Elana and Lloyd's Wedding

Elana and Lloyd

A few days ago, I went to my aunt Elana's wedding. The wedding was located at a hotel.  First,  we had a ceremony. A ceremony is an event performed on a special occasion.  My sisters and I were the flower girls, and my brother was the ring bearer.  A flower girl is someone who throws flowers on the path were the bride walks on.  A ring bearer has a pillow with a ring that he gives to the best man, but since my brother is still small they just gave him the pillow and the best man held the rings.   There were also 6 bridesmaids, 6 groomsmen,  a best man and a maid of honor.  My mom was the maid of honor and the best man was Elana's husbands brother.  We all walked one by one down the isle and we stood at the canopy while Elana and Lloyd (Elana's husband) were married.

We had to get to the hotel early because we had to take photos at a park with Elana and Lloyd.  The bride was wearing an off white, long, embroidered flower and beaded wedding gown that was gorgeous.  The groomsmen all wore a tuxedo, that had a white shirt, black pants, black coat, a burgundy vest and bow.  The  bridesmaids had beautiful burgundy dresses and their hair was neatly done. Since my Mom was the maid of honor, she got to wear whatever she wanted. She picked a long silver dress. When we got to the park, we noticed that there was this gigantic white Limousine. After we took the photos, the entire wedding party got to ride in the Limousine back to the hotel.
























 Next, we went to hotel ballroom where we had dinner.  The room was decorated with flowers and each table had a centerpiece with burgundy roses.  My sisters and brother had a lot of fun dancing.  We danced almost every dance.  We had a hotel room so when we got tired, we went to bed, and my parents stayed up until the end.

Elana and Lloyd were a beautiful bride and groom, and they had a lovely wedding. I love Elana and Lloyd.

First Dance

Have you ever been in a wedding?

Congratulations Mrs. Yollis!

Mrs. Yollis was awarded teacher of the year and today, she was presented with an award at the board meeting. There were many people who attended the ceremony like her family, husband, current and former students, teachers from my school (even my teacher), and all of her friends.  In the beginning, all of the students lead everyone in attendance in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then, Dr. Zimmering gave Mrs. Yollis her award. Mrs Yollis gave a very nice acceptance speech thanking everyone for coming and sharing this moment with her.  She has been teaching for 25 years! We all gave Mrs. Yollis a standing ovation.



If I didn't have Mrs. Yollis as a teacher, I would have never had a blog.  Mrs. Yollis started me off with commenting and introducing me to all of her friends around the world. She taught me about the world that we live in and caring about other people through the Uganda Global Project. Thank you Mrs Yollis.


Here is a short animoto video from today's ceremony.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

What do you like best about your teacher?

My Swimming Competition

Taking my mark on the block

After school, I swim on a swim team. At the end of August, I went to a swimming meet.  A meet is a place where you compete against other swimmers.  In swimming, there are four different strokes: butterfly stroke, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.  Each stroke has its own rules and if you don't follow them, you get disqualified (DQ). For example, for the butterfly stroke, if you legs separate when kicking and you don't touch the wall with both hands when you finish then you will get DQ. For backstroke, you can get disqualified if you turn around onto your stomach before reaching the wall.  Some swimmers turn around to make sure they won't hit their heads on the wall.  At this meet I got DQ on breaststroke for not having a correct kick.

There are many directions that a swimmer needs to follow to know when to get ready to start the race. There are 4 or 5 signals used by the Starter to start each race.

For Freestyle, Breaststroke, Butterfly, there are 4 signals:
1. 5 short whistles – next up/call to the blocks
2. 1 long whistle – step on the blocks
3. Verbal – ‘Take your mark’
4. Starter horn – dive in to start the race

Hannah is taking her mark

 Michael is taking his mark

For Backstroke there are 5 signals:
1. 5 short whistles – next up/call to the blocks
2. 1 long whistle  – enter the water/step into the water
3. 1 long whistle – mount the wall
4. Verbal – ‘Take your mark’
5. Starter horn – to start the race

Mounting the wall to get ready for backstroke

 The length of the pool was 25 meters and I swam fifty meters of backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle and 25 meters of butterfly stroke.  Parents volunteered as timers to determine how fast each swimmer swam.  These were my times:

• Backstroke- 55.94 seconds (50 meters)
• Freestyle- 54.88 seconds (50 meters)
• Butterfly-32.05 seconds (25 meters)

 Do you like to swim?

Have you ever been in a swim meet?

My Reading List

Last week I went the the public library to get some books.  The librarian suggested that I keep a list of all my favorite books that I have read.  The purpose of this list is to remember the books I have read and to recommend books to other people.  After seeing my list, maybe you will also want to read these books.

I made the table using Microsoft Excel.  Excel is a program that allows you to do different calculations,  make tables and charts. Once I entered  my list of books,  with a click of a mouse, Excel alphabetized the list by the author's first name.   

Author	Title	Description
Anna Sewel	Black Beauty	A horse that goes to different owners and finally arrives with his first one.
Jack London	Call of the Wild	A dog named Buck who pulls sleds and becomes like a wolf.
Jean Craighead George	Julie of the Wolves	A girl who lives with the wolves and tries to survive.
Jean Craighead George	Julie's Wolf Pack	Julie has returned to her family and the wolves have their own adventure
Laura Ingalls Wilder	Little House in the Big Woods	The adventures of Laura Ingalls living in the woods with her family
Laura Ingalls Wilder	Little House on the Prairie	The adventures of Laura Ingalls living on the prairie with her family
Laura Ingalls Wilder	Farmer Boy	A boy who helps his father with the farm.
Laura Ingalls Wilder	These Happy Golden Years	Laura gets married and has a baby of her own.
Lous Sachar	Sideways Stories From Wayside School	Funny book about a school
Lous Sachar	Wayside School is Falling down	Funny book about a school
Lous Sachar	Wayside School gets a little Stranger	Funny book about a school
Marguerite Henry	Misty of Chincoteague	About a boy who catches a wild horse that had a baby named Misty. Misty gets left behind with the boy.
Marguerite Henry	King of the Wind	An orphaned Arabian boy who has to travel with his horse and gets lost on the way.
Marguerite Henry	Stormy, Misty's Foal	Misty is having a baby during a flood. The baby is called Stormy
Marguerite Henry	Misty's Twilight	About a horse named Twilight and her adventures.

Have you read any of these books? 

What books are on your reading list?