5th Grade Begins

I've had two days of fifth grade, already, and they've been great.

My teacher's name is Ms. Gaine. I think she is really nice. She lets us play games a lot.

She gives us rewards when we deserve them. When we don't, she can take them away. On the first day of school, she put out a bowl of Hot Tamales. I'd never had them before but when I tried them, I liked them a lot. I think all that is very good and nice.

She tries not to give too much homework. So far, she's kept that promise. The first homework assignment she gave us was to find items to describe ourselves. The items were supposed to be 3-D and unique and had to fit into a small brown paper bag.

A talent or special ability I have is wood-
carving. I brought a rocket ship I'd made in the wood shop at the Planet to share with the class. I think woodworking is fun because you get to create your own things. Here are some things I made. I'm also working on a sword.

I brought a statue of the Sears Tower to represent something special about my family.

I talked about how we have lived in Chicago and gone to the top of the tallest building in the United States.






To share one of my future plans or goals, I brought in a tiny toy dog. I might like to become a veterinarian someday. I like animals and think that they are fun to be around. (photo credit)







I told my class that the best part about my summer was that my Uncle John came over to my house. We would sword fight and have a whole bunch of fun.

Something that I dislike is homework. I brought a math page from last year. I really, really, hate boring homework but not this type of homework.

A place that I would like to visit is outer space. I think it would be really fun to just float around in mid-air, not supported by anything. So, someday I would like to go there.

Something that I would like to improve at is writing. I would like to be able to write quicker, better, neater...

To represent a memorable event in my life, I brought in the medical bracelet that I wore in the emergency room when I hurt my face and had to get stitches.

It still fits on my wrist but it is hard to get on and off.






An activity I enjoy is cooking. I like to cook eggs for my family because I think learning to cook is fun and I think I would like to improve on that too.

My favorite color is silver, I brought a silver ball from my Magnetix to represent the color silver.

During recess, I've had fun playing with my friends. Some of my friends are Sean, Jake, Matthew, Eric, Aeddan, William, Jarred, Cameron and Ram.

Most of my friends were able to come with me on my first birthday hike over Ring Mountain but some of them weren't so we had a second party where we hiked over Ring Mountain and had dinner. That was fun. I think it will be a good year.

My 10th Birthday Party

For my 10th birthday, my mom took me and a bunch of my friends on a hike over Ring Mountain. She had created a quest that directed us. It was exciting.

My favorite part of the adventure was climbing to the top of Turtle Rock.

Next, we had pizza at Milano's. It was fun. We played and joked around while we were eating.

Then we went to see the new Harry Potter movie.

Almost everyone in my group thought it was good.

I thought it was extraordinary.

We waited until my cousin went back to Iowa to open my presents. I opened them last night. I know I will enjoy them. Thank you very much.

I also appreciate the friends who helped me celebrate my birthday. Thank you for being extremely fun and awesome.

Click here to see more pictures from my birthday.

Happy 90th Birthday, Lurene

Lurene is Cameron's grandmother on his Dad's side. She had her 90th birthday last week. I went all the way to Maryland to celebrate with her.

Here, in this picture, I am in a museum that features a lot of things that are in Maryland. One of the things was this model of the skeleton the biggest shark ever to live in the world, the megalodon.

It was over 50 feet long and two to three times the size of a great white shark. I think it is awesome because it is huge. In one of the pictures I saw of it, it was eating a whale for food.

At this museum, they also had otters, which were awesome because I thought they were pretty friendly. The otters would come up to the glass and push off of the glass over and over again. I also saw sea horses which were cool since I didn't remember ever having seen one before.

Also, we were able to sort through a bunch of sand and pick out a fossil to take home. I chose a piece of a gray shark tooth. We were supposed to have gone on a hike that day but instead we went to the museum because it was too hot to go hiking.

After the museum, we went out to eat at a seafood restaurant on the Chesapeake Bay. For an appetizer, we ordered crab balls. I enjoyed them very much. I got fried shrimp for my meal. We had a good time.

When we finished eating, we went for a walk. It was hot. We got to a picnic table under the shade of a nice tree and stayed there for awhile. It was cooler there.

Mom took a few pictures of Cam and me by the Chesapeake Bay.

The Bay is an amazing thing that makes travel by ship easier and makes it easier to get places.

I hope that it never gets dried out or evaporated by Global Warming.





That night, I had fun hanging out with Cameron's family. This is Cam's cousin, Kenan. They hadn't seen each other since Kenan was my age. He and I had fun playing with a ball that was green. We were playing tug of war with it and I managed to win somehow. I think because I never gave up.

Now, it is the next day. I am at Annmarie Garden, It is a place with a lot of artwork that people from all over the world have done. It is basically like a national park as in that it is outdoors and there were some living creatures including all of the trees you see behind me. You might think this is a painting that I took my picture next to but it is actually real and the tree guy is taller than me. A carved wacky tree guy with a beard and very long hair that is blowing in the wind (that there was basically none of).

Here, there were a lot of standing stones and seats made of stone. In the middle was a Council Circle. I was sitting in the middle of it. There were two circles. The inner one was smaller. The outer one was bigger. Even though my mom thinks it looks like I was thinking about something very important, I was not. I was just sitting there.

Me and my mom. My mom is standing next to me and I am sitting on one of the standing stones that were behind me, in the last picture.

It is fun to sit in high places.








We went to the garden with Cameron, Jim, Liz, Eric, Sarah, and Baby A and Baby B.
I heard they have come up with names for the babies but that they aren't telling anyone. I think that's cool. I think the fact that that they are having twins is awesome because I will have two new cousins. Seeing Eric and Sarah was fun. They are nice and I can play with them.

After the garden, we went to another seafood restaurant to meet the rest of the group for lunch.

For my meal, I ordered the kids crab leg cluster. Crab tastes good.

I enjoyed cracking and eating the crab legs. I sat next to Cameron's cousin Kayhan's son, Sinan. He is fun because he is a kid and plays with me a lot and is nice.

I don't know what he thought about my crab legs. Obviously, he was surprised or interested. I can't tell which one, though.

I liked crab. Eating it from the shell was fun because I had to work to get food.







We had a little bit of time before the boat ride so we went back to the hotel. My mom and I exercised a bit in the workout room with the air conditioning running. I thought the sprinting machine was fun because it stretched my legs. I also ran on the treadmill. I had used one of those before so I knew how to work it. I like using exercising equipment.

Then, we went on a boat to celebrate Cameron's grandmother's 90th birthday.

Happy Birthday!











As the boat was leaving, we saw a couple of swans guarding a nest.






Here, Cam and I are sitting on the boat, looking at the water, all-in-all just having a good time.




I am trying to listen to Sarah's twins. I couldn't hear them on the boat. Another time when I was listening, I heard some popping sounds but that was it. I think it will be nice when I meet them.









Here, I am sitting with mom. During the ride, my mom sat next to me near the front of the boat. I thought it was nice.


In this picture, I am sitting near the tip of the boat with Kayhan and Sinan. They were nice. I liked being with them.



Here, Sinan and I are sitting on the front of the boat together.







Here, Sinan is driving the boat and acting like the captain. He looks like he is having fun.



Here, I am captaining the boat. He asked me to try to turn us close to the Harbor and I did. It was hard.












Sinan and I enjoyed rocking this rocking chair back and forth.

We took turns rocking each other in the chair.


Sometimes, we would sit in it together.

On the way to Maryland, I listened to The Best of Bill Cosby, two times. I kept cracking up and laughing out loud.

On the way home, I fell asleep while listening to System of a Down. (My favorite SOAD song is B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Bomb) from Mezmerize.) I still had one piece of the headphone on my ear. For awhile, the music was still on while I was sleeping.

I liked our time in Maryland. It was wickedly awesome.

My Old, Awesome Roboraptor

Here, I am playing with a toy I got awhile ago. I just started playing with it again recently. It is called the Roboraptor. He is knocking down walls that my grandma and I made from Jenga pieces. It was awesome.



I think the video that was captured is cool.

Sword Fighting

Here, in this video, Ash and I were sword fighting. It was very fun.



P.S. Listen in the background for the voice of my grandma saying "flowers."

I Just Got Some New Heelys!!!!

Here I am Heelying down a small slope in my new Heelys that I got a few days ago. I have wanted Heelys for about a year. I first saw an ad for them on TV at someone else's house. A few of the kids out here wear them.

I think Heelying is incredibly fun. I Heely at Blackie's Pasture sometimes and wherever I am (except school).

I was excited to finally receive a pair. My Grandma Marilyn paid for them. Thank you, Grandma.

My Scar's Getting Better

Friday, my mom took me to the city to get my stitches out. It didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. They didn't numb it or anything. It didn't take as long as I thought to would either.

It felt like something getting pulled out of my body with tweezers and coming out. He did it over and over again until they were all out. They left the stitches on the inside of my mouth in because they will eventually dissolve on their own.

After they took them out, I looked in the mirror and I thought it looked a lot better.

Saturday morning, we went on a hike that Cameron had already gone on. My scar was feeling a lot better.

We hiked all the way to the top of a mountain to get a good view and have a picnic.


Here, I am showing off my strawberry, happily, with mom.








"Hey."

"Stop it."

"That tickles."







I was small enough to fit in this crevasse in the ground and I still had some room to move around by my sides.

The crevasse ran all along the trail. In some places it was smaller than others.

Thanks to everyone who has helped make me feel better.

Sunday's Accident

On Sunday, we were at Golden Gate Park.









We were just hanging out, having a good time.

And then, all of a sudden, I got hurt.


Me and Cam were playing catch just doing the usual. We read some of our book together. Then Mom & Cam told me to go play.

I'd seen a good sized branch earlier. It was about five or six feet long. I went back for it. Then, carried it over near where Mom & Cam were resting and began to play.


I was having a nice time playing. The stick was curved. I was pushing on the front end of it to make it roll on the ground like a wheel would roll if the stick were a wheel. It worked really well the first few times. Those times, when I pushed the stick away from me, it went around in a circle about two times before falling to the ground.

The last time I pushed the stick, the back of it came up and hit me in the face. It hurt. Actually, it didn't really hurt too much because my face felt numb. I felt sort of weird and I moved my hand up to my chin to see how badly hurt I was and I felt a deep cut. It felt bad, really horrible. And I said, "Oh my God." Then I ran over to Mom & Cam and they reacted a lot the same way.

Mom was all nice, keeping me calm. "Sam, stay calm." "Cam, call 911." While we were waiting for the ambulance, Mom had her hand cupped underneath my chin to catch the blood. When I saw the blood, I thought, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot of blood." But I was not afraid. I felt ok. It seemed like it took a little while for the ambulance to come but not too long.

When the ambulance guy got there, he talked to me for a little bit. Then, he wrapped my head in a bandage type thing. Like Cameron said, "mummy style."

The ambulance was a little ways away from where I had been hurt. As we walked up to the ambulance, we passed people who were playing in the park. It was weird.

I went into the back of the ambulance. They didn't run the siren or anything.

Then we went to the hospital and I got stitches.

It wasn't fun.

Not one bit fun.


Except that Cam and I kept making funny faces at each other.







He made me laugh.










It took a while and then someone finally came in and stitched me up. The whole thing took about five hours.

Then, we left and went to In & Out Burger. Cam went inside and got the food while mom was getting my medicine. I drank some of my vanilla milk shake and ate some French fries. That night, we watched a movie when we got home. The movie was called the Invincible Iron Man. I liked it a lot. Then I went to bed and that's about it.

On Monday, I stayed home from school and played around a little bit but not too much really. Mostly just recuperated. Today, I'm still feeling tired and just not too good. So, Mom let me take another day off of school to rest.

I hope that nothing like that ever happens again.