Anika Isabella

Hello everybody. 4th of July just passed, and I thought you’d like to know what I did for it. I didn’t celebrate it with kids my age (except Dante… even though he’s not exactly my age), I spent it with 2 couples who go to my church, my mom, my dad, and Dante. They each have one baby boy (the couples), and they are both super cute. I actually mentioned one of the 6 grown-ups in my list of things I like. Her name is Cece and in my list I said I liked being babysat by her. She is very nice.

Well, getting back to the subject, for the actual celebrating we had a barbecue. There were hamburgers, chips and salsa, grilled veggies, hot dogs, coke, orangina, limeade, quinoa, steak, roasted marshmallows, and water. Usually we don’t have all these things under the roof our house… but come on, it was 4th of July. After everyone pitched in at cleaning up the BBQ, we left to see the fireworks.

We left at about 8:30 and the fireworks were supposed to start at 9:00, so we weren’t sure if we were going to see them well, but in the end we did. It was kinda funny how though. At first, we didn’t see or hear anything, and it was after 9:00, so we suspected they were going to start late. After a few minutes though, Jeanie, the other girl, saw some far, far, far away fireworks. They were so far you couldn’t even hear them! We thought we hadn’t walked down far enough. Me and Dante ended up in the front because we’re children and can squeeze to the front. Then, as we were looking at the far, far, far away fireworks, some started right in front of us! It was crazy! We think the small ones were Staten Island’s, and the ones in front of us were the ones we wanted to see. Overall, it was a great BBQ.

I’d love to here about your 4th of July in a comment! It doesn’t have to be long like mine.

Here are some pics:

Hello everyone! Guess what? I played tennis today! It wasn’t a real game, just a free lesson in Central Park, but it was really fun. Dante did it it to, but separately because the age groups were 5-7 and 8-11. I was in one and Dante was in the other. Well, there isn’t much more to say, so bye.

Hello everybody. I’m blogging again. Don’t be upset if me posts aren’t long, because it might be all I have time for. Just if you don’t know, I’m 9.5. Or something like that (my b-day is in Oct.). Well, I will be going back to school in September… I’m not going to be homeschooled anymore. I think it’s a slight bummer because I love reading whatever I want whenever I want and staying up late, but the decision is made. So you know what I like here is a list of some of my favorite things:

-reading

-watching movies

-Harry Potter

-High School Musical

-disney

-music

-playing the piano

-food

-cooking

-playing tag

-games

-playing Sims

-eating a double chocolaty chip frapuccino from Starbucks

-having play dates with friends

-singing

-playing wii

-playing on the iPhone

-playing with Dante

-going on vacation

-being babysat by either Cece or Sasha

-going to church

-visiting family

-hanging out with my family

Well, those are only some of the things I like. If you like something that is not on this list and want to know if I like it or not, leave a comment.

Here are 2 pics of me & my brother (Dante) incase you haven’t seen us in a while.

Nathan —– is one of my best friends even though he is one year younger than me and in 3rd grade. He lives near me on —th Street and Broadway in NYC.

I think Nathan is about one inch shorter than I am (I’m 4′9″) but I am not sure. I’m sure that as we get older he will get taller. My estimate of Nathan’s weight is an average of about 80lbs. He looks physically fit. Nathan’s skin color is light with a tan because of the summer. His short, light brunette hair with blond highlights is mildly curly. His blue-grey eyes widen when he is excited.

Nathan’s voice is medium-high. That is high for a boy but that is because he is young. One thing Nathan usually says when he sees me and my brother arrive at the playground or something is : “Hey guys!” Some other things he says are: “Wanna play tag?” or “Let’s go to the rings!” Nathan is extremely loud. The only way me and my bother can manage it is that our playdates with him are almost always outside.

Nathan really likes Xbox. He’s always talking about all the new games he is getting. He goes to —— Christian School in midtown Manhattan. He has to wear a uniform to school. Nathan really likes the TV show Tom & Jerry. Whenever we go to his house he almost always wants to watch it and nothing else.

One thing I like about Nathan is that we see each other at least once a week because of lifegroup & church. Another thing I like about Nathan is that he goes to the same church as me so we can enjoy that together. I also really like that he enjoys the rings because I absolutely love them.

One chilly November night, a little mouse went out hunting. The mouse’s name was Tom. This was Tom’s first time hunting in his life! Tom was very excited.

“I can’t wait!” Tom thought.

He was waiting for his mom to come back and say the humans are gone. Finally, at 10:00pm his mom came in and said he could go.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life!” Tom thought.

Then he picked up a scent. Then another, and another! He picked one and followed it. It led to some bread in a plastic bag.

“It’s the invisible protector mommy and daddy told me about,” remembered Tom.

“How do you destroy it again? Oh, yeah. You gnaw!”

Before he knew what he was doing, he was gnawing furiously at the invisible protector.

“Come on, come on!” thought Tom.

Finally there was a hole.

“Yes!” Tom thought aloud.

Then he pulled it apart a bit so he could fit in and then climbed inside.

“I’m in heaven!” Tom thought aloud.

He ate quite a lot when he remembered that there were other things to eat. He got out and started following a different scent. When he reached the end, he looked around.

“It’s got to be around here somewhere,” Tom thought.

Then he felt something gooey and sticky on his foot. He tried to pull his foot out, but he couldn’t.

“Uh oh,” thought Tom. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

He tried hitting it with his other foot but it got stuck too.

“No!” Cried Tom.

“Help, HELP!”

Nobody came. Tom was scared.

“Well, since I can’t move, I’m just going to sleep,” thought Tom.

So he drifted off to sleep. Suddenly he woke up.

“Something must have woken me up,” Tom thought. “I couldn’t have just woken up all of a sudden for no reason.”

Then he heard it.

“THE HUMANS HAVE WOKEN ME UP!” Tom thought aloud. “GET UP BODY, GET UP!!!”

Tom was nearly petrified!

He was trying with all his might but he couldn’t get up. Then, a human picked up the tray of gooey stuff that Tom was on.

“NOOO, NOOO!!!” screamed Tom, but his cries were useless. No one came to rescue him. Then the human that picked him up said something and three other humans came. Then, they looked at Tom and said something Tom did not understand.

“What are they going to do to me?” thought Tom. “I’m innocent, I’m innocent!!! he yelled.

The humans did not listen. Instead they put Tom and the tray of gooey stuff in a paper bag.

“What is this place?” thought Tom. Then he was swinging and hitting something.

“OWWWW!!!!” thought Tom. It felt like all his bones were broken and sore.

“Oh well, ” thought Tom, “I guess I am going to die. bye-bye family. It’s the end of me”

The end.

Here is a photo report on election day in N.Y.C.

This is the line my mom and dad stood in this morning to vote.

This is a voting sign.

Here’s a voting booth.

This is the room where the voting booths are.

This is my mom’s voting booth.

Here is my dad and brother getting out of a booth.

This is a magazine cover.

Here is my brother in front of the brooklyn city hall.

This is another voting place.

Here’s a news headline.

This is a paper supporting Obama that I saw on a food cart.

This is a reporter.

Here’s a woman wearing an Obama T-shirt.

This is a stand that has Obama T-shirts.

Obama T-shirts.

Obama pins.

Obama bags.

An Obama picture with it’s artist.

Another news headline.

The beginning of the blue carpet at Election Plaza.

A large TV screen of the U.S.

The blue carpet.

A map of the U.S. on ice.

Me and my brother with the Democratic donkey.

Flags at Election Plaza.

News vans.

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.