Our Fall so far

Since I haven't blogged in a long time, I wanted to mix everything together. I will start in September and move present. We had a great first day of school, and I was happy to be in third grade. Lina was happy to be in first grade too. I was going to have Mrs.Sheehey but she left and I had a third grade sped teacher until they could find a new one. Pretty soon, I got a new teacher called Ms.Fallon. She is really nice.

 In late September, we decided to spend a night in Portland Maine for Columbus day weekend.When October 10 came, I got up at practice piano. We left at 9am and went to get our flu shots on the way. When we got there,we had lunch at Duck Fat, a restraint in the city. after lunch, we took a walk and had beacon donuts. Then we went to a lighthouse and went to the hotel. I was so tired and took a nap. We went to the pool and had dinner. That night, I got a fever and was really hot.

In the morning,we had breakfast and took one last dip in the pool and then we head to Willard beach, a beach on Portland harbor and took a walk. Then we headed home.

Grammy and grandpa came for the spooky sprint. I had a cold but luckily it was in my head. The whole family was running, and we were numbers 22-26. I was 23. My goal was 21:00 but I ran a 21:02. But I still felt proud.

NC vacation trip part II

Wee got to the beach house around 3pm. We began to unpack and Dad and I did our runs. Around 6, we went to the beach. On Monday, we went to a church so I could practice piano. We had a drout on Monday, but we got some beach time in later. Around 7:45, we went to amos Mosquito's for dinner. We had to wait 45 minutes to get seated, but we went to fishing pier. I got grilled tuna for dinner at 9pm. On Tuesday, we went to the aquarium. That afternoon,we went to the beach for 2.5 hours and had fun in the waves. I practiced piano in the morning. We had tacos for dinner that night!!!!On Wednesday, I went to play piano as early as we could so we could have as much beach time as possible. It was 90 degrees and sunny. I was glad to be at the beach. On Thursday, I skipped piano so we could visit family. It was another great day for the beach but got windy later. We had pizza on the beach for dinner. On Friday, we went back to the piano at the church. It was an Okay day for the beach but we had some rain. We had fish for dinner. On Saturday, we went to the beach by Mr. Phil's house. The waves were 5-8 feet tall but it was like a lake. It was a great vacation but I was ready to go home.

NC vacation trip Part I

On Thursday July 30,we got up at 3:30am to catch a 6:30am flight to RDU.We got to the airport around 5am, watching the sunrise as we checked in. We got to Raleigh a few minutes after 8:30 and we were at Grandma Gigi and Papa's house by 10am. On Friday, we spent lots of time at Buffalo Beach(aka a sandy spot by Buffalo creek) and walking around in the water  all the way under highway 42. On Saturday, we celebrated our cousin Everett's birthday. We spent hours playing with him and Tyson, Grandma Gigi and Papa's neighbor.  For dinner we had BBQ ribs!!!! On Sunday,we got up and had biscuits for breakfast I practiced piano while Lina, Levi, and Tyson played on Tyson's swing set. After lunch, we started driving to Atlantic beach.

Our trip to Pittsburgh

Part I: On Friday July 10 I got up at 4:20am so we could begin driving to Pittsburgh. Just before 6am we took off. We took I 93 to I 95 to I 90 to I 84 to Route 15 to I 287 to I 78 which dad missed his exit to I 78 from I 287 and didn't notice it until he was 14 exits past the one we were supposed to take to I 81 to I 76 which we were on for 150 miles to I 70 and finally we took exit 20 on E. Beau St! It took about 11 hours in all including the breaks we made. On Saturday, Dad, Adelina, and Levi went to the Whisky Rebellion festival while I stayed back to practice piano. For lunch we went to Shorty's hot dogs for lunch! It was really good.


Part II: On Sunday, we got up, I practiced piano and we went for our runs. Today dad left to go back home. Oliver came today. He is very big because he is 1 now. On Monday, we got up and left for a bike ride on the Montour trial. I rode 15.2 miles. Then we went back so I could practice piano. On,
Tuesday, we went to a science center with lots of cool stuff. We went to Permanti's for lunch.



Part III: On Wednesday, we went to Mingo creek. Making a dam at the creek is always a tradition. Uncle Matt taught me how to fly his helicopter. We had hamburgers for dinner. On Thursday, we headed to Syracuse for a 6 hour drive. Welcome to New York! We stopped at lake Erie for lunch. Around 5:30pm we got checked in and had dinner. Then we went to the pool. On Friday, we got on the road at 8am and went straight to the Appalachian mountains for a hike and lunch. It was a beautiful day. We got home at about 4pm and I had piano practice finally on Dumbledore, our grand piano in the late afternoon, early evening. It was a great trip.

First Beach Trip!

With 85 degree air temperatures and 60 degree water temperatures, it was a great day to go to the beach on Wednesday. We got there at about 10:30, and spent 3 hours there. We started with making a pool in the tidal pool and went to enjoy the ocean also. It felt cold at first, but I finally got used to it. The waves were about a foot tall, so we enjoyed riding the waves. Around 2:00, we went to get ice cream. It was a great day!

Last Day of School

We had our last day of school on June 22 and a day filled with fun! In the morning we went to the 100 mile club ceremony. 96 students participated this year.(including zero fifth graders) Most kids had about 25-50 miles for the year. There were only 12 students who got 100 miles. Adelina got called 95th out of 96th for 192 miles which is really good compared to other students. Then I got called for 348 miles. Finally at 12:00 the summer vacation began. We went straight to La Q Chara for  lunch. I got Taco Asado. We went to turners for dinner. I got a lobster with a really hard shell! 

The Spring So Far

The past 2 months of spring have been going pretty well. All the snow has melted and we finally have warm weather and beautiful flowers and trees. And the pile of remaining dirty black trashy snow from the snow dump is almost gone.

Snow dump on Lynn Fells Parkway

Our new garden

One week ago, Dad and I ran the Marine Corps Honor Run 5k in South Boston. I was hoping to break 22 minutes, but I actually ran faster than that. My time was 21:04. Mothers' Day was good but really hot with temperatures reaching the mid-90s. Adelina did a fantastic job on the Mothers' Day race with a time of 31:29.

I have a Schimmel piano and I love it! I'm almost at 1000 hours of playing time. I've been practicing for 1-2 hours every day.

This and That

Since I haven't blogged in a pretty long time, this post is for what I did in the last month. First, we had a science fair on Friday March 13 at 6:00. I was happy it was a Friday so when I got home, I wouldn't have to go to bed right away. My project was Play-Doh Math that I worked on for about a month. I didn't win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place but I had a great time that night. Adelina won 1st place in Kindergarten. I was really proud of her! 

The next day was pi day. I didn't only lean 52 digits of Pi (3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058) but also ate 2 kinds of pie for dinner. I had Shepard's pie and Chocolate pie for dessert. It was really good. I got to see "Pi time" at 9:26am and 53 seconds. It was a good day. For another post, I have getting to be able to run outside a lot for the past 2 weeks. Yesterday I ran 4 miles in 29:47 (7:26 min/mile). My 100 mile club total is 211 miles. My goal is 250 miles this year. I am raising my up to 270 miles because 250 miles seems too easy to reach by June 22.  

Here I am saying 28 digits of pi.

Snow Time!!

Not mentioning the countless icicles, 2 story snowbanks, and 7ft of snow in the yard, we have been having lots of fun in the snow these past weeks. Yesterday, the Hickey's came over at 11:30am to come play with us in the snow. When they got here, we played in the snow for about an hour and a half and went inside around 1:15pm. We played in our rooms, with the legos, and also had some lunch. Around 2:30pm, Mom made some cookies and hot chocolate for us. Then we went in the snow for another 2-2 1/2 hours. Mom made a "luge" track for us that we played in. It goes really fast! The Hickey's left at 5pm and we had an hour of TV afterwards. It was a great afternoon!

Race with Mom

Yesterday morning, Mom and I went out to run the Super Sunday 5 Miler. We got there just before 9:00 AM and picked up our race packets. We went to the parking garage and stood against a railing and we did some stretches before the race. At 9:50 AM, Mom and I went out to do some warm-ups. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just ran down the street and back. At 9:57 AM, we went to the start line and the race started at 10:00 AM. The race passed by very quickly. We finished with a time of 40:24. The first mile was about 9 minutes because of the crowd. The second mile was about 8 minutes. The last three miles were under 8 minutes per mile. I felt very good when I was finished. Mom told me that there was a beer party at the end of the race. Instead of that, we went to a bakery called Tatte and I had lunch. I had hot chocolate with foam on top. It tasted really good. Around 12:15 PM, we went back to where the race was to listen to the awards. The winning time was 24:35!!! They didn't call any age groups, but there was a tent with trophies for the age group winners. I was in third place for the 18 and under age group. The first and second place runners for 18 and under were 14 and 18. When we got home, we had a meringue cloud that we got from Tatte. It was really good. 

The Blizzard Of 2015!

We have been waiting for this day for weeks: The blizzard of 2015! On Monday, the TV said that Melrose's school was canceled! On Tuesday morning, the snow was 10-14 inches deep and it was still snowing hard. That morning we started a 1000-piece puzzle. We played in the snow for about 5 or 6 hours. When we went inside at 5:30 pm, we played a game of Monopoly. On Wednesday morning it was finally done snowing, but the snow was about 20-24 inches deep. Of course, an icicle was hanging off the roof of our house. At 4:30 pm, we went sledding at Mt. Hood. It was good because we were the only ones there and it was beautiful. Too bad Levi got snow in his glove and we all had to go home. We finished the 1000-piece puzzle that evening. The next morning on Thursday we had school. After school, Mom tried to get the icicle hanging from the roof with a soccer ball. She got the soccer ball stuck in the tree, so she got another soccer ball. Then, she got the other soccer ball stuck in some wires. Then Mom used the football and it finally worked. I liked the icicle and got to carry it when it fell down. It was very thick and a little heavy. I had a great time and more snow playing until March!

Happy Birthday Mozart!

Tuesday was Mozart's 259th birthday. He was born in 1756. I really like his music. Mom took a video of me while I played Fantasy in D minor. It is about 5 minutes long. Here are some facts about the piece: When Mozart died in 1791, the piece was unfinished, but people finished the last 10 measures for him. The first 1/2 of the piece is minor. Minor means something sound a little sad. Major is the opposite. The second 1/2 of the piece is major. Mozart is my favorite composer.

Concert Night With Mom

On Saturday January 17, 2015 Mom and I had a fun night out together. Mom and I got in the car at 4:40pm and arrived at a French restaurant called Aquitaine at 5:30pm with valet parking. For Appetizer, I had a Beet Salad. For Entree, I had Steak Frites with a watercress salad. And for dessert, I had creme brûlée. After that, at 7:00pm we got our car back and we were at Symphony Hall at 7:15pm. We got seated at 7:30pm. At 8:00pm the concert started. First we heard a Mozart piece with 4 Movements. Then at 8:40pm there was an intermission running until about 9:00pm. Next we heard a Bruckner piece. It was Symphony Number 7 in E. The Bruckner symphony was my favorite. The concert ended at 10:10pm and we left Symphony Hall at 10:20pm. We got to the car at 10:30pm and got home at 11:00pm. After that I watched TV for 40 minutes. I went to bed at 11:40pm. I had a great night!!!

 

Rubik's Cube

I have been interested in solving a Rubik's cube these days. About a month ago, Dad taught me how to do the "easy trick" on a 2 by 2 Rubik's cube. Around New Year's Day I learned how to do 1 side of the 3 by 3. Now, I can solve a Rubik's cube side in less than 30 seconds. Here are some pictures of sides that I solved.

I wonder if I can solve 6 sides one day........