Soph's Poem

Soph's English assignment today was to write a poem about her favorite month and set it to a nursery rhyme song. The following is her poem set to the tune of Row, row, row your boat.

Spring, spring, spring is here

It's the month of May

Robins chirping in their nest

On a sunny day

My Haiku

Today in English class, I learned about short poems called haiku. The Japanese wrote the first haiku poems. Each poem has three lines and does not usually rhyme. The first line in a haiku has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five. This is the poem that I wrote:

Wintertime has come

Hopping rabbits leave their tracks

See them in the snow

Chris

Out West

What a great weekend! Our whole family traveled to Nebraska - it was a terribly long drive but I was glad when we finally arrived. While there, I saw my friends, Erica, her sister Merrill, and Lydia, in Nebraska and had a lot of fun with them. Our family was preparing to leave on Sunday afternoon after church but Merrill and Erica asked their parents if I could spend the night with them and then leave the next day with some other people who would drop me off at my house. My parents gave their “yes” and what a lot of fun we had! I had never been to my friends’ house in NE so this was very exciting! They live on a farm complete with cows, riding horses, draft horses, a dog named Mollie and two cats. Oh, and not to mention a pet hedgehog! That evening turned out to be very interesting since the family had quite a lot of other people in the house for dinner. After we ate, most of us kids trooped down to the basement to play a few card games. We played a game called Apples to Apples (which, by the way, is a very fun game in case you have never played it!). This kept us laughing the whole time. When the game was over we all decided to go outside and play Red Rover, Hide and Go Seek, and Fruit-basket Upset. When every one had gone home, we girls slowly made our way to bed at midnight and promptly fell asleep! The next morning I expected that we were going to be leaving only to find out that we would have a whole other day there! Yippee! That morning we all took turns riding the horses that they kept there. Out of all of the horses there, I would have to say my favorite was Jackson, a dark brown horse who was skittish when first brought out of his pen. He was so pretty when he started running and his mane and tail blew freely in the strong wind! The rest of the day was spent leisurely, most of us feeling pretty tired. Later on in the evening we had a ride on a wagon down the road and I even got to have a turn riding in the front seat! The next morning we left and I was very sorry to leave my friends but grateful that I had the opportunity to stay another two days and have tons of fun! Well, now I am back home and must leave off lest I should not be able to get up in the morning! Hanna

Viv's Toothbrush

On my birthday, I got a new toothbrush. It has a battery in it. My toothbrush wiggles and tickles my teeth. When I put it on the table, it moves. Now my toothbrush needs a new battery.

Toby

Today I played assistant vet and dog groomer to my mom as we gave our dog, Toby, a bath. Toby is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and fairly small - about fifteen pounds. He is a sweet, cute little dog who will keep intruders away by licking them to death. Anyway, today was Toby's time to take a bath and he also needed some stitches taken out. Mom and I trooped down to the basement and proceeded to start by taking out his stitches. Let me tell you, that was not an easy task! Toby was a little apprehensive and did not like what we were doing to him. My job was to restrain Toby and mommy took the stitches out. Once finished, we proceeded on with his bath. Lots of warm water, calm reassurances, and nice smelling shampoo made for a clean dog. After we had semi-dried him with a towel, we took the brush and blow drier to him. By this time, Ri had come over to visit and ended up helping trim some of Toby's hair. In the end, the white of Toby's fur now looks very white and he smells much more respectable. Hanna

My Tooth!

The most exciting thing happened to me last night! My first tooth fell out! I have been waiting for this to happen a very long time. I am so happy! Soph

A Dream Come True!

Hello! Just to bring you up to date, our whole family is visiting our Grandpa and Grandma who live in Iowa. The main reason for our trip was to attend my mom’s cousin’s wedding. Our whole family went to the wedding last night, but after that we came back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house and Miss Susie and Miss Debbie watched us while the adults went to the reception. After dinner Miss Susie and Miss Debbie had a surprise for us! They had brought all the American Girl dolls that they and their sisters had while they were growing up, plus a whole box of outfits! We were all totally delighted as they have almost all the dolls in the series: Molly, Addy, Samantha, Felicity, Josephina, Kirsten, and my favorite, Kit. Soph and I have never seen all of the dolls before, except in the magazines, so this was a fun for us! It was like Soph's dream, to see all the American girls! When it was time for Miss Susie and Miss Debbie to go, they left us with Kit, Kirsten, Felicity, and Molly to play with until tomorrow. What fun! Soph and Hanna

Story Starters

As part of school, every Tuesday at eleven o'clock, Si, Ri, Sim and I have a writing class. Mommy bought a book called Story Starters and it is full of stories that are only half finished. My mom reads us the first half of the story and then each of us write our own ending to the story. Often times the results are very humorous (especially Si’s endings!). We all really enjoy doing it, so when Ri saw a 'finish the story contest' in Clubhouse Magazine, the prize being $50 in cash for the first prize, we all decided to enter. The past few weeks have been spent writing our outlines, first drafts, revisions, and then our final drafts. The one problem has been that your story is limited to 600 words or less. It was no problem for the boys to keep their stories under the limit but with Ri and I it has been a different story! My story's word count was above 900! Oh boy, did mommy and I have to do some serious cutting of my story and it was the same with Ri. Finally, I ended up with 591 words! Close call! Well, all of our stories are ready to be mailed off today. Hooray!

The Great Pumpkin

Yesterday we went on a field trip to an Amish community. They had a humongous pumpkin patch that has a corn maze and two mazes made out of hay bales. They also had a small petting zoo with pot bellied pigs, loop eared rabbits, regular rabbits, ducks, turkeys, and a whole bunch of varieties of chickens. Some of the chickens were very unique - several of them had feathers on their legs and feet. They looked really funny - not at all like the chickens we are used to. I collected 18 feathers and am planning on making a headdress out of them. At this farm they had lots of squash and pumpkins for sale. They grow all different kinds of varieties of pumpkins; green ones, gray ones, white ones, and even the traditional orange. Some were little, some big, some round, and some flat. They even had one pumpkin that weighed 440 pounds! I bought some gourds and a small pumpkin, along with some Indian corn to decorate our table. Mom bought a Jarrahdale pumpkin to make pie with - until she does, I get to use it with my other decorations. After that, we went to an Amish grocery store. It was so cool. They had all kinds of things there. Sim, Gabe, Nate, and I loved the knives. They also had two different sizes of double barreled rifles that were lighters. When we were leaving the store, we saw lots of Amish children on little carts drawn by horses. Because it was 3:30, we supposed that they were going home from school. I waved and said "Hi" to each one that passed.
So long for now, Si

The Big Sleepover

Wow! What a weekend! Let me start at the very beginning... my uncle and aunt went out of town to attend a wedding and all five of my cousins came over to stay at our house for three whole nights! My brothers, sisters and I were very excited to have them and when Thursday night rolled around, it found our bedrooms ready and clean (an unusual thing for me :). Our first night together was great except for the boys waking us up at six-thirty in the morning by having pillow fights with each other. The rest of the day was spent out at the farm helping pick produce for the farmer's market and playing with the adorable kittens out there. All too soon our second night was here and it was my turn to sleep with Ri, who happens to not only be my cousin, but also my best friend. We talked with each other for half-an-hour and then rolled over to go to sleep. Saturday morning arrived with the boys up even earlier - five o'clock this time! I don't why it is that the boys always want to get up real early - and of course they are not very quiet either! Anyway, we had lots of fun together having a picnic, playing football with the boys, and watching Sense and Sensibility with Ri, Rach, and my sisters. It seemed to me that the weekend flew by fast and already our aunt and uncle were home. It was a very interesting experience living in a family of ten kids for 3 whole days and I am so glad that they could come stay with us!

Apples and Goats

Guess where we went today? We went to an apple orchard with two of our aunts, lots of cousins and some friends. At the farm they have goats (really cute baby goats) that you can pet and feed along with chickens and kittens. There was also a fence maze that you could run through and that was fun too - especially when I would have races through it with my cousins and brother,Si. The little kids liked the play houses that they have there for little kids to play in and the teeter-totters. Even Ri and I had to have a turn on the teeter-totter! But I think the best part (for me anyway) was when we got home and had Apple Doughnuts for dessert after eating lunch. Boy, were they good! Well, I will sign off for now. Until the next time, Hanna