The last few days the American Girl dolls have had all the attention – between the announcement of the new historical character Caroline Abbott to the arrival of McKenna and the making of her vault – but now it’s time to focus your attention on something truly stunning – Ellowyne Wilde!

One of our frequent contributors, Madelon, treated herself to an Ellowyne for Mother’s Day. She got Check on Me – who has blonde rooted hair and painted green eyes. I look forward to seeing more photos of this beauty as she settles into her new home.

A few weeks ago Charlie (also short for Charlene like me) of DollsBehavingBadly.com mentioned to me that she had an Ellowyne doll still in its box for sale on eBay. One look at Nothing Springs to Mind and I just had to have her – well, actually Natalie had been raving about how pretty this retired Ellowyne was so, technically, Nothing Springs to Mind is for Natalie when she gets older.

We named Nothing Springs to Mind, Nicolette. She was kind enough to pose out near my garden this morning after it rained all last night. She was checking to see if the Daylilies are going to bloom any time soon.

A while back I fell in love with this FAO.com exclusive Ellowyne called Woeful Romance. She has long black hair and teal glass eyes. She is seriously STUNNING. She didn’t like being outside near the damp flowers so I posed her inside with my orchids instead.

After posing with the orchids, Woeful Romance, who we call Lilian (Lily for short) was ready to change into her favorite t-shirt, pull her hair up in to a ponytail and relax. Isn’t she just gorgeous?

Back on the shelf, Elle (Dark Days Ellowyne) is a little concerned. She is the self proclaimed queen of this shelf and the Director of Doll Relations, however, Lily’s beauty is undeniable and she is a little worried that Lily may be after her titles. Watch your back Lily, the other girls will tell you, Elle is not to be trusted

Happy Wednesday!! Hope you have a great day.

UPDATED WITH WINNERS!! The winner of the three McKenna books is Christina from http://bigworldandmypower.blogspot.com/. The winner of The Hidden Gold is Jen. The winner of the ISU Behind the Scenes book is Kaylee and the winner of The Smart Girls Guide to Liking Themselves is Agbittybaby.

Summer is almost here and one of my kids’ favorite ways to spend their summer days is curled up with a good book! American Girl thinks that’s a great idea, too.

They sent me a box of American Girl books to use as giveaways to Doll Diaries readers – we will actually have FOUR winners!

So, keep reading to find out what Read-a-palooza is all about, what books we are giving away and how you can enter to win!

About Read-a-palooza

Read-a-palooza is American Girl’s summer reading program they are doing this year in conjunction with the literacy campaign that ties in with the American Girl of The Year for 2012, McKenna Brooks, and her struggles with her schoolwork. From May 1 through September 3, 2012, $1 of every book purchased through American Girl (up to a maximum of $100,000) will support Save the Children’s efforts to raise literacy rates in impoverished communities by providing basic education and equipping schools and teachers with reading materials. In addition, American Girl will make its third donation of books to Save the Children this fall, bringing the value of the company’s total book donation to nearly $1.5 million. Go to www.americangirl.com/reading to:

• Get details about the program
• Download printable bookmarks to keep track of your favorite books all summer
• Find out about in-store events
• Take quizzes
• Print out McKenna’s gymnastics word search
• and help a great cause!

What we are giving away

ONE lucky winner will win all three books in the McKenna collection which includes -McKenna by Mary Casanova, McKenna, Ready to Fly! by Mary Casanova, and Take the Challenge.

ONE lucky winner will win The Hidden Gold: A Marie-Grace Mystery (American Girl Mysteries)by Sarah M Buckey.

ONE lucky winner will win the Innerstar U book Behind the Scenes – a book starring you with more than 20 endings you can pick.

ONE lucky winner will will A Smart Girl’s Guide to Liking Herself – Even on Bad Days.

**Note – the dolls are not part of the giveaway, they just wanted to see what the books were about while showing them off to you!

How to Enter!

• Visit AmericanGirl.com/reading and get acquainted with the program, do a quiz or two and print out some bookmarks or activities.
• Mandatory entry – leave a comment below letting us know what THREE books are you looking forward to reading this summer!
• Get a two bonus entries by posting a photo of your dolls reading books on our Facebook page or on Twitter (be sure to leave a comment here that you posted it so I go see it).
• Get more bonus entries by letting your friends know about our giveaway. Get one extra entry for each of the following, but come back and leave a second comment telling us where you shared it:
  • Post about it on your own blog, in a forum, tweet about it or share it with your friends on Facebook.
  • Follow us on Twitter (we are @DollDiaries) – please send us a tweet letting us know you are following us and introduce yourself, too.
  • Like us on Facebook (we are DollDiaries) – again, feel free to leave us a note on Facebook saying hello and that you are entering the giveaway.
  • Subscribe to our YouTube channels (DollDiaries)
  • Follow the DollDiaries board on Pinterest

Rules

• Leave your comment(s) no later than midnight May 14, 2012.
• Make sure your email address is right. We only use it to contact the winner and we will NEVER share it or publish it.
• You must be 13 or older to enter. If you are under 13, just ask your parent, grandparent, favorite aunt or uncle to enter for you!
• We will be using the “And the winner is” plugin to select four (4) winners at random.

UPDATE 5/14/2012 - American Girl posted on their Facebook page today that the new historical character for 2012 will be named Caroline Abbott along with the image below:

And here is the cover of her craft book:

Obviously no photo of her but the flower basket is interesting.

UPDATED: We have a possible new clue… It has been rumored for a while that the new American Girl historical character will be named Caroline, but we have no official confirmation of that yet. According to the website, Goodreads, her name is Caroline. Again, we don’t know if they are just using a code name still, or what, but it is good to see some new clues.

Updated!! It’s official. There will be a new American Girl Historical character added in 2012. Like previous historical releases, the new doll looks like she will be debuting around September 1, 2012.

We now have the book titles for the American Girl Historical books by Kathleen Ernst.

• Meet Caroline! Book 1
• Caroline’s Secret Message – Book 2
• A Surprise for Caroline – Book 3
• Caroline Takes a Chance – Book 4
• Caroline’s Battle – Book 5
• Changes for Caroline – Book 6

Love those Doll Diaries sleuths – like Jenny – who find the coolest clues to American Girl scoop going!! Thank you.

According to the Transatlantic Literary Agency website, Kathleen Ernst has a set of 6 books in the works for American Girl to be released in 2012. How interesting!! And they are supposed to be historical – even more interesting!

Kathleen Ernst has authored many of the American Girl mysteries and has written other history-based stories for young adults. Some of her titles include:

• The Runaway Friend: A Kirsten Mystery (American Girl Mysteries)
• Danger At The Zoo: A Kit Mystery (American Girl Mysteries)
• Clues in the Shadows: A Molly Mystery (American Girl Mysteries)

Now, we just have to patiently wait for more clues as to who the new girl will be!

Of all the furniture and accessories that are available for dolls, the gymnastics equipment for American Girl of the Year McKenna has got to be my all time favorite. So, I might be a bit biased – I was a gymnastics coach for many years (26 to be exact) and my daughter has been a gymnast from the time she could walk. We got McKenna’s bar and beam as soon as they came out and the girls love them, but McKenna is missing something – her vault!

In her books, McKenna is working towards the Level 4 team. In the US, Level 4 gymnasts compete vault on a large mat system and do a vault called a handstand to flat back. In her movie, McKenna is more like a Level 8 and would not use this vault for competition, but she would use it in training for high level vaults. McKenna is wearing a retired American Girl leotard and Kit also has a retired AG leotard on, too.

In order to make a vault system for McKenna (or any of your dolls), you will need:

• A large box – I used the shipping box from McKenna – it is about 21″ long by 10.5″ wide by about 10″ tall.
• A piece of packing foam cut to 21″ x 10.5″ x 2″. You could use kitchen sponges from the Dollar Store too.
• Scrap cardboard
• Duct tape
• Wrapping paper
• Craft foam
• Tape, glue, scissors

Step 1 - Measure then cut the wrapping paper and wrap your box. I used packing tape so it would be more secure. I recommend leaving one set of flaps open so you can use the box for storage when McKenna is not working out.

Here is what the base of the vault looks like now. You could actually leave it like this and have McKenna practice her vault on this “setting.” Or you can add a mat on top like they do in gyms – they have mats they can stack on top to make it more challenging or to accommodate girls who are taller.

Step 2 - To make the mat on top, cut a piece of foam recycled from a packing box that will fit on the top of your box. You can also use sponges from the dollar store.

Step 3 - Cover the foam with duct tape.

McKenna is much happier with the mat on top. This way she can remove the mat and put it on the floor to practice her back handsprings or put it at the end of her beam to practice her dismounts.

If you want to make the mat really accurate – add a line with contrasting duct tape on one end of the vault. When Level 4 gymnasts do their vault their hands can not go past the line when they go to the handstand or they will get a deduction.

McKenna needs a springboard to go with her vault. She will be able to use the springboard at bars and beam too.

Step 4 - Cut two pieces of cardboard that are 4.5″ wide by 6″ tall.

Step 5 - Cover each piece of cardboard with fun foam and then staple one end of the stack (I recommend three staples).

Step 6 - Cover the end with the staples with contrasting duct tape.

Step 7 - Cut two small squares of foam to place in between the layers of foam to simulate the springs in a springboard. You could also use scrapbooking foam squares stacked, Model Magic or really anything that could look/act like springs in this case.

Step 8 - Add a stripe of contrasting duct tape towards the top of the springboard that wraps around to the underneath of the springboard. This line is a visual aid for the gymnast as to where the best spring is and it keeps the springs from falling out, too.

Ta-da!! I added a vault runway also made from 3 strips of duct tape side by side. Now McKenna and Kit can get on with their workout.

I have more photos of McKenna practicing her Level 4 vault and her more advanced vault, but I will post them later in a separate post.

I hope you liked this craft! If you missed the tutorial for making a beam for the dolls, visit our post Doll Craft: How to make a balance beam for your dolls and here is a video of our dolls doing a bar routine.

I just love, love, love seeing photos of our prizes once they make it to our winners homes. Katie and Lissy were two of the three Mystery Prize box winners I awarded for taking the time to fill out the Doll Diaries survey. All three Mystery Prize boxes had different things in them, but you can see there were some similarities.

Lissy’s box had an American Girl Washington DC t-shirt in it, plus some mini stickers, bunny slippers from Springfield Dolls and sunglasses.

Katie’s dolls got a bathing suit from Springfield Dolls.

Katie’s dolls also got pink fuzzy slippers, pink and white tennis shoes and tortoise shell glasses from Springfield Doll.

Ivy looks adorable in the tortoise shell glasses, too!!

As always, we LOVE to see what your dolls are up to – whether it is showing off something you won from Doll Diaries, something created for them or you have a photo you just want to share!

I received an email from Linda last week with 3 photos of vintage dolls she had recently purchased but needs help identifying. I’m sure as a group we can help her figure out who some of these beauties are.

Photo # 1 – four dolls.

Photo #2 – four dolls.

Photo #3 – the first one is a Kewpie doll, but the other 3 need identification.

If you have any answers, ideas, or insight into what dolls any of these are, please leave a comment below.

For Mother’s Day we went to my parent’s house and had brunch with the whole family. Not only was it a gorgeous day with great company, it gave me the opportunity to take some stunning photos of McKenna in my Mom’s gardens. McKenna is wearing the Flower Garden dress we gave to my niece for her birthday and she wanted McKenna to wear it while we there.

Warning - this is a long post and you will fall in love with McKenna in the process.

Sitting the Fairy Garden

Picking flowers. Megan did McKenna’s hair and decided to use her hairband as a ponytail holder.

This has to be my favorite photo of the day.

McKenna is Queen of the Fairies!

McKenna having a conversation with one of the fairies. I wish I would have taken a close up of the little Fairy Schoolhouse to McKenna’s right. We got it for my Mom today and it has one door labeled Fairies and one door labeled Pixies.

McKenna decided to explore the rest of the garden and found this gorgeous spot for getting her photo taken over by the fountain.

McKenna wanted to climb the pedestal near the rose bush so she could get a look at the entire garden.

McKenna’s message of the day – “Take time to stop and smell the flowers!!”

Happy Mother’s Day! There are so many great photos in my inbox just waiting to be shared this week, so let’s get started!

Dawn says, “Here is a photo of Mini Addy wearing a mob cap that I made 30+ years ago and a pinner apron that I made this week. This is the latest photo for a 365 photo challenge that I’m doing. I’m taking a photo a day of my mini American Girl dolls. I’ve been focusing on one doll each month. Here is a link to my challenge set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68499916@N00/sets/72157628874396773

Brinley sent in a few photos but this was my favorite.

Maggie threw a great party for Kanani!

From Madelon: Lanie holds her Wild Thing stuffed animal in honor of author Maurice Sendak who passed away this past week.

Sherie was the winner of the Matilda doll earlier this spring. She sent in photos of Matilda dressed as a Victorian girl, apparently she couldn’t wait for Amelia! She bought the clothes from eBay, and they fit surprisingly well.

And Sherie also sent in a photo of Zoe, one of the original Karito Kids, the one from NY, wearing last years’ holiday outfit.

Sarah got a new doll this week – #49 (Elsie Abigail Hope) doll she got for her birthday in Marie-Graces Summer Outfit!

Chloe shares a photo of Kanani during her spring photo shoot.

We love seeing what you make for your dolls, adventures they have, and great finds. If you would like to submit your photo for next week’s Sunday Showcase, here are the basics:

• Email your photo to share@dolldiaries.com (it must be your own photo – do not take photos from someone else’s site and submit them as your own)
• Put “Reader Photo Submission” in the subject line (I get a ton of email & this will make it easier to sort through)
• Resize your photos to 540 pixels wide (if you can)
• Make sure you include a description or caption for your photos

McKenna and all the Doll Diaries dolls (and humans) wish every Mom a Happy Mother’s Day today!!

McKenna is modeling the American Girl Flower Garden dress that we got my niece for her birthday.  She is also getting a trunk from Springfield Dolls filled with goodies from American Girl and Springfield Dolls.

Enjoy your day! PS. Don’t forget to enter our American Girl books giveaway.

Everyone was wondering what Elle was up to in a photo I posted recently, and now we know! Elle ordered McKenna!! That’s right, McKenna. First, she was getting a little worried that McKenna might be sold out by Christmas and second, she figured with the Olympics and McKenna’s movie coming up that we could have some fun setting up scenes, make some movies, and do some crafts specifically for gymnastics.

I took a bunch of photos of McKenna’s arrival and put them into a YouTube movie for you! Watch the movie to see all the photos and the conversation between the dolls. You can also scroll down to see a few of the photos on their own.

Elle is a sneaky one!!

Everyone watch out! Ellowyne has scissors!

It’s McKenna!!! Somebody get her out of there quick!

Oh, McKenna – you are cuter than I expected!

Finally! So glad my “sister” McKenna has arrived.

Ready for some new adventures!!

I have a really neat craft for McKenna planned! Hopefully I will have time to do it today, but if not, it may be tomorrow. Have a great weekend!