Missing

Kiwi, Charissa, Evelyn, and Fiona were playing hide and seek in the neighbourhood this afternoon, even though it was cold, rainy, and the sky was full of clouds. (Sometimes you just have to seize the day and play anyway. Waiting for good weather can mean waiting awhile, here.) They had fun for awhile, but then they couldn't find Kiwi at all. Finally they had to give up. They figured she'd get bored of hiding and come inside... but she never came home.

We thought she was just joking around, but it's dark now. That would be taking a practical joke too far, especially given some of the stuff we've dealt with the last few months. She's never done this before.

We told the police, and we're going out looking for her ourselves. Hopefully Kiwi just isn't thinking or got mad at us or something. But we can't help thinking about the "last warning" note we got from the vampires demanding Clare. What if they kidnapped Kiwi to try for a trade?

We're really worried! Hopefully Kiwi will come home soon...

Love,
The Greens and the Roses

Hurricane Update

Hi, this is Bree. :-)

I've never experienced a hurricane before. I've never lived anywhere that hurricanes would be an issue. So when I heard Irene might be headed our way, I was really nervous. I wasn't here last year for Hurricane Igor, but the other girls told me the stories, and it sounded pretty scary.

Of course, hurricanes here aren't normally like Igor. Normally it's just a little extra wind and rain when hurricanes hit Newfoundland. They tried to reassure me, but I was still really worried. Irene sounded like it could be very frightening.

I like storms, actually. They're pretty and interesting.

But I don't like mortal danger.

We've gotten about as much Irene as we're going to get, though, and we are definitely not in danger, mortal or otherwise. The air feels very heavy and humid, like breathing into a blanket... but that's about it. Earlier the sky was overcast (now it's dark because it's night) and it's been spitting rain on and off. The wind is audible, but that's common in Newfoundland and it doesn't seem heavier than usual. It seems like the worst of what remains of Irene will pass us by to the west; the western portions of the island are getting more rain and stuff. We may get rain the next couple of days... but we might have anyway, this time of year.

So - no hurricane danger for Bree! Yay! I admit a tiny feeling of letdown, though, that I got myself all psyched up to be brave and heroic and nothing happened. I'd rather have it that way than be in real peril, though.

Hope the rest of you East Coasters are safe, too! Please don't think I'm too much of a coward that I'm still getting used to this.

Love,
Bree

Just in Case

Hey everyone! We're getting prepared for Hurricane Irene, just in case. It's not supposed to be too bad here, probably just wind and rain, but we're being cautious.

Normally hurricanes peter out naturally before they get to Newfoundland because we're so far north. It's unusual that we get more than a day or two of icky weather as a result of one.

Then last year, Hurricane Igor happened...

(We didn't take these pictures, they're from various news sources.)

Now we take it more seriously, and we don't assume hurricanes are going to be nothing.

We're filling up bottles of water, and we're going to the store for some extra food just in case. We have candles and matches because we tend to lose power a lot, especially in storms. Mostly we're just hoping for the best.

How about our blog friends in other East Coast areas... are you guys safe? Are you stocked up on supplies? Is Hurricane Irene supposed to cause much trouble where you live? Hope you will all be alright!

Love,
The Greens and The Roses

Kiwi's World!

Hi there! My name's Kiwi! This is my very first blog post.

I am ten years old, and I'm in Grade Five. My favourite colours are pink and purple. My favourite subject at school is recess... just kidding! My real favourites are science and art. I take gymnastics and acrobatics classes after school. It's really fun! When we saw Cirque du Soleil, I decided I wanted to do that someday. (Or maybe I'll be a scuba diver, or a paleontologist. I'm still deciding.)

My full name is Caroline. When I was little I was called Carrie, but I pronounced it like "Kiwi," so that name stuck. I was adopted from China when I was a toddler, but it didn't work out and I was a foster kid in Canada. That's how I met Summer and Maia. I'd like to go back and visit China someday, to see what it was like. There are a lot of other places I'd like to see, too.

Oh, and I'm a cat sometimes! Like Summer. I look like a tiger when I turn into a cat, though, and she's more like a small lion.

I went to camp this summer with Evelyn and Charissa and it was so fun! My group at camp wrote a little musical, and I got to be the star. It was also fun to sleep in a cabin, go hiking, make crafts, and have campfires. Me and Evelyn taught Fiona how to swim in the lake, because Fiona was a really bad swimmer before.

Now you know all about me, just like you know about my sister Summer. It's nice to meet you! If there's anything you want to know about me that I forgot to say, you can ask! :-)

Love,
Kiwi

Storage Solutions Advice?

Hello, friendly readers! :-)

We're currently trying to rethink the way we store our clothes. We'd like to get some kind of trunk or wardrobe to organize our things; we like some of the ones from American Girl but we'd prefer to find something a little cheaper. We aren't picky on the brand name as long as it looks decent and works well.

So we're asking you guys: How do you store your clothes? Where did you get your trunk/wardrobe/organizers? What brands do you like? What would you recommend for us?

Love,
The Greens and The Roses

Three of Us Are Ten

Hi, this is Charissa, Fiona, and Kiwi. Yes, all of us. We're writing this post together.

One thing that has been cool for us about being neighbours and then family is that all three of us are the same age. We're all ten. We love all of (both of) our families, but the three of us have developed a special bond because we're the same number of years old, and in the same grade.

Today we realized we could give ourselves special nicknames that all rhyme. Charissa is C, Kiwi is Ki, and Fiona is Fi. Pretty fun, huh?

It's almost like being triplets, only we didn't know each other until this year. Plus we look nothing alike. It's going to be fun when all three of us are in the same class, once school starts. The other kids are probably going to be pretty curious about us. Maybe we should wear matching outfits on the first day or something?

Do you have any siblings close in age? Do you have any fun nicknames for each other?

Love,
C, Fi, and Ki

P.S. Kiwi says it's going to be weird at school because the teachers all call her Caroline. That will take some getting used to! Sometimes the rest of us forget that Kiwi is a nickname, since she goes by it pretty much all the time.

Summer's Birthday

Hey, everyone! This is Summer. :-)

I know I've been lazy and said "I'm twelve" on the blog, but I was actually almost twelve. I have a summer birthday - thus my name - and my special day was today.

As one would expect for a birthday, I got presents! I got money to put toward my horse fund (still going to be saving for awhile...) and also some cool stuff to open. I got a yoga mat, and a yoga jacket and pants outfit; that's really cool because I never had a real outfit for it before, I just wore sweats. I also got a new tank top, some purple capris, and purple shoes with bows - can you tell purple is my favourite colour? Plus I got a cool watch with a white band and flowers on it. What a great birthday! :-)

It's raining really hard today, so I had an indoor celebration. I had a few friends over in the early afternoon and we watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One. Then my friends went home and we had family time. We ordered pizza for supper and ate with The Greens. It's been really fun.

Since it's my birthday, I've been kind of thinking about something. I've been thinking it would be kind of interesting to find out about my biological family, and maybe meet some of them. I wouldn't go live with them or anything - I already have a home, and my family is my family now - but it would still be cool to know them, or at least know about them. It's still just a thought, though. I'm not sure how Inna and Maia would react... or Kiwi. Even if Kiwi wanted to, and I don't know if she does because I haven't really asked, she would probably never be able to find her biological family because she was originally adopted from China before she got sent to Canadian foster care. Would she feel bad if I did and she couldn't? I'd still really like to know, though...

I haven't made any decisions yet, and I'm not sure if it would even be possible to find anything out, but I'm still thinking about it. Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of my birthday! ;-)

Love,
Summer

Blog Changes

Just as a heads up, we're going to be making some changes to our blog within the next week or so. Most of it is just going to be aesthetic; for better or worse, our content won't change very much. ;-)

The reason we wanted to mention it, though, is we're changing our title, so don't be alarmed if The Green Girls disappears from your lists and readers. We're still going to be here - just with a new name!

Hope we'll keep seeing you all! :-)

Love,
The Green Girls

Blueberry Festival

Yesterday we went on a trip to a little town called Brigus for the annual Blueberry Festival. We were hoping to get there in time to see them cut the three-foot blueberry pie (and eat some of it) but we didn't make it because we got stuck in festival traffic. It's amazing how many people were there!

We still had a lot of fun, though. We walked around and played games - once again Bree kicked butt, she's great at games - and ate food. We got to watch this machine that made mini doughnuts, and the doughnuts tasted great with cinnamon and sugar. We also had moose burgers, hot dogs, and fries/chips.

There were a lot of craft stands as well as food stalls. Blakeney bought some homemade jam, and got us a blueberry pie to take home to make up for missing the big one. We had it this afternoon and it was delicious!

They had bands playing the whole time, and they were really good. It was mostly Irish/Newfoundland music, with a few covers thrown in.

The place was really crowded, considering how late we got there. Apparently there was a great turnout overall. The woman at the food stall where we ate said they had sold 3,700 moose burgers over the course of the festival. (Which is a lot even if some people ate more than one, when you consider that there were other food options too.) The town was probably really happy about how many people wanted to come.

It was a great time - real Newfoundland summer fun!

There was only one downside to the day. When we got back, the Roses' window was broken and their alarm system was going off. No one was in the house, and nothing was taken. They called the police just in case but there wasn't really much that could be done. Hopefully it was just an accident/coincidence. Maia and Inna are kind of worried. They put that aside to join us for the pie, though. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Love,
The Green Girls

Decision Time... Finally

Hi, this is Clare. I finally made a decision today. I'm going to let the family adopt me, and I'm going to be their official sister.

I know it probably seems weird that it took me so long to decide that. I've always liked them. They've always been nice to me. I've always wished I was a sister, not just a long-term guest. It was hard to say that, though.

For one thing, it's been awhile since I've been able to rely on other people. When my grandmother died and my family was arguing over who was going to be stuck with me, I kind of felt like I was never really going to be wanted. Even when the Greens said they wanted me to stay, it was hard to believe.

Also, I was worried bad things would happen to them because of me. I was worried they'd get hurt. I thought it would be better for me to run away so they didn't have to deal with my problems. I figured they'd eventually decide they'd had enough and kick me out or leave me for the bad vampires to find, so I should just cut my losses and make my own way before they could turn their backs on me.

When we got the threatening letter the other day, the family kept talking about what "we" were going to do. It was just assumed that I was staying, and they were going to protect me. It finally sank in, I guess. They already saw me as part of the family. I just had to decide what to do about it.

So... I decided I'm staying. I'm going to be an adopted Green. Finally. :-)

Love,
Clare

Changing Schools Blues

Hi, this is Charissa. :-)

We still have a couple more weeks before school starts for us, but I'm starting to get really nervous. Most of the girls here are going to the same school they did last year, but I'm not.

Summer and Kiwi moved here in May, so they're going back to the same school they went to for about a month last year. Summer is at Molly's school, but she's a grade behind Molly. Kiwi is going to the same school as Fiona and Ev. It's also the same school where Maia got a job teaching math. It still feels pretty new to them, so they can relate to me feeling anxious.

I have to change schools too, even though my family didn't move. My old school closed at the end of last year. I liked it there. It was for deaf and hearing-impaired students. I'm not profoundly deaf, but I don't have very much hearing in either ear and I have to read lips and use hearing aids. I know sign language too, but since I can speak, I usually do that instead because it's how most other people communicate. I also have some learning disabilities that my school was helping me with.

The government decided to stop having a separate school for hearing-impaired kids, though, so my school is closing and we're all being sent to other schools. It makes sense to me in a way because they don't want us to be isolated and most of us could fit into any classroom, so we don't really need our own place, and having an extra school costs tax money. Still, I liked my school, and I'll miss it. This year I'm going to the same school as Fiona, Evelyn, and Kiwi. I'm scared that the other kids will think I'm weird or that I'll fall behind because everyone else is a hearing student. My sisters keep saying it'll be fine, but I'm very worried.

The other person with school issues is Clare. She hasn't been in school for the last year, for obvious reasons. Even here, our weather is a lot less sunny than most places, but we can't guarantee that she'll be able to make it to school very often because there's some direct sunlight on some days. Our guardian says Clare can't just quit school forever, though, because she's only fifteen. Clare is kind of wondering what future she has anyway, but I think she misses school too, and it's going to be really boring for her if the rest of us are in school all day and she has nothing to work on herself.

I think we found a solution to that, though. Clare is going to be home-schooled and take classes online. Kaya actually does some of that too; she takes classes online some days and goes to co-op classes with other students some days. Kaya wouldn't mind the company, and Clare won't have to spend all her study time alone either. It seems like the best way for us to do things.

I'm still worried for myself, though. What if I don't like my new school? What if the other kids are mean? What if I can't keep up with the lessons? At least I'll be in the same classes as Fiona and Kiwi, so I'll have two guaranteed friends, even if it's my family too.

Love,
Charissa

A Good Day

Today was a really fun one for us. We (Greens and Roses) got up pretty early in the morning (that isn't the fun part, bear with us) and  went outside the city for a hike along the coast. We packed lunches, and covered a lot of distance. It was beautiful!

Unfortunately our camera is still borked, but we have some pictures from when we did the same hike before, so hopefully that will suffice. The main difference from today is that the weather then was sunny, and today was overcast and not very warm. That was good in two ways, though - for one thing, we didn't get too hot hiking, and for another, Clare got to go. (She's been able to do a lot of stuff with us this summer. I think it's a nice change for her; she kind of got used to not being involved in much because of the sunlight thing.) No sign of the meanie vampires.

After we were done hiking, we went for ice cream. It was a great end to the day. Now we're pretty exhausted, but we had a really fun time! It was a nice break from the stress.

Love,
The Green Girls

Pictures are under the cut, if you're currently on our main page:

A Threat

Hey! This is Felicity with an update. Unfortunately, not a super upbeat one.

We hadn't heard from our unfriendly visiting vampires in awhile. The vampire hunters got sent to jail for causing a traffic accident, but the actual bloodsuckers have been on the loose. Normally this time of year would be pretty limiting for vampires - but we've been having very little sun. Most days are overcast, and a lot are rainy and misty. That's been great for Clare; she's been able to lead a fairly normal life lately, and go most places we've gone. On the downside, though, it means the other vampires are able to be active, too.

We hadn't seen any sign of them, and we hoped they had just given up, or gotten bored and forgotten Clare. No such luck. Clare says she thinks they went somewhere else to... you know... hunt. Our province has a pretty low crime rate. On average 2-5 people are murdered every year in the whole province, and it's almost always a domestic dispute when it happens. Violent vampire activity would be noticed. Fortunately Clare isn't violent, at least not to humans (although the rats might disagree.)

During the night the other vampires left us a little reminder that they're still around, though. We woke up to a note left on our door.

"Hand over the girl, Clara*, and no one gets hurt. Last warning."


*Seemingly these vampires are not detail people. ;-)

Our guardian didn't say much, and neither did Inna and Maia, but we could tell they were worried. Obviously the "choice" is no choice at all. We'd never just give them Clare. We're kind of nervous about what trick the mean bloodsuckers are going to pull off next.

Love,
Felicity

Summer Fun ;-)

Hey, this is Summer. You know, the were-cat next door. ;-) I couldn't resist the stupid pun title.

This is my first time writing for the blog, but the Greens are trying to get me and Kiwi to start contributing. I really like to write, so I'm going to give it a try. (I normally write poetry and short stories, but blogging can't be that different, right?) Maybe I'll start writing regularly, too.

So let's see, what should I say about myself? I'm twelve years old, and I go to the same school as Molly, although she's one grade higher than me so we don't have classes together. Like I said before, I love to write and read. My favourite class is Language Arts. I really like math and science too, though.

I also really love riding horses! I don't have a horse of my own, but I've taken riding lessons for two years. I like to do horse shows, and I've won a bunch of ribbons. Since I don't have my own horse, I show the school horse I ride in my lessons.

Some of you may know this already, but most horses have a "stable name" and a "show name." The stable name is what the horse is called normally, and it's usually something pretty simple. It doesn't have to be unique, although usually there wouldn't be two horses with the same stable name at the same barn because it would be confusing. The show name is usually longer and more complicated and fancy, and it's more unique to that horse; usually it's made of the show names of that horse's dam and sire (that means its mom and dad.)

The horse I show is called Blossom. That's her stable name, so it's what I normally call her. She's a mare (an adult female) and she is twelve years old. She likes to jump and go fast, and she doesn't always listen very well, but we're used to each other now. Her show name is Tea Rose Garden.

Besides writing and riding horses, I also really love yoga! It's very relaxing. I practice almost every day, and if I'm feeling stressed there's nothing I like more than pulling out my yoga mat and doing a few poses. It keeps me sane sometimes.

The Greens have talked about my background a little in other posts, but here's a recap with a few more details:

I was born in Toronto. I'm biracial; my father was black and my mother was white. I say "was" because they had a lot of problems and couldn't take care of me, so I ended up in foster care when I was a baby, and I'm not really sure who my biological parents are or if they're still alive. I hope they're doing well and got their lives together. I think about them sometimes. Because of my dual heritage I have curls and amber eyes, which is kind of different and cool.

I was adopted when I was about a year old. It wasn't long before they realized I have a little "problem" though... I periodically turn into a cat. Not joking. I'm a were-cat. Or something. I knew I was different, and I sometimes didn't behave very well because I had trouble dealing with that. Anyway, it was too much for my adoptive family, and they decided to dissolve the adoption and stop being my parents when I was seven years old. So I went back to foster care. Again.

That turned out to be pretty good for me, though, because I ended up in a foster home with Kiwi and Maia, back before Maia was an adult. Maia aged out of foster care and got custody of me and Kiwi, because by then we were all really close.

It's nice to have a family that really loves me and understands me. And I include the Greens in that. We're all one big family now. That has been really cool, suddenly having so many surrogate sisters!

So, that's me. Summer. Wow, that was a long post! You probably know more about me than you want to, now. You'll probably see me blogging more in the future, too. ;-)

Love,
Summer

Back on Track

Hey everyone - sorry for the delay in posting. We've been having a busy week. Here's a brief catch up on what's been going on...

On Monday, Evelyn, Charissa, Fiona, and Kiwi got back from camp. They had a really wonderful time, and brought back lots of fun stories, craft projects, and massive piles of dirty laundry. The girls made some new friends, and had loads of great experiences. They can't wait to go back next year!

The rest of our summer activities are finished up now too. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Those of us who were not at sleep-away camp went camping and hiking in one of the provincial parks for two nights with Inna, Maia, and Summer last week, before the other girls got home. It was really fun too. We're glad to have everyone back together now, though.

Wednesday was Regatta Day, when the whole city closes down for boat races and we all go down to the lake to... well, in theory to watch. In reality, we go to eat, play carnival games, and hang out with friends. Our city's regatta is the oldest documented annual sporting event in North America. We went down for the afternoon. Even Clare got to come along because it was really overcast. We ate at our favourite food stall we get lunch at every year - the one run by the Hindu temple, where they serve awesome Indian food as a fundraiser. Then we played games, won some prizes, and walked around. (It turns out Bree is really talented at carnival games, which she had never mentioned the extent of before. Who knew! Bree is a woman of mystery, apparently.) We ate mooseburgers, chips/fries, and cotton candy for supper. It was a really good time all around.

Today Summer had another horse show, so we all went to cheer for her. It was raining hard, so some of the events got canceled and some got moved indoors for safety reasons, but Summer won a blue ribbon and a red one. Summer badly wants her own horse, but so far she's always just shown school horses. Maybe someday! Evelyn will start taking riding lessons soon too, so before long we'll probably be going to two people's horse shows.

I think that's the main news for now. Good to "see" our blog friends again, and sorry we've been too busy to write! We're back on track to blog regularly again now, so you'll be seeing more of us. :-)

Love,
The Green Girls