movie, Me), Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.







More games! Here are Uncle J, Jessa, Sebastian, and Count Bob playing Phase 10. You can't see it, but on the opposite end of the table I was sitting with Kathryn and Beth, playing Scrabble. A good game, even though I joyfully came in dead last (there's just something about cousins that makes coming in dead last fun). 

Have you ever played volleyball with two epic sets of cousins? It's swell! We had our classy bloods cousins back over again one afternoon, and they, with my siblings and I and our CBCs, set up a net and went at the ball for all we were worth. I don't think we could be called professionals by any stretch of the word, but we all gave it our best shot. Shot, uh, yeah... in more ways than one. ;)

Way to go, Captain Oblivious! :D

Oh, and did I mention that it was my birthday? Ta da!! And yes, my candle was stuck in a container of ice cream.  We ate all the cake on Beth's birthday during our costume party, so we ate all the ice cream the following day on my birthday. Doofus hung over my shoulder, just to ascertain that he would not miss out on any of the ice cream.

Well, folks, that's that! Hope you enjoyed looking through all these pics almost as much as I enjoyed living them!! 

God bless!

Kind Of A Big Day...

So, Mother, earlier I was saying, and you really didn't respond, so I'm just going to tell you...

It's my birthday! Tada! 

(Why is Tangled so quotable?)

Yes, indeed it is true. I'm 19. But my mother already knew that.

Wow, I sound old.

Me, Beth Grace, and Jessa Bri (it's not Jessa's birthday,
but I thought it would be nice to include her anyway; no
comment on the fact that I couldn't find a pic of just me and Beth)

Actually, I must apologize to my dear sister, Beth Grace, as I neglected to post about her birthday yesterday. Yesterday, you ask? Yes. And no, we're not twins. We were born exactly one year and one day apart, and it's swell, swell, swell. It's like being twins... but not. :)

So, also: Happy 20th Birthday to my dear sister, many happy returns, etc. Love you!! 

We had a swell party last night with our cousins (blood and contract). Not just any party, mind you. A COSTUME PARTY!! It was epic! Most swellest fun ever! :D

And don't worry, we'll post pictures soon. 

As always,

Character Tag Part Three - My Favorites

Well, I'm finally getting around to part three of this swell character tag! And if you haven't yet seen all the fun, here are parts one and two. :)

For part three, we're supposed to pick four favorite good characters that we have written about or are writing about. How can you ask this of me? How can I pick only four favorites? 

Sigh...

Okay, well, here are the first four favorites that popped into my mind:

Bricentus Holloman

The picture's not perfect, but Brice is a hard character to define and picture. Gangly legged and sandy haired and sporting a splattering of freckles, Brice is an nineteen year old lad who first appears to be a fun, honest person, but later is revealed to be a boy full of secrets (and yes, I believe that nineteen year olds are still considered boys). He prefers action to words, but if you gain his trust and approval, he'll defend you with the ferocity of a tiger. He's such a fun character to write, as he's constantly attempting to engage in witty battles with other characters, and he's always in the mood for a good joke. 

 Niana

Those of you who know me know that I don't prefer to give out all the secrets of my stories. But I am indulging in one here: Niana is Davin's youngest sister, one of the children of the Dragon Tamer. Yes! I told you who one of the six children are! I can't believe I just did that! Anywho... Niana is a soft spoken person, timid around new people, and preferring silence and solitude to noise and strangers. She has a very useful medicinal mind (can you call it that?) which she doesn't hesitate to dig into when she comes across someone who needs medical attention. Although I don't know much about medicine and all that, I enjoy writing about Niana because she's so much like me. Ask anyone who knows me: I don't talk a lot either. At least, not as much as some I could mention... ;)

Princess Reuthellen

This is another unsatisfying picture. Reuthellen is supposed to have brown hair and warm, brown eyes. But I'm pretty sure she looks like Buttercup in every other aspect. Reuth is the oldest of the twelve princesses in my story The Twelfth Kingdom. I realize I haven't said much about TK (that stands for Twelfth Kingdom, if you hadn't already guessed) here on Lianne Taimenlore, but as it's one of my bigger stories, I think it's about time it had sufficient mention. Reuth is kind, sweet, welcoming, and pretty much everything else you want a princess to be. She loves easily, and I would think she's kind of modeled after Jane Bennet: unwilling to think badly of people lest they give her a very good reason to distrust them and sometimes guilty of trusting too easily. As the oldest of the twelve princesses, the responsibility of mentor and peacemaker falls heavily on her shoulders, but she does her best to bear the weight of that burden. 

Princess Danyelle

This is one of my favorites from the twelve princesses in TK (my absolute favorite, Nattalaris, I couldn't find a pic of, so I'm forced to put her spotlight on hold). Danyelle is smack dab in the middle (or as near middle as you can get) of the twelve princesses. She's similar to Reuth in personality, very kind and all, but perhaps with a bit more spirit. Dany adores dancing and is the best dancer among all twelve princesses. She has her dreams and opinions, isn't afraid to say what she thinks, and is always willing to lend a helping hand where she can. In fact, to reveal a secret, it's her helping hand that contributes a large part to the story of TK. ;)

Hope you enjoyed this!

Asking For Your Opinion

I have a question to put forth to you all, so please, please, please vote on the poll on my sidebar and comment below and let me know what you think!!! 


Here's the question: What would you think of an epic Disney Blog Party hosted here at Lianne Taimenlore?

I realize that some of the Disney movies have objectionable things in them, so I wouldn't be including every Disney film, just those I deem merit a mention here on my blog. And as for time, I'm thinking sometime in late August, which is open for change if I find myself too busy to get to it in time. What I'd be posting here all week long would be film reviews, character posts, and lots of games (it's called a party, for cat's sake, so you have to include lots of games!). 


So please, please comment and vote away!!! I'm eager to hear what you think of this! :)

Character Tag Part Two - Valued Villains

Here's part two, swell bloggers! Villains that I love!  You can read part one here.

Again, it was difficult to pick four detestable, lovable villains, but I did my best. :)

Vizzini

Now, I know that this villain is a favorite with everyone! How can you not like the wit and cunning of this little man? The thought is inconceivable! He's so quotable, and one of those villains that just don't really seem like real villains, but they are, and the thought takes you quite by surprise. I think that may be the real reason why everyone likes him so much. He's just so different from your normal villain. You see, I'm not really what you would call a romantic person. I don't care much for watching romance movies (JA is NOT romance... just so you know), and I wouldn't put The Princess Bride (book and movie) on my top ten list. Not even my top twenty list. It's the type of movie I watch for the sword fights, the adventure... and Vizzini. I read the book once, and he was still my favorite character. :)

Stoick the Vast

Can Hiccup's father be counted as a villain? Well, he is the main human antagonist in the story, and could count... maybe (by the way, I'm basing this on the movie version of Stoick; picked up the actual book once out of curiosity; DO NOT RECOMMEND!). He begins as a gruff, commanding man who doesn't take the time to listen to and get to know his son, Hiccup, but when failure hits him, he realizes that he really does love his son and learns from his mistakes. You can see Stoick as nothing but hard and stern in the beginning, and you almost want to dislike him but you can't because he's Hiccup's father. Then in the end, you like him as a character who at last learns where his priorities should really lie and because he's Hiccup's father. 

Mother Gothel

In my honest opinion, one of the worst villains of all fairy tales. Mother Gothel's got a secret evilness about her, lying to Rapunzel and keeping her hidden for her own selfish reasons (in the story, Gothel took Rapunzel after she caught the girl's parents stealing from her garden, although in the recent movie Tangled she stole Rapunzel away to receive the benefits from Rapunzel's magic hair). Gothel thinks of no one save for herself, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to be happy. Evil, evil, evil! And of course, this choice for valued villains had nothing to do whatsoever with Mother Gothel's hilarious and amazing rendition of "Mother Knows Best." ;)

Uriah Heep

Oh, the 'umble, 'umble man from David Copperfield! Let me tell you, I have thought of the word humble so differently since reading this book! I have yet to see a David Copperfield screen adaption, but I almost don't want to, lest it ruin the perfect, scandalous,  'umble image I have of Uriah Heep in my mind. Dickens never says outright that he's bad, oh, no. Not until the very end when David and his friends confront him. But the description given of Mr. Uriah Heep... you can't help but utterly detest him from the very first. I think I verbally cheered when he got justice at the end of the story (which may not have been a good thing, for I read DC while waiting at the doctor's office for allergy shots). Uriah Heep is just one of those characters that you like disliking. 


Parts three and four of this swell character tag are gonna take a little longer as I have to find pictures of some of my characters. How is it that the characters you create always have their own minds? You can't tell them what to do, and they won't let you pinpoint their physical features in a definite photo. 


Ah, the glories of writing! :)

Character Tag Part One - Fictional Favorites

Kathryn of Hidden Orchards has tagged me in a four part, sixteen character tag! This is going to be so much fun!


Rules:
1. State the rules!
2. Post four posts about your sixteen favorite fictional characters, including four good and four bad each from novels you have read and stories you have written/are writing.
3. Tag three new people when you are finished and comment to let them know that you've tagged them.


Hmm... to start out, four characters I love from novels... only four? This could be hard. ;)

Cyril Keith

I don't have a picture of Cyril and didn't feel like trying to find one from google. He's an energetic, red haired boy, twin to Don Keith and the younger brother of Millie Keith. Cyril is not what you would call a perfect character; he has his faults, and is continually growing and learning throughout the Millie books. Although his temper is sometimes quick to rear his head, he is very protective of his siblings, especially his sisters, and is willing to give up his own comforts and pleasures to help them. He loves his parents dearly and hates to disappoint them. Cyril is also rather humorous, and I can't help but laugh as I read about his mischievous antics from Millie's point of view. My own siblings and I are often found quoting many of Cyril's hilarious lines!

Faramir

Faramir is probably one of the best characters in Lord of the Rings. As the younger son of Denethor, steward of Gondor, he's pushed aside and unloved by his father. Denethor thinks the world of his older brother, Boromir, and believes poor Faramir incompetent and unable to complete any task rightly. Always striving to please his father, Faramir earns the respect of the entire kingdom of Gondor and gladly does whatever duty requires of him, even going into a near suicidal mission to reclaim one of the kingdom's cities. After his father dies, Faramir stays broken and wounded in the Houses of Healing where he finally meets Eowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan. Although many people have said that they would have preferred Eowyn to marry Aragorn, I think not. After being neglected and unloved his whole life, Faramir deserved to find true happiness and love, as did Eowyn, and they were perfect for each other. 

Emma Woodhouse

Jane Austen said, when she began writing Emma, that she was creating a heroine that nobody would much like. However, I would have to disagree with her on that point. Emma Woodhouse is probably my favorite Austen heroine! Why? She's handsome, clever, rich... :) Okay, I'll be serious. I have a tendency to like the non perfect characters, who grow and learn during the course of the story, and Emma is one such character. She begins very conceited, thinking the world revolves around her, and she can do anything she pleases to pass the time (i.e. matchmaking). It is not until all her efforts fall in failure that she realizes the danger of meddling in other people's lives, and ends the story a much wiser lady. I also love her relationship with Mr. Knightley. She bore the criticism he gave her like no other woman could have borne it and learned from it. And what better way to live happily ever after married to your best friend?

Noel Bastable

Noel, the poet, son of Mr. Richard Bastable. Those of you who are not familiar with the stories of E. Nesbit, *sigh.* You don't know what you're missing. Noel is one of six siblings (portrayed as five in the 1996 film), and each one of them do what they must to restore the fortunes of the house of Bastable. Noel is a poet and resolves to earn money through his words. And as an aspiring poet myself, I can't help but like other poets, even when they're not that... well, to put it bluntly, good. :) Nevertheless, his poems are rather funny, and one cannot help but laugh out loud when reading them!

Well, there's part one! Be on the lookout for part two.... soon! :)