The Chicago Toy and Game Fair

Yesterday I went to the Chicago Toy and Game Fair at Navy Pier. It was a big show with lots of cool new toys that you could play with. My brother and I tested out awesome new toys like Slingers, which are a yo-yo type toy with a magnet on the bottom that catches medallions, and Game Changers, which was a game that you could play with your iPad by attaching two game boards. Of all the toys that we saw, these two that I am about to tell you about were my favorites.

Toy #1: BrickStix. BrickStix are static designs that you can stick on Legos. They were invented by a kid named Greyson. He is only 12 years old! I made a house with these BrickStix by making a tower with a window and putting a curtain sticker on the window. Brickstix are resusable so you can use them many times and it is not permanent. I like Brickstix because I really like Legos and because they add cool designs to plain Legos. I also think that it's really cool that a kid invented these and I know that he won Young Inventor of the Year.

Toy #2: CitiBlocs. Citiblocs are like wooden platforms that you can make buildings with by stacking the blocks. They are sort of like Lincoln Logs but flatter. I made two huge buildings out of Citiblocs. One of them is below. I think they are very cool because you can design your own building. They are very good toys for kids who like to build stuff. They're good for everyone actually. My dad really likes these blocks and he is 38! I like them because they don't have much technology and because they are social. You can play with them with your brother even if he is younger than you.

Maybe you should go to the Chicago Toy and Game Fair next year because it gives you lots of ideas for holiday gifts and the toys are very fun to play with. I hope to see you there!

I Love Justice

 
Justice is a store for tweens. I like to go to Justice because they have cool clothes. They have sequins. They have peace signs and hearts. I have cool clothes from Justice. I have a sparkly sweater, a pair of blue and grey sweatpants, a cool hoodie, a striped sweater and DOZENS more. I LOVE JUSTICE!

Justice is a store where you buy outfits and mix and match them. I do that all the time. For example, I have cool brown corduroys that I bought to go with a sequined shirt but they go with EVERYTHING. My apple-green shirt from Justice goes with a blue skirt that came from a whole different store.

I like Justice because they have cool clothes that fit my style perfectly. Maybe you should shop at Justice!

Cool Costumes

I had my school Halloween party on Friday and some cool costumes swept the 'tweens. My friend Megan wore a Cruella de Ville costume with a fake dogskin coat and a black dress. My friend Sammi wore a Medusa costume. Medusa is a character from Greek myths -- Perseus slayed Medusa actually. Sammi wore a golden dress and cape and a headband with fake snakes because Medusa has snakes that sprout out of her head instead of hair.  My classmate Cole was the black bomb bird from "Angry Birds." The costume was made of a black pillowcase and his mom had sewed on big yellow eyes with angry black eyebrows. My friend Jack was the number one Cubs fan. He wore a black shirt under a Soriano jersey and jeans, Cubs face paint and a Cubs hat. I like these costumes because they are original.

On Saturday, my mom and I went to a CSO concert. It was called the Hallowed Haunts concert. You wore a costume to the concert. There was this one girl who wore a jellyfish costume. She wore a big turquoise circular hat and streamers hanging down. My mom and I thought it was cool. The whole orchestra was dressed as zombies! They wore black clothes and strung fake cobwebs around themselves. They had white make-up to make them look like they had just risen from the dead. The organ was playing the Toccata by Bach while the zombies were trampling on the stage. It was very zombie-like! 

My brother Jamie is being a vulture for Halloween and I have to admit the costume is pretty darn cool. My mom made it. She got a black turtleneck and sweatpants from Target. She got black fabric, a white boa, and black feathers from Michael's. The fabric was for wings. She hot-glued the feathers onto the wings and the boa was for the neckline.

As you know, I'm being Amelia Earheart for Halloween. I wrote a whole 'nother post about that! I love Halloween.

Tips for a Good Book Report

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

Now that I am in the third grade, I have to do a book report every month. Each month has a theme. October's theme was mystery. We had choices of a project to do. You could choose a puzzle where you made six puzzle pieces. Piece one was the author and title. Piece two was main and minor characters. Piece three was the setting. Piece four was the problem. Piece five was the main events. Piece six was a clue leading to the solution. You could also choose a diorama. You did a one-paragraph summary of the book and made a scene out of clay or foil or Legos or Playmobils in a shoebox. You could choose a mobile too. The mobile was basically the puzzle but with a hanger and notecards.

I did the puzzle. My book was Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach. I liked doing the puzzle because a mystery is a synonym to a puzzle. To make my project, my mom and I cut out puzzle pieces from a foam board and glued them on a poster board and wrote sentences about the book. You also had to give a presentation about your project to the class.

Tips for Your Presentation

• Make eye contact.
• Be one of the first ones to go so your audience doesn't lose interest.
• Don't stare at your paper or poster.
• Before you begin, check to see if your class is being rude so they are not doing bad things while you present.
• Practice, practice, practice!
• Speak loud and clear.
• If you mess up, keep going and pretend you didn't mess up anything.

Don't wait till the last minute to do your project. Do a little every weekend. That's what I did. It's not so bad if your work every weekend.

My Aviatrix Costume

An aviatrix is a girl who flies in a 1920's plane. For example, Amelia Earheart. Now, an aviatrix had a really cool look. They wore khaki leggings, lace-up boots, the classic hat and goggles, a white scarf and bomber jacket.

I really adore Amelia Earheart, not only her look but her life too. She was such an amazing woman and very inspiring because she was the first ever woman to fly across the sea.

Lace-up boots: if you read my other posts, you will see that I love boots and these are fun, funky boots with gold laces going up and down that totally work on me. I styled these boots today with leggings, a jean skirt and a cool shirt.

Bomber jacket: my bomber jacket is faux leather with comfy fleece on the inside and zipper pockets on the outside. I am going to wear a white shirt, over that my bomber jacket, khaki jeggings and with my hat and goggles. It is going to be an awesome Halloween costume -- the best ever!

The best thing about my aviatrix costume is I can wear these fashionable clothes later this year.

FashionPlaytes.com

Fashion Playtes is a great website to design clothes. You can make a shirt (like I did two seconds ago) or dress. You pick your garment and then pick a color and add rhinestones and more to create a cool piece of clothing. You make it yourself and you don't just have to choose from a catalog. Your Fashion Playtes design is the original.

My Fashion Playtes shirt that I just ordered expresses me. I love to swim and my blue shirt has a cool symbol with waves and the word"swim" made out of rhinestones. That's what's cool about Fashion Playtes: you can take a plain shirt and change it into an awesome creation that you designed!

Before this, I made my first Fashion Playtes shirt which is purple and has a peace sign that is yellow and red. My mom, who is a blogger also, went to a big blogging conference called BlogHer and got me a Fashion Playtes purse and gift card. She thought that I would like it because I love fashion.

You log onto the site (www.fashionplaytes.com) to design your cool creation. My shirt cost $27. The shirt was $20 at the beginning and I added two designs and then it ended up around $27. My mom found a deal for Fashion Playtes on Plum District and maybe you can too.

I have a friend who wanted clothes for her birthday, but I didn't know what she liked, so I gave her a Fashion Playtes gift card so she could design her own. I bet she's going to like it.

This is my personal information about Fashion Playtes. I really like the website and this is what I think. They did not pay me to write this post. I just chose to write it.

Ankle Booties

I have a pair of suede ankle booties which I adore. They look chic with a mini and t-shirt. They may also look good with boot-cut jeans, leggings or jean shorts. Do not wear suede during rain or they will get ruined. I think it's fun to style up a cute way to wear your ankle booties and have a good time. Unfortunately, I have gym every single day and cannot find a time to wear my cool new suede booties because I have to wear gym shoes.

In US Weekly, my mom (Emily Paster, West of the Loop) found pictures of celebrities in their ankle booties. I think Emma Stone styles her Rebecca Minkoffs good wearing skinny jeans, a brown purse and white shirt.

Have fun with those ankle booties!