Anika Isabella

The last time I wrote a blog post was a very long time ago. Now I’m going to catch you up with what has happened between that time period. There’s a lot of stuff that happened because me and my brother had spring break during that time.

The first day of spring break, Monday, we went to the rings in Riverside park. The rings are these rings that you swing on and they are very very fun. After we did that, we got sandwiches from Subway and brought them home to eat. When we got home we all ate lunch and then my mom took a nap. While she was taking a nap me and my brother played a really fun game called The Great Dalmuti, but since it needs four players minimum we used our Webkinz to play with us. When my mom woke up we ended the game and my mom started doing laundry since we had so much. About one third into the laundry process they dryer stopped working and wouldn’t read the quarters, then we had a big pile of laundry in the middle of our hallway and we couldn’t do it because of the dryer. That was pretty much it for Monday.

On Tuesday we woke up early to go on a hike with our friends Nathan and Haley. They were staying in a little town called Piermont in upstate New York. On our way there we did the rest of our laundry by stopping at a laundromat. Once we were done with the laundry we started heading over to the apartment that Nathan and Haley were staying at. Once we got there we had lunch. It was chicken, corn, biscuits and fruit. After we ate we headed outside. We didn’t take the car because the the mountain that we were going to hike on was so close. On our way to the mountain we stopped at the park and played for a while. After we were done playing we went to the mountain. We took a shortcut and climbed some. On our way up Haley and her mom accidentally made a big rock fall over! At least it didn’t do any harm. Once everybody was at the to we started heading back to the road. When we were at the top my mom went to the restroom out in the wild, luckily Nathan and Haley’s mom had extra toilet paper packed because she knew about these things. Then we saw some picnic tables and we sat down and each had a little snack. Then me, Dante, Nathan and Haley went out to play. After a while we went to look out of a view spot. You could see the entire town. It was really cool. Then we started heading back. On our way back, I was walking and was really really near to this long curvy line. I wondered what it was but i didn’t have enough time to think. Just then, I STEPPED ON A SNAKE’S HEAD!!!!!! I immediately screamed and jumped back. It was freaky. Then I yelled out “SNAKE! SNAKE!” I ran down the hill. Nathan though i was having a heart attack or something. My mom has a fear of snakes so I was surprised when she said, “Let’s go back and see it.” I didn’t go back and see it until I finally got the courage to do it. It was CREEPY!!! We told the people behind us to move to the other side of the road so they wouldn’t accidentally step on it or anything like that. We told them to pass it on. On our way back I called my dad to tell him about my experience with the snake. Once we got back to the apartment everyone went to the restroom. After we went to our car to drive to a mall. When we got to the mall we had an early dinner and ate at a restaurant called Outback Steakhouse. The kids all had steak and cheese fries. My mom had a hamburger and Christy had shrimp and a salad. Once we finished eating we went to the pet store. We looked at all kinds of dogs. We also saw mice, hamsters, and bunnies. There was one dog in particular that we really really liked. His name was “Chewy Nugget”. We even got to take him out of his cage and get to know his personality a little. Once we were done with the pet store we went to a place called Kid City. It is kind of like Chuck E Cheese. We got to do bumper cars and go to a place where you fight with balls. There were even guns where you put the balls in and you press the button and air shoots them out. Then we went out to get candy before the shops closed. We went to the Ferris Wheel but nobody was there. We went to the Merry Go Round and asked the person running that if the Ferris Wheel was closed and it was so we went on the Merry Go Round. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to get sick. Then we went back to Kid City. Me and Nathan played a motorcycle game. We were going to go on the roller coaster but me and Dante were too afraid. Then I played a spider stepping game while Nathan and Dante played air hockey. Dante had to go to the restroom in the middle of the game so I played for him. Then when the game was finished, Dante played a Bee game and accidentally got zero points. Then we tried the other games they all said out of order and we realized it was closing time so we left. We went out through Target and looked at the toys and Nathan got Pokemon cards but everybody else didn’t get anything. Then we went back to their apartment and dropped them and headed home ourselves.

On Wednesday, we stayed home all morning mostly watching Tuesdays American Idol that we missed. At noon we went to homeschooler “recess” which is playground time for homeschoolers which I go to every Wednesday. We planned to meet our other friends too, Martha and Jasper. We stayed there from noon all the way until about 6. It was a long long day at the park. When we finally got home we watched American Idol results. We found out Carly had gotten voted off. Then we went to bed and that was pretty much it.

to be continued…in another post…this is getting too long.

Here is an essay I wrote on the National Cherry Blossom Festival. There will also be some pictures:

The national cherry blossom festival is a celebration of the blooming cherry trees that happens once a year. It symbolizes America and Japan’s friendship. I will tell you tons about it.

The cherry blossom festival lasts 2 weeks in the spring every year. On the last day, there is a huge parade. It happens in a park called “National Mall & Memorial Parks” in D.C. People look at cherry blossoms, take pictures, walk around, chat, and if they are thirsty or hungry, there is Japanese food and drinks. There are also activities & gift shops.

The cherry blossom’s history is very surprising. I will tell you about it. It all started in 1885. A lady named Mrs. Eliza Scidmore made a request to have Japanese cherry blossoms near the Potomac River. A few years later a man named Dr. David Fairchild tested the cherry blossoms on his own land. Together they got the help of First Lady Taft and got a gift of 2,000 trees. Unfortunately, the trees had a disease and had to be burned. Then another gift was offered of 3,020 trees and it was accepted. They landed without any diseases. Then the cherry blossom festival was created,but it didn’t last for long. Soon World War II came. Japan and America were in war together and they bombed each other. It all led up to no cherry blossom festival. Once the war was over, America and Japan made up. America gave trees to Japan to fill in for ones that had been destroyed in a flood. Best of all, the cherry blossom festival continued with new things like a cherry blossom princess. Each year now, a cherry blossom princess is chosen and gets to be crowned with a crown that is 2 lbs. of gold and contains 1,589 pearls! It is a beauty.

I have been to the cherry blossom festival before so now I will tell you about my experience. I went there on a beautiful, sunny, warm day. I got pictures taken of me, my parents took video of me, I looked at cherry blossoms, I played a game, and best of all, I had a great time. I saw tons of people, food stands, kids doing activities, cherry blossoms (of course), and beautiful monuments.

Well there you have it, a handful of information on cherry blossoms. As I told you, the festival is in the National Mall and Memorial Parks (a park in D.C.) if you would like to visit. Please do.

A cherry blossom tree in front of the Washington Memorial.

Me, my aunt and my brother playing a game.

Me in front of the Capitol building.

Me in front of the Tidal Basin and Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

Here is a video of a project that i did.

Here’s another song on my recorder.

Friday I had a slumber part with Martha and Jasper whom I have talked about before. It was very fun. We made menus of our restaurant service we had at home and an entertainment list . Everybody paid for everything they did with fake monopoly money that we gave them. (The money thing was just for fun). There was this one game that everybody absolutely loved. It was called the Great Dalmuti. It is extremely entertaining in my and my friend’s opinion. We like it so much we played until 11 o’clock at night. The next day after we had breakfast we played again. Fortunately, Martha finally got to be queen which means you win the game in Dalmuti. Martha was so excited because that was the first time she got to be queen. We had such a good time. After we finally stopped playing Dalmuti, Jasper and Dante went to Dante’s room to play an action figure game called Attacktics. Me, Martha and my mom played a typing game. Martha also showed us some cool Hula Hoop moves. At the end, all of us took funny pictures with Photo Booth. Then their parents got here and the sleepover was over and it ended with very happy memories.

I’m not sure if you know what Webkinz is or not so I’ll just tell you. What it is is you buy a stuffed animal with a tag on it in a little plastic envelope saying Webkinz. When you get home you go online and go to www.webkinz.com and you can make your own account and your Webkinz shows online. They have a tag because in the tag because when you get home to make your account you’re gonna need a secret code and the tag has your secret code. Webkinz is really fun because you get to do daily activities. You even have money and you can go mining and get gems and if you find all the gems you get to make a crown and you get to keep it. You can also adopt more Webkinz on the same account. You even get to make a house. You can buy several rooms and put furniture, wallpaper, floors, and you can even get a backyard. In the backyard, you can buy a garden in the W shop (the W shop is the store where you buy all your things in the website). Then when you put in your backyard you can garden and when the fruits and vegetables are ready to harvest you can harvest them and then feed the farm fresh food to your Webkinz. It is really cool. Another thing they have is call Kinzchat. What it is, is you get a cell phone that you can x out when you don’t want it but you can also bring it back by clicking the mini cell phone picture in the bottom right corner. Then you get to make friends, you make them by finding another user that has a Webkinz and typing their user name in your cell phone then when they’re on you can invite them to your house and if they say yes to go to your house then you see their animal in your house. You can also say stuff. You can either ask a question, say something or rap (the music kind) something. They give you about 7-12 choices of each category to choose from. You can also send them home or if you are visiting someone else you can go home yourself. Another thing is the tournament arena. What you do is you go there and pick a game you would like to play then you can either invite one of your friends to play with you if they are online or you can just press the find me an opponent button and then it randomly picks someone who has pressed that button for the same game. Then once the game is finished you can ask them to be your friend. If the other person says yes then he/she will be added to your friends list on your cell phone.

I have three Webkinz of my own. Their names are Miley, Kiwi, and Linda. Miley is a white terrier. She is also a girl. Kiwi is a koala. He is a boy. Linda is a chihuahua. She is a girl. I first got Kiwi as a Christmas present then I got Linda because I wanted more. Then I liked them so much my aunt bought Miley for me as an Easter present. I want more but my mom won’t let me. Hopefully I can get another one sometime. Those of you who have a Webkinz please comment.

This is Kiwi.

This is Linda.

This is Miley.

PS. All the money is called Kinzcash and it is fake and only can be used on their website.

The same day that we baked Spring cookies we had hamburgers for dinner. Mmmm mmm….I love hamburgers! In them they had onions, baby bella mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, spicy mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, and of course some real burger meat on a whole wheat bun. We had them with two of my favorite sides…dill pickles and salt & vinegar chips. They are way better than kid’s menu burgers at restaurants. Boy! I love my family for cooking these. Mmm mm!

Yesterday, me, my mom and my brother baked and decorated Spring cookies. My mom made the dough while we were at our afterschool class and when we came home they were ready to be shaped. We took turns rolling the dough and cutting out shapes. It was really fun. Once the first batch was ready to be decorated we started decorating. I spent one to two hours decorating cookies until I wanted a break. My brother decorated a few cookies and then went on to playing Legos. I was still there decorating cookies until a while on I wanted a break but it wasn’t really a break, it was more like stopping and then my mom finished the rest.

Monday, me and my brother did a fashion show. We picked out clothes from my mom and dad’s closet and put them on. My mom liked some of the outfits so much she even took pictures so that she could wear them. Now I’m her stylist for some days. My aunt was there to see it too. She was visiting our house. Here are some pictures of some of the outfits: