Back to School

In first grade we do lots of reading and math. We are pretty much just

reviewing stuff. So, that's why it's sort of boring. Cuz, most of our class
knows all of it. And, we are working on daily 5. It's read to self, writing
about something, and that's the only ones we did. We are only on the
writing. My lunch, we only get like 10 or 13 minutes. And, you can ask the
teacher if they are over at your table if you need more time and she'll say
stay there or go to a different table. And, the school is named Ardmore.
And, my teacher's named Mrs. Lobdell. School is fun pretty much. It's pretty
much fun. Y's kids is fun too. It's an after school program. In Y's kids we
go outside on the big playground. It's fun because Y's kids has tether ball
and they have a bat and a ball. And, that's how we play baseball in Y's
kids.
My behavior is really good at school. I've never gotten down to red yet. I
might, but I'm trying not to get to parent contact. My mom said she'd buy me
a $150 bucks if I go the whole school year with no parent contact. - Rion

I'm in third grade. My teacher is Mrs. Majer. Also, I do fourth grade math.
My math teacher's name is Mrs. Nowaczyk. She's nice. It feels kind of weird
going back to school. I could wake up whenever I wanted when we went to
summer camp. Now I have to wake up at 7:15 or under, to get ready for
breakfast and all of that. I have to be to school at 8:05 because that's
when the doors open, but you can be there at 8:10 or 8:13. But, if you get
there at 8:15 or up, then you have to get a tardy slip. At our school there
is this writing program for very good writers. It's called LEAP. I made it
this year, which is the first year I could be eligible to make it. At LEAP
my teacher is Mr. Koeller. He's very nice since I had him for a writing
teacher in 2nd and 1st grade. We have a new gym teacher named Mr. Gebhart.
This is what we have to do as our morning routine every single time -
Jumping jacks for two minutes, running for two minutes, or pushups for two
minutes. Jumping jacks, running, or pushups. At gym, the game we played on
Friday was team capture the flag. Here are the two days we play gym, Tuesday
and Friday. And, team capture the flag is the game I was just talking about.
You have to take the other team's flag when you take the other teams flag,
you win that round. Then you start it over again and play again. The end. -
Owen

Summer Vacation

We had a wonderful, but too short, summer vacation! This year we visited Plymouth (Rion just HAD to see the rock), Cape Cod, Newport, and Boston, with a quick stop in Concord. The boys loved the beaches on the Cape, along with Cape Cod Creamery. But, they also enjoyed seeing the historical sites. I’m very happy we had Rion read the Magic Tree House American Revolution Fact Checker book before we left. It made him want to see the historic sites, like the Old North Church, site of the Boston Massacre, and the Minuteman Statue. His love of Plymouth Rock? Neither of us can figure that one out. Owen got to eat lots of lobsters and see the Green Monster at Fenway, so he was happy too. – N

It was a actually a super great vacation! I liked Bunker Hill the best.

Worst – The bar. I didn’t like it. I liked the Union Oyster Bar second, then the beaches. The Union Oyster Bar is like the oldest place and it’s really good. My mom even let me have mac n cheese. I usually don’t get it in Boston. They even give cornbread. I love the cornbread! They even give us crackers.  – Rion

My favorite thing to do at vacation was to be at the beach at Cape Cod and to go to Fenway Park. And, the worst part was going to this beach where it flipped me up in the air and smashed me on the ground. - Owen

Boston

I got to see the Green Monster at Fenway park. The red sox lost 3-5 vs. the

Angels. Getting home from the ballpark was fun. We didn't have to walk all
the way home cuz there was a person who rode us there on a bike, who drives
in the street. And, we weren't on the bike. He pulls something and you can
sit in it. 4 people can fit. My dad and my mom sat down and we sat on top of
them.
We went to the Freedom Trail. We walked most of it until we got to the last
thing on it. We saw all of it really. We even saw the USS Constitution. That
was fun. I didn't really like Paul Revere's house. We drove to Bunker Hill
and I walked up all of the steps and back down. I walked up 500 steps in
that. There's 294 each, 498, and then I walked up two steps on the top.
That's 500. Bunker Hill is fun cuz I took lots of pictures and I don't know
why they have lots of gold domes for some reason. (Rion loves seeing state
capital buildings. He knows that they often have gold domes. All of the old
buildings in Boston, with the gold domes, confused him.)

I went to Mike's Pastry. It's a place in Boston. It's good because my mom
let me have a strawberry cannoli with chocolate chips. And, then we went
back to Mike's Pastry again and had something else the day after. We got the
mint chocolate chip one and it's good. And, I ate it in the USA's oldest
bar. I never knew it was their oldest bar. It actually doesn't look old. I
got to go inside the Old North Church. I don't know why they don't have the
lanterns on it anymore. There was lanterns by the top of it. It's One if by
land, two if by sea. If the British were coming they'd put the lanterns on,
one by land and two by sea. That means they'd put one lantern on if they
were coming by land. If they were coming by sea they'd put two lanterns up.
- Rion

At Boston, we went onto the Freedom Trail it was where all of this old stuff
was, like Old North Church and Paul Revere's house, Bunker Hill, USS
Constitution and lots of other stuff. My favorite thing to see would have be
the place where the Boston massacre was. There was this guy acting it out.
He was like, "We aren't afraid of no British". He was hilarious. So, after
we did a few more stuff, we went to the Union Oyster House. It was the
oldest restaurant ever in America. At the Union Oyster house I had lobster
and I tried my dad's Boston cream pie, but that was pretty much it. The next
day we did the Freedom Trail again. This time we saw the Old North Church,
Paul Revere's house, and the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill. After we saw
Paul Revere's house, we went back into our car and drove to Bunker Hill. But
on the way to our car dad stopped at the oldest bar in America. And, I don't
know why we were seeing all of the oldest stuff on earth. The pub was called
Hand in the Bell. And, dad had pumpkin UFO, I got lemonade, my brother got
lemonade and I have no idea what mom got. We were also eating a chocolate
mint cannoli and we got a red velvet cheesecake. I think my favorite thing
in Mass and RI would have to be Boston because there was just so much stuff
to see.

My favorite part of Boston was actually going to Fenway Park. It's the
oldest baseball stadium in America. At Fenway park, I was cheering for the
Red Sox but they lost unfortunately to the Angels, 5-3. One of the Angels
hitters hit an out of the park homer over the Green Monster. Now that's
really good. The Green Monster is the tallest left field wall in all
ballparks. But, high fly balls that would be usually an out in other
stadiums go over the Green Monster since it's so close to home plate. We
also, after the game, we were walking back and then me and Rion saw these
banners that said all of the Hall of Famers on the Red Sox including Cy
Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski. After that, we went
back to our hotel and had a good night's rest. The other day we did all of
that stuff and we went home. The end. - Owen

The Minuteman Statue

This is how I knew about Concord. Because my book the American Revolution

Fact Tracker, it's a chapter book. My mom let me read it with her. I already
knew about Concord. The book was called the American Revolution. And, I got
to see what the Revolutionary War was. The first shot, whoever shot it in
the USA, on the patriots. It was the patriots galaxy. There was way more
patriots than Indians. I went to see the statue of a Minuteman and I saw
where the first shot around the world was. And, I got to see a field that I
didn't think was cool. And, I saw two British flags. - Rion

In Concord, my family and I went to see the Minuteman statue. It was a
statue of a minuteman that was a farmer and we also saw a British grave.
Other stuff we saw. We saw the bridge where they fought and we also could
see somebodies mansion, but mom didn't let us. My favorite part in Concord
would have to be seeing the minuteman statue because it was just cool. -
Owen

Newport, RI

At Newport we went on a boat ride and the boat ride was really good. We go to see all of these views. They said it was an hour and 30 minutes but it only felt like 30 minutes. There was this buoy that the captain said that if you tossed a penny on it and it landed on the buoy, you’d have good luck. And, I didn't have a lucky throw. The wind blew it and chucked it backwards. Horrible throw. At Newport, there was this ice cream place we had. It was OK. I had orange sherbet, which is my 2nd favorite kind. It was nice ice cream. Now I’m going to talk about the 40 steps. A the 40 steps, me and my brother went down by the ocean. We were climbing cliffs to get there. After we did all of that and had fun, we had to go back up and we did the Cliff Walk. It’s where we walked around and we kept on walking until we saw these houses. And there was this one humungous house. It might have been a house or it might have been something else. It was like 50, no maybe 25 times a 2 story house, but it was big. The end of Newport. - Owen

 

I went to Newport. I went on a boat ride. It was an hour and a half. It was fun. I got to see a fort. A real fort, still made, in Newport. I got a black dog in Newport. And, the store I got it at was called the Black Dog Kids. It’s mostly just kids' stuff in there. - Rion

Cape Cod

I went to three beaches in Cape Cod. One at my hotel that didn't have big
waves. It was just a normal beach. It mostly didn't have much waves. And,
the second beach we went to didn't have any waves. It just had crabs and
lots of rocks. And, there was a beach what had big, big waves. They were
almost as tall as my dad. It was right up to his neck. I liked the one at
our hotel the best. I liked the first one the best because I was almost
about to find a shark tooth. I saw a shark tooth. It just came up on the
shore when I was up on the last step. I was walking and I think it was a
shark tooth. That's what I think it was. I'm not sure. It felt like a shark
tooth.

I learned how to dive! I only can dive in 8 feet and up. I can't dive in 8
feet and under. I can't dive in 1 foot. Like I'd die. I got to get a shark
tooth necklace at a jewelry store. I never knew a jewelry store had shark
tooth necklaces. So that was funny that I got that at a jewelry place. -
Rion

At Cape Cod we had a beach, we had our own private beach at our hotel. The
hotel also had two swimming pools. My favorite thing at Cape Cod, I'd have
to say would be Cape Cod Creamery. Cape Cod Creamery is the best ice cream
place I've ever had. My favorite flavor was this Oreo flavor with Oreos in
vanilla ice cream. I also like Rion's flavor. He had a gelato, a blueberry
gelato. It was pretty sweet. And, at Cape Cod I ate mostly seafood, but
sometimes I had a hot dog and a burger. My favorite kind of seafood is
lobster. Let me tell you, lobster is the best. - Owen

Plymouth

I went to Plymouth and I saw the Plymouth Rock. And I took lots of pictures
of it. I learned that it was as big as the thing it was in, then people
started chipping off part of it. That's why they put it in the thing they
put it in. I went to see the Mayflower 2. My favorite thing about it was
actually not really going in it. It was just seeing it. It was pretty
boring. At Plimoth Plantation we went to see a movie about the Indians and
the Pilgrims. Then we went to see about where the Indians and Pilgrims
lived, the town, what it looked like, but it wasn't really where they lived
in real life. It was fake. They didn't live right at Plimoth Plantation.
They didn't build it. They didn't live right there. I fed goats. And, I fed
sheep. And, I saw cannons that came from Great Britain. They were really
cool cuz one of them was giant. It was like six feet. - Rion

In Plymouth, me, my brother, my mom and my dad all went to see Plymouth Rock
and we went on the Mayflower 2. My favorite thing, I'd have to say in
Plymouth would be, going to Plimoth Plantation. My favorite part in Plimoth
Plantation was the Indian Village. At the Indian Village we went in a few
houses and one house was this huge house where they were making stew. And
there was this other house where there was so many beds you could fit 16
people. That's probably like 4 families. And, we also saw the pilgrim
village. A the pilgrim village we saw some of the houses and we also saw
this big fort with six cannons pointing all around. This guy told us this
story that they had the cannons because they thought they were going to have
a war versus France. Some Canadians are French. But then, they never had a
war, so those cannons are still sitting there from 1662, or something like
that, just waiting to be shot. The end. - Owen

Courts Plus Fun Camp

Our first summer away from KinderCare. The boys joined the same program at Courts Plus. The typical weekly schedule was one field trip, two days at the pool, and two days at the local parks. In the aftercare program, they were able to use the kids gym and play Wii and Kinect. The boys came home happy and tired.  - N

I went to Courts Plus at Fun Camp. And we went to the pool. We went to parks. And, we went to water parks, like the HUB. So, pretty much we only did that. I went to museums, a boat ride, other places. I went to the zoo, not Brookfield zoo. I went to Lincoln Park. I had some friends there. One of their names were Alex and Austin and Owen, but not my brother Owen. I have a brother named Owen. There was kids that went to the same school with me before I went to Kindergarten and first grade. My favorite things were going to the pool and the HUB. And, they had ice cream there. Eating the ice cream was one of my favorite things to do too. And, my friend, actually went to the same place. Their camp went to the same thing too. They did. – Rion

At summer camp, we went to some pools, museums, parks, and a lot of other stuff. So, my favorite thing to do at summer camp was to go to the pools. My favorites were Wheaton Water Park and East End in Elmhurst. We also went to a lot of museums. The museum we went to most often was the Children’s Museum at Navy Pier. We also went on a boat ride at Navy Pier. I met some new friends. Here are some of them. Jack, Sebastian, Kieran, and Bradon, and a lot of other people. My favorite thing at the pools were the water slides and the diving boards. I also like the drop slide at East End. My favorite counselor was a counselor named Jake. All of the counselors were in college or something. They were pretty old, I have to say. But, they were adults so they could do whatever they wanted. My favorite game to do when we weren’t on a field trip was a dodge-ball game named Scatter. It’s like regular dodge ball but you can only take 3 steps. And, when the person that got you out gets out, you get back in. Bye. - Owen

Done!

Mike finished his first room!

 

Rion's 1st Time on the Diving Board and Big Slide

The Summer Olympics

OO love watching the Olympics! Rion puts his hand over his heart every time

he hears the national anthem.

Rion Day

For Rion's day, he had lots of ideas ranging from a zoo with pandas, to the

Wisconsin state fair, to duplicating Owen's day. After Sunday's fun at Great
America he decided to go back and try the water slides. But, he also wanted
to stop for cheese in Wisconsin since we didn't bring any home over the
weekend. He wore me out! Nothing really scared him. He had huge smiles and
that cute little giggle all day long. He also decided that the kiddie area
was too little for him and that it wasn't fair he wasn't big enough to ride
all of the slides. We can't wait for Rion day next year! - N

Rion: On Rion's day I went to Pulp Kitchen and I had the s'mores pancakes.
And then we left to go to our house. And then we put some s'mores pancakes
in there because I didn't eat them all.

And then we got in our car to go to
Six Flags Great America. All of the rides weren't open but some of them
were. And, the place we were going to go to was called Hurricane Harbor and
we didn't go to Hurricane Harbor because it wasn't open. I did the pirate
ride and then I did a Scooby Doo ferris wheel. And then I did this like boat
thing. It was fun. It just went around in a circle. And then I went on the
Flintstones ride. And then I went in a real ferris wheel again. It's not the
same one, a different one. And then I went on a roller coaster. It's close
to the ferris wheel. I don't know what it's called but I sat in the front,
front. It's called the Jetsons. It's fun. And then the Little Dipper was
open so we went on that. And then we went on the log flume. Log flume was
fun because we got wet. Mom got wet first. She got soaked. She got more wet
than me. The log flume didn't have a line really. And then when we got back
from the first log flume we went in line again. The first time there was no
line and the second time there was.

Then we went into Hurricane Harbor. I went on like all of the water slides
at Hurricane Harbor. The Tornado looked fun. First of all, I went on all of
the waterslides I could. And, I did the lazy river. It was fun cuz my mom
was pushing me into the waterfalls. Then I pushed mom into the waterfalls.
Then we both went into it. Then I pushed mom into a squirting thing. It shot
at her face. There is a wave pool there. It is fun. You know why? Cuz, the
waves are super big and I like jumping over them. And, we went on the
waterslides. There is like a mat slide. I raced mom. I won. We went on a
water slide what was big, with a big, big inner tube. It was fun. But, one
waterslide was sort of scary because we couldn't see in it. But then, I saw
water and then we hit the water once and then we bounced up and down. It was
funny and it was fun. And it was only 2 and 8 inches. That's not even close
to being deep.

Then the rest of the day I went to a smacking thing. You get to play until
you win. And you hit the thing with a hammer and you try to hit the top. I
did it twice and you get to win two things if you do it twice.

We went to Mars Cheese Castle. It was fun. And, I had a sandwich there. They make
sandwiches. Then we were driving home and my belly hurted. The end.

Owen: On Rion day, me and my dad went to Beren's park. At Beren's park, me
and my dad played a round of mini golf. I won 56-55. And then, after that,
we went to the batting cages. I did baseball. It went like 50 mph and I hit
a lot. And, after that, me and my dad got dinner there. I got lemonade,
Cheetos, and a hot dog. And then, I went to piano lessons. After piano
lessons, Dad took me out to get Dairy Queen. For Dairy Queen I got a small
chocolate cone dipped in chocolate and dad got the M&M brownie blizzard. And
you should have seen Rion's face. He was like, what?

Rion: But, I got two tigers.

Owen: I know. And, after that I went home and played my DS.

Rion: And, I played Mario Bros. Me and my mom were playing Wii. My name is
Rion. We played Coin Battle in New Super Mario Bros. And then we were
battling. Mom won 5-4 and this is how. I letted her win one because I was
staying alive longer. I gave my mom an extra boost. Then we played New Super
Mario Bros. She helped me on the first Bowser's Castle. Me and Mom beat it.
And then, I had firepower and I never lost it. And, I was going to play it
in the world 3 but we don't know what file it is. That's all.