Books I Read This Summer

I read a lot of great books this summer. I rated them with stars ***** (5 stars) being the highest. This list includes all the books I read from the first week of June to the first week of September.

***** Over Sea, Under Stone (re-read)
***** The Dark is Rising (re-read)
***** Greenwitch (re-read)
***** The Grey King (re-read)
***** Silver on the Tree (re-read)
***** The Freedom Factor (re-read)
**** The Missing DaVincies
***** The Mysterious Benedict Society (re-read)
***** The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (re-read)
**** The red Scarf Girl (re-read)
**** Angel on the Square (re-read)
***** The Impossible Journey (re-read)
***** Treasure Island
**** The Penderwicks (re-read)
**** The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (re-read)
*** Magic or not?
**** The Well-Wishers
***** Half Magic (re-read)
***** Magic By the Lake (re-read)
**** Knights Castle (re-read)
***** The City of Ember (twice)
**** The People of Sparks
***** The Lost World (re-read)
***** Journey to the Center of the Earth
***** The Red Fairy Book

Sunflowers

A while ago one of my brothers planted some sunflowers, and now they're blooming!
This afternoon I took some pictures of them. I think they turned out nice!

Note: I did NOT change the contrast or color or anything else like that on any of these pictures, I only cropped them.

Sewing Lessons and Babysitting

A couple of weeks ago I started taking sewing lessons from a nice lady in our ward that recently moved in. A couple of years ago my Dad taught me how to use our sewing machine, but like I said that was a long time ago and I have forgotten a lot. (Plus, I am almost convinced that our sewing machine is defective. I really think it is, I'm not just saying that because I didn't know to use it! Now I do know how to use it and still seems defective:( Any way, I have been learning (and re-learning) a lot of stuff and have bean having a lot of fun! Right now my sewing teacher and I are working on a skirt for me! It's almost done, I'm so exited!


Here is a picture of me working on my skirt!


Here's another picture of me working on my skirt, along with my sewing teacher's four year old daughter. (More about her later) Oh, and don't worry I'm not burning the fabric, I made sure I wasn't pressing down for the picture!


Earlier this week at another sewing lesson, my teacher asked me if I could watch her daughter after my next lesson on Friday. I didn't have anything else that day so I said of course!

Here is another picture of the cutest little kid ever! We had a lot of fun playing while I was watching her and we played a lot of little games that she loved.


We played Mr.Potato Head and tried to make the weirdest faces we could!


We also played with one of her favorite toys, blocks! (to be specific, Blocks with letters on them:)
As a side note: She was convinced that the "T" in "ROCKET" was supposed to be upside down, I thought that it was so cute I had to take a picture:)

If you are afraid of LARGE, Unearthly bugs, do not read this post or look at this picture

Yes, that is a real bug and yes, even scarier, the small bug to it's right is an ANT! Also, not only is this bug real, I did not find this picture on the Internet. My youngest brother took it while he and my Dad, and my other brother was at our wards father's and son's outing! My youngest brother found it first and is very exited about it. At church today, when the Bishop was making the announcements, he mentioned the father's and son's outing, and he even said that my brother found a new kind of bug. It was very funny:)
By the way, dose any one have any idea what it is? I have know clue, so I think I will look it up!

Disneyland (Finally)

As I mentioned on an earlier post, I went to Disneyland with my Girl Scout troop on Monday, spent the night at a hotel Monday night, and then went to California Adventure Park on Tuesday. It was so fun! On Monday we met at my Girl Scout leaders house at about 8:30. We then drove to the hotel we were staying at. The people at the hotel were extremely nice, because they let us put nine people in one room, and they let us park the cars at the hotel all day the second day even after we checked out. We got to Disneyland at about 11am, stayed there all day, and had dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. It was a fun but busy day! The next day we went to California Adventure park, and had a blast! My favorite ride was California Screaming, it was so fun, but before we went on we were all really, really scared! I kept my hands up the whole TIME! (although, my brother argues that when it went upside down, my hand were down:) Here are some of the pictures from both days below.


Here is my troop right after we arrived at Disneyland. We were all so exited!



The first Disney character we say was Cruella De Vil. She was super funny!


In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.


Eating the treats my super-nice leader bought us.


Alice and the White Rabbit On the Its A Small World ride at Disneyland.


While we were walking around Disneyland we saw Eeyore. (is that how you spell his name?) My Friend Jenna Really likes Eeyore, but there was a long line to get your picture with him, so she said it would be ok if we didn't go see him. But, before we left I asked him (Eeyore) if he would smile for a picture (there was no one in front of him right then) so he was very nice and waved and smiled for a picture! I love you Eeyore!


This a picture of the Ferris wheel at California Adventure. There is a big surprise if you go on one of the special Cars, but I wont tell you!


The last picture. This is me standing on the "L" in California in front of California Adventure Park. I had a lot of fun and I hope you enjoyed my post!

My Fair Froggy (and Tadpoles)

Every Wednesday I take a writing class at a local home school family's house, and yesterday I was a little early. There is another younger kids class right before my class, so while I was waiting I went out side with the family's youngest sister, Hannah. While we were were out side she asked if I wanted to see there hot tub, because they had a lot of tadpoles in it (don't worry, the water was not hot; it only has about 8" of rain water in it) while we were looking at the tadpoles I told her that they were really neat and asked her if we could catch some and if I could bring some home. She said yes, so we had a lot of fun trying to grab some without falling in the water. In the end she and her 10 year brother caught 8 tadpoles and 1 very young frog for me to bring home (I say young frog because it still had a very small tail). (I tried to catch some, I really did, but could never quite get a hold of one) She gave me a jar to keep them in, but when we got home they looked a little crowded so I split them up between two jars. So now, today I tried taking pictures of them, but all of them were pretty blurry. Here are two of the least blurry ones:
The frog's and some of the tadpoles new home. I have not actually been keeping them out side, because I read that if the water gets too hot, the can die.
Flying through the air with the greatest of ease! (More like losing it's balance at the edge of the jar and half jumping, half falling kerplop into the water below: )
One last picture of their new home. (The frog is inside of the green magnifying glass)

Disneyland

I will post again tomarow because, I'm going to...Disneyland!!! I'm going with my girl scout troop for our end of the year party! See you tomorow!