Last Day of School 2015!

On December 18th, my class had a party!  Fancy dress was encouraged.   Not much learning was going on,  Parents came with food and the 6th graders helped to decorate. 

 My teacher, Miss Newby was really happy!

 

 There was a lot of food!  My mom brought allergy free cup cakes for me and two other girls in my class.

 Andy, Mahi, Reese and I wore suits.  Reese and Mahi had ties!

After food, there were crafts!  Seth and I are working on marshmallow snow men.

 We did scratch art over here.

 Ow!  I hit my knee running around the crowded room!

 It was fun, but after two hours, I had had enough partying and socializing, so I read my book!

Mom and I left at 1:15! Which was good.  It gave me time to rest before karate and and evening Christmas Party at Claire's house.

3rd Grade so far...

This is my 3rd Grade Portrait!  We had pictures soon after school started.  I got my hair cut and my two upper front teeth fell out just days after this picture was taken.

See?  My hair is shorter now!  That's Andy (my friend-also 3rd Grade) and his older brother Elliot.  They come hone with me three days a week.  We also do karate together.

 My Mom, and Andy's Mom, Andrea (that's her above), parent volunteer in my class.  They teach art every other week on Friday afternoon's.  My Mom found the lesson on the internet and called it: "Spooky Trees".

Here are some of my new classmates and their projects... 

Here's mine!  I really like my new school, and my teacher, Miss Newby.  

A local Lego Store! Finally!

My local mall (South Center in Tukwilla) just opened a Lego Store!  No more driving to Bellevue!

 They were having a mega build, where we could help the Lego experts build the HULK!

 Mom, Dad, and myself all made a green jumbo brick.

 Here is the hulk the two lego master builders were working on, and a piece of it is mine!

A puzzle geocache...

Dad informed me that there are several types of geocaches.  Most are:  Go to the coordinates and look around!  Recently we did a puzzle geocache at Landmark On the Sound, which was a retirement home for Masons.  Presently, the location is empty.....

We had to go to several locations on the property to find our next clue...

There was a number on the date on the sun dial...

How many triangular bronze plaques.....my parents were concerned that this plaque was probably stolen...

Another number on the front of the building and we had our coordinates for the geocache!

It took us a little while to find it.  The clue:  "Where post meets Salal" really helped.

There is was tucked away.  Magnets sure helped keeping this cache hidden.  I signed my name and we went home.

Swimming again! Mt. Rainier Pool

 At the end of June, my friend Sabrina invited me to open swim.  After a year and a half, I got back into the local pool (Mt. Rainier Pool).  My parents asked if I wanted to start taking lessons again and I thought that was a great idea.  When I stopped swimming in December of 2013, I was level 4.  I had to do a test to see what level I was in now-I dropped back to level 2.  I was disappointed that I had forgotten so much, but my parents pep talked me into starting again.  After three days of lessons, I was back up to level 3!

My newest teacher, Aaron, is very technical and has helped me with my speed and better breathing.  That's me in the middle lane!  I can swim the deep end much faster now!

Mom takes me to the pool every morning.  Sometimes I meet Sabrina for open swim later.

We both like swimming in the deep end.

State Capitol!

On Tuesday, my school went to the State Capitol in Olympia.

There are 42 steps to get inside the capitol building because Washington is the 42nd state in the union!

 Once we made it up the stairs, our guide Chris, showed us some bronze doors.  This set is permanently closed since the earthquake in '01.

 Once inside, we saw marble everywhere!

 I waited with Anne & Andy while everyone else went to the bathroom!  There were a lot of stairs inside this building.

 Chris showed us more things about Washington State.  We saw the state seal, state frog, state tree, apples etc....

 They also had a replica of the gun that shot Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago.

 Here is a rare handmade flag with 42 stars.

 The bronze state seal in the floor in the very center of the rotunda.

 This is the class sitting in the rotunda.  We tried out the acoustics, which were really good.

 The entrance to the state senate chamber.  The one behind us looked just the same, although it was for the house.

 We went into the reception room where they have fancy parties.  The pair of chandeliers in this room cost as much as the whole capitol building!  Wow!

 The only gold in the capitol building is found in the gold thread which make the state seal in these curtains.

 Chris was showing us pictures that could be seen in the marble.

 Mom caught me yawning!

 After the reception room, we got to sit in the gallery to see the house of representatives.  They come back to work tomorrow.

 The representatives work down there.  The senate looks the same.

On our way out, Mom took a picture of me by the big chandelier that hangs from the center of the rotunda, above the seal.  After this we had lunch and went to see the Justice building.

We got to go inside, but not in the courtroom.  Court was in session.  It was a fun field tip!