Recent Reads

Recently I've been reading a whole lot. I've finished three books in the last few days.

First up, Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine. This one had a lot of great advice on writing, which is what I want to do when I grow up. Gail Carson Levine is one of my favorite authors, and this is the best book I've found on writing.


Next is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This is another really great one, which I have now read twice. It has a really good plot, even if it does bother my mom (Science Fiction isn't her thing). the two books that come after aren't quite as good, and the last book drives me nuts because one of my favorite characters gets killed off, but they're good too.

Last but certainly not least is Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. This one is a memoir, and its really, really good. The first half/ two thirds takes place in China during the Cultural Revolution. Then it mostly takes place in the U. S. Really, really good book.


That's all for now!

Sixth Grade Graduation

Friday was the last day of school! Sixth grade graduation was just before lunch, and the principal let everyone who had a parent there go home early. I won two awards, a gold medal for 200 AR points, and a certificate that each teacher gave out to 5-8 students in his/her class. I got mine for "Being and Aspiring Author." I also got to read a poem. Morgan Sang a solo and the entire sixth grade did a performance on...wait for it...KAZOOS! It was the music teacher's idea. It was a great last day in elementary school!

Makenna, a girl in my class.

Ireland


Ashleigh G.






Sabrina W. Rider

(She is crushing on Flynn Rider from Tangled)



Mrs. Payne and I



My teacher last year, Mr. Sanders

Morgan and Tailor's little sister, Mykayla

Kie3rra (The "3" is silent) who my mom said looked like she was dressed for prom

Morgan, Tailor and I!

Mykayla

Me and Morgan (I was trying to take the picture myself)

Me and Tailor (ditto)

A GOOD picture of me and Tailor

Tailor

Morgan at the Valentine's Dance

Me at the Valentine's dance

At the Greek festival Kennedy, Rachel, and Emily did a talk show. Kennedy was the host, "Bob," Rachel was two of the guests, Poseidon and Hades, and Emily was Aphrodite. Too funny!

Paige, after Morgan accused her of being a Justin Bieber hater. Yeah, right. It was just for fun, Paige and Ashleigh G. are crushing on him so bad, that when Mrs. Payne announced their names for graduation, they had her say them like their real last names were their maiden names, and now they were Paige and Ashleigh Bieber. Funny!

Mrs. Payne

Morgan

Me and my then only BFF, Emme, on the first day of kindergarten. Wasn't I cute?

Getting on the bus for the first time

Getting ready to leave

Sixth grade was really great, and I'm going to miss Mrs. Payne a lot next year.

End of School

Tomorrow is the last day of school! Then we have summer vacation. Mom is hoping they add a lot more episodes of Phineas and Ferb, because even she's seen every episode, because Josh watches it all the time while we're at school and we usually want to watch it after school. I'm personally hoping that they put on more of the shows I like. Everyone in my class will probably start crying when the bell rings because Mrs. Payne is so awesome and she won't be our teacher anymore. Tear. SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER!

Violin Recital

This is a video of my violin recital Saturday. I played Minuet No. 2 by Bach. My wonderful teacher ( and "hired big sister") Kaitlin was the one who got me in the recital. I'm her only student and so we weren't going to get to do a recital, but her teacher was having a recital for her students and she said it was okay for me to be in it. I was nervous, but it was really fun.

Memorial Day 2011

Happy Memorial Day!

Josh's Preschool Graduation

Today was Josh's preschool graduation. He was too cool for words throughout. He did almost the entire program with his hands in his pockets. Each kid did a little thing for one of the songs. Josh was in charge of doing the puppets for Five Little Monkeys. He was very focused on his little puppets. His teacher was Miss Tammy, the same lady who taught Matt for preschool. The entire program was very cute. One little boy throughout the entire thing was jumping up and saying something like, "Awesome!" or, "Thank you!" Matt was just about ready to strangle him!

Josh and Miss Tammy

Josh in his graduation cap

Josh doing Five Little Monkeys

More Five Little Monkeys

Part of the program

Old Yeller

As our last class book for the year Mrs. Payne read us Old Yeller. The last book we read was Where the Red Fern Grows. Today we finished reading Old Yeller. It is one of my favorite books ever, even if I do always cry at the end. We will be watching the movie soon, which I hate. I hate the movie because they screwed up the already sad ending and made it even sadder. Either way, Old Yeller is a great book.

The Latest Dance Craze Is...

THE PUPPY DANCE! It is also the cutest dance EVER! This is what happens at home while I'm at school. The puppy in question is named Chocolate and has not been questioned on the matter.

Josh's friends

This is Josh and his little friends Gage and Beck. Beck moved away a while ago, but Gage is still here. Gage is the one on the far left, then Beck, then Josh. CUTENESS ATTACK!

More videos!

Yet another elusive dig it play video! This is the Greek scene, and it has me in the Greek Chorus and Tailor as Herodotus. Tah dah!