I Finally Get My Fish

For a really long time I've been asking mom and dad for fish, and this was the day. On Saturday September 18, me and mom went out to Petsmart and bought two goldfish. At first my mom was thinking about buying glowfish, but I wanted goldfish more. On the way home I named them Sammy & Charlotte, the one that looks like a koi fish is Sammy, and the one that looks like a goldfish is Charlotte. 

A closer view!

 

Bye Bye Dodge Challenger (Rainmaker)

For about 30 days we had a car that was called the Dodge Challenger, and we named it the Rainmaker. When we first bought it, every time we went for a drive it started to rain! It was sad to get rid of it. The reason we wanted to get rid of it was because dad didn't enjoy driving it as much as he thought he would. I wasn't that sad.

I look so cool

Can we just get rid of this car already

Like the back of this car? Jeeah I DO!

 

Cora's Birthday

It is Cora's birthday and she is turning 11. I know it's kind of scary, but it's actually not. Like I said before, most likely everyone has a cake for their birthday, and I had a blueberry pie, Cora had a brownie cake.

Singing Happy Birthday to Cora

"Okay, I'm about to blow out my candles" Cora said

 

A Day Trip To The Beach - Late August

I love going to the beach. Right before school started we took a day trip to the beach.

Chilling in the water

"Get down" I said "Agggg" Cora said

Do I have to be here

The first day of school

I'm so excited!

 

Mimi and Papa Visit

I'm never sure how many ancestors I have, but I know I have Grammie and Gramps and Mimi and Papa. Well, Mimi and Papa took a visit, and we went to Dix park again, but instead of looking at tulips we looked at sunflowers. Papa brought his camera, and took so many cool pictures of the flowers, he even got up-close pictures of bees on the flowers. Since Papa is experienced with cameras, we made a movie. I know the other movie we made, the script was written by Papa, but this time it was written by me! The movie was called A Ridiculous Vacation. We made this movie while mom and dad were out to the beach. All of us starred in the movie and it was so much fun to make.

Papa is teaching me how to use a camera!

Why was I here

Cheese

 

My 9th Birthday

Before my birthday, mom took me on a bike ride to downtown Raleigh, which was a six mile bike ride. This is something that a nine year old can definitely handle.

I really enjoyed my 9th birthday because then I know that in one year I'll be in the double digits. The sad part was I had to take my ELA EOG on my birthday, but I didn't care, because when I got home there was a balloon being held down by a bag of kit-kat bars (my favorite)!

I know most people have cakes on their birthday, but me, no. Instead I had a blueberry pie, which was delicious. Mom had no trouble getting 9 candles into the pie!

Reading one of the books I got for my birthday!

 

A Visit with Grammie and Gramps

April 2021- Since dad's back has been hurting for a little while now, we decided to get his mind off of that and take a picnic. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, we packed sandwiches, chips, and fruits too. We had a lot of entertainment though, because a bunch of hawks were flying on the treetops. We had an amazing picnic!

Because of dad's back hurting so much, he had to get back surgery so the pain would go away, just like gramps. Anyways, since dad couldn't help much around the house and mom was the only one working, mom and dad decided Grammie and Gramps come over to help around the house, but not just that, also having some fun with Cora and me!

While Grammie and Gramps were here, Cora, mom, Grammie, and me went to an azalea garden to pass some time!

 

Easter 2021

 This was the best Easter because I lost my tooth the day before, just as we were getting ready to dye Easter eggs! When I was coloring the eggs I made a really cool speckled egg when we put dye into a bag of rice and shuffled the egg around.

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

Around Easter, one weekend Mom took Cora and me to a nature reserve that had lots of big rocks to climb on. We also saw a fairy garden with fairy houses everywhere. As you can see in the picture, I managed to replicate myself on the same rock!!

A Visit to Tulips

Even though I have my passport now, I didn't make it to Amsterdam to see tulips. They had tulips right here in Raleigh at Dix Park for us to enjoy - on Mimi's birthday too!

Me wearing Great Gramps' boyhood ring

2020 A Look Back

What a crazy year to say the least! One thing we will always be thankful for is the time that we were able to spend together. It made the small outings and littlest things all the more cherished. Wishing for a better year ahead, but thankful for the memories that were made.

 

Christmas 2020

 Aside from not traveling or getting to see anybody, our holiday season this year didn't feel all that different and we were very blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with good health, good food, and of course great gifts! I was pretty impressed because we didn't get to actually visit with Santa this year, but I'm thinking he must have received my letter because I made out pretty well this year!

Our season leading up to Christmas was filled with our traditions. We started with adorning the outside of our house with lights and decorations followed a week later by the indoor decorations including our Christmas village and Christmas tree. Cora and I put all the ornaments on the tree ourselves this year too and I think the tree looked beautiful! We baked lots of cookies, decorated lots of cookies, watched many Christmas movies, enjoyed a night with the symphony and drove through the Nights of Lights throughout December. 

Christmas Eve was different in that after our dinner of Spaetzel soup we had Christmas Eve mass in the family room watching St Patrick's Cathedral mass on TV. After dinner, we enjoyed our cheese and pepperoni listening to Christmas music followed by opening a few gifts. The best gift was the last - Mom and Dad set up a small scavenger hunt for Cora and me. We started by opening a card with a poem that gave us a hint to look in the mud room for a gift. We opened that gift which was a bell for a bicycle. The next clue led us upstairs to Mom and Dad's closet where we found new bikes! Wow, we were surprised! Another different thing we did on Christmas Eve was the Cousins Christmas show. Cora, Saige and I all had the opportunity to show off some of our talents for the family on a Zoom call. Cora played the piano, Saige danced and I was dressed to the nines in my suit while some of my prerecorded magic tricks were being shared. 

Christmas day was nice. We were able to see family on video calls, show off our presents from Santa and open a few other gifts from our grandparents. I think this year my favorite gift was definitely the football helmet. Mom was surprised that when I first made my Christmas gift all I had on it was books, but as Christmas approached I thought of a few more things I wanted and at the last minute, added them to my list! It was such a nice holiday - for a moment we almost forgot about stupid COVID as I like to call it.