Sweetcars Adventure!

A couple weeks ago my dad and I went Sweetcars for the grand opening. One of the highlights of it was sitting in a Ferrari!! It was a fire engine red and nearly burned my eyes looking at it.

I also liked seeing the manager, but it was very cool seeing where they clean the cars.

Written by: Dever
Typed by: Sydney

Juju at the Fire Station

The whole posse!

Nice smile Nora!

So this did happen a long time ago, but I thought you might want to see some VERY cute pics of Juju going to the Fire Station with some of his friends.

Caroling in the Rain!!

As most everyone knows on the day before Thanksgiving if you go downtown you will see a group of people, most likely freezing, joking around and watching the Santa get lit. Every year so far I have gone with Dever, Jenny, and Juju. This year was a little different however.

My Junior choir from school was going to sing at Aunt Millies and then at the Court House. Maria's mom took us and we were the first people to arrive at the tent in the Aunt Millies parking lot. While people trickled in we all took advantage of the free muffins and hot cider. The hot cider was surprisingly good! Finally Mr. Rogner, our choir director, arrived and we all lined up and sang a few songs. Eventually we left and made our way out into the rain.

When we finally arrived at the parking lot where we would stand to watch the Santa lighting, they weren't ready yet so we sang random songs from memory. Being in the rain and singing Christmas is an interesting combination. It got us into the Christmas spirit none the less! It was really quite fun, because despite the rain we had so many umbrellas just in the choir that one could walk all the way down the block and not get wet.

Eventually the Santa got lit and we all hurried into the courthouse to dry off. You have to agree with me that there is some irony in watching Santa get lit in the rain. I mean COME ON!! Once we had shed our drenched rain gear we sang and sang and sang. If I had to rate us I would say that we did 4 stars. Pretty good job!! Thank you everyone who went out in the rain to see us. And thanks to the choir for such a fun night!

Sydney

Basketball Season!

The girls JV Basketball season has officially started with our first game against Emanuel St. Michael! Okay technically the season started awhile ago, but we had our first game last night. We even managed to win 40-21. I somehow, being the docile creature that I am, managed to get myself FOUR fouls. To put that in perspective, one more and I was out of the game! We only had 5 girls on the team so we pretty much played the whole game. Luckily some of the fifth graders where allowed to play so we got a short reprieve in the fourth quarter. All and all the game was great! Now onto a completely different subject........

This is really completely unnecessary but I love how google changes their logo so here is a good one for Thanksgiving. Have a happy Turkey day!

by: sydney

Is there a future for ME in poetry writing?

This exciting news is just in, I won the Allen County Poetry contest. At school we are doing a unit on poetry so all of the middle school grades had to write a poem on the criteria "Happy, Mad, Sad - Poems about feelings" Here is mine...

Frustrated

I am so Frustrated!

Why won’t that last Lego fit?

I’ve shoved and hammered, but it won’t budge.

I am SO Frustrated!

I can feel the anger

Building up inside of me

Ready to explode like a volcano.

I am so FRUSTRATED!

I am almost ready to cry;

Then I do –

Tears streaming down my face.

Why won’t that last piece fit?

I am OH SO FRUSTRATED!!

I hope you like it! I won first place in the 6th grade division. I think for each grade there is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention so I did pretty well if I do say so myself! There will be an awards ceremony on Saturday December 4th at 11:00 at the Main Library in the auditorium. I am SO excited. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the poem!

by: Sydney (the future poetry writer!)

Kemme Nash House Happenings

So I thought you guys might want to learn of what is happening at the Kemme Nash house. We are having a little fun making a tee-shirt quilt, and it is a TON of fun! Here are some pictures and a video of what our process is. Even though it is very crazy I still think that you will enjoy it!

Soccer Champions!!!!

So as you might have guessed by the title above, as of about one hour ago my soccer team, The Raptors won the championship. The game was tough, but we managed to pull through and win the game 2-1. You should know that the team we played we had only beat once before. Everyone thought that they were better than us but we WON!! In the first game of the tournament we beat Blue Crew 6-0. Hopefully we will win again in the spring!

Our Darling Baby Sarah

Here are some video's / pics that we have taken of our darling little Sarah Grace. Every day she seems to grow a little cuter, if that is even possible at this point!!

Soccer Weekends

Every weekend everyone in my family trudges our for soccer games on Saturday and Sunday. Last Sunday I had 2 games. The first game went fine, we lost 2-1 to our biggest rivals. During the first game I got smacked in the face with a ball. I however was brave and didn't ask for a sub. Luckily I wasn't wearing my glasses. The only lasting side effects where a nasty head ache and a goose egg on my forehead. However, the second game was kinda sorta different. You see they have this new rule in select that if a team wins by more that 5 points the coach has to go before the board and tell why they did so. Back to the second game. The team was, needless to say, not very good. We were winning 4-0 by the end of the first half. So for the rest of the second half we were forbidden to score because of the new rule. This caused some great confusion from the parents who could not understand why we were not shooting on the goal and instead dropping all the way to the defense. In the end though we won the game 4-1. Dever's team also had a good game. They beat the opposition 1-0 with the only goal scored by Luke. Dever took a ball to the stomach and got the wind knocked out of him, but he was able to pull through and continue to play.

Johnny Appleseed Festival

So the Johnny Appleseed happened yesterday, and Dever and I preformed. This was actually quite fun because for the first time in years I was not standing in bare feet on metal that had been baking in sunlight. I also got to lead a song. Then my parents went home and Dever, Lizzy, and I wandered over to the sword booth were Dever bought a sword that is REALLY TALL. Then we went to the other end of the festival and stood in line for 45 min. to get a bottle of sarsaparilla that is REALLY good. Below is a picture of the company that sells it. If you ask Dever he will tell you that this is the BEST root beer around!!

Then went with Lizzy to the river clean-up at the bike depot. Basically they let you take out a canoe for free and you pick up any trash that you find in the river or on the banks. It is super fun and we found a TON of trash. Together Dever, Lizzy, and I collected 2 trash bags full of garbage. Hopefully more people will join next year. Thank you Lizzy for such a wonderful day. And thanks to mama and papa for allowing us to go!

By: Sydney

Bike Stories

Bike Stories

1. Maria and I have started bike riding to school. Unfortunately they don't let us out until 4:00 pm. So we don't really get home until 4:15 pm. Other wise it is very fun and the upside is that we get to be outside and use energy that we would normally burn during recess. Middle Schoolers don't get recess. If anyone wants to join us be at Maria's house at 7:50 am.

2. My second bike story is really funny. About 2 weeks before summer ended my bike got a flat tire and 3 days ago my dad took the tire in to get a new tube. He then came home and we put the tire on. Papa decided to take it for a spin so I went inside. About 5 min. later he came inside and in his hand he was holding 20 nails that he had found in the alley! Then he announced that the tire had popped again! The next day he went and got another tire. Tonight we are going to put it on. Lets hope that this one doesn't pop!!

Thank You!!!

I would like to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU TO ROSSANA , PEPE, AND CARLA. I had a wonderful time with all of you. Hopefully you can come and visit us in Fort Wayne. Thank you!! You are wonderful! Please come and visit us soon. Thank you once again.

Last day of freeedom

Me with my counselor at camp. And with my new dog tag!

The whole family + Sarah Grace!

Friends and neighbors fawning over Sarah, including her half sister, Maria, holding her!

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Fiona and Dever celebrating a successful Wildcat year!

Today is our last day of summer vacation. Although I do admire school I will miss the long and fun filled days of the summer. however every good thing must come to an end. So must summer. However the end of summer is not so bed. At school you get to meet new friends and teachers. You also get to fill your head with knowledge. So Holy Cross look out, Here comes Sydney and Dever!

Canada Trip Day 5

Pepe and Carla in the bedroom of the Sofitel!

Carla in her blue dress!!

I was able to sleep in until 7:11 today because Pepe and Rossana fed Carla. She is wearing her dress I gave her. The blue one. We are eating breakfast in the Panache now. Before breakfast I packed and folded my bed up. More Later! BTW the 3D in Spy Kids 3 is really bad! We drove for about 2 hr. to arrive at the Sofitel in Montreal. On the way we stopped at a supermarket and Rosanna found Formula!!! Though we arrived at 1 pm our room wasn't ready until about 3 pm. No matter the room is on the penthouse (top) floor, and has a living room, a bedroom, PLUS a ginormous bath room! Currently Rossana, Carla, and I are waiting for our food at the restaurant on the ground floor. Here comes Pepe. I forgot to mention this earlier, but this morning while Pepe and Rossana packed I played the Viola. After lunch we went on a walking tour guided by Pepe. See study notes for more. Right about the time we had finished looking at this church, they ushered us out saying it was closing. We were lucky we got to see some of it. Did you know that in Europe, in great churches people drop coins into a box and the church lights up for about a minute. In many Catholic churches the church is shaped like a cross. The alter is where the heart would be. We got lucky again, because just as we finished the tour it began to rain. None of us got drenched. We had a light dinner of smoked fish on bread. It was okay. When we returned to the room they had set up my bed and Carla's crib. Carla is at the foot of my bed. Last thing of the day I took a shower. Carla is VERY excited. Good NIGHT!!

Canada Trip Day 4

Carla and I slept in this morning until 7:45 am. I made Carla her formula, fed her, and let her crawl on the floor. Meanwhile I reorganized my suitcase. Carla and Pepe just took a shower. Check out the pictures Carla is wearing the red dress I picked out for her!! I just played the Viola a little bit. Carla looks SO cute! I let her pluck the strings, Very gently. We are trying to decided to go with plan a: go to a beautiful park named Joan of Ark OR plan b: go to a wonderful museum. It has been raining off and on all morning so you can see out problem. We had breakfast at the hotel. Pepe and Rossana made cock tail reservations for 8:30 pm. Carla and I are going to order room service and watch a movie. Then we went to the park. It was a long walk, but worth it. There was a fountain, which Carla put her feet in. Then we hung out on the grass while Pepe and Rossana read the Mexican Newspaper. Finally at about 1:00 pm we took a walk into town. Rossana and I spoke Spanish the whole. She taught me how to say green house. "Invernaculo" Then we went to a mall that was full of restaurants instead of shops. We ate pizza and then an assortment of desserts. Then I was able to get my glasses adjusted. We crossed the street and looked at an adorable kids shop. Carla fell asleep. Now I am sitting on the sidewalk with Carla in the stroller next to me. Rossana is looking for formula in a store. This is the 10th store we've looked in this trip. Pepe is figuring out our walking tour route. I forgot to mention that going to Joanne of Ark's Park was part of the walking tour Pepe is guiding us on. We are continuing that tour now. So far it hasn't rained yet! It was supposed to.

Canada Trip Day 3

Pepe and Rossana on the boat.

The castle/hotel in Quebec. You can see it from everywhere!

A very smiling Carla.

Carla, Pepe, and Rossana on the boat.

Montmorency Falls

Carla and I woke up around 6:30 am this morning. UGH!! I gave her the formula and then took a shower. I just finished answering Papa's questions in the Study Pig notebook. Right now Pepe is running so us girls are hanging out. I just finished playing the Viola. Rossana just finished taking her shower. More later. So after breakfast we went to this museum where we saw a movie in 3-D about an artist who paints Samuel de Champlain, he founded Quebec. Then we went on a boat to Montmorency Falls. They are higher then Niagra falls by 90 ft. and 22,000 liters of water falls per second. Then we ate lunch, I had ribs, and we returned to the hotel. We are resting now, but Carla refuses to sleep. At least she isn't crying. More later. We slept for 4 hours until 7:30. Then we took a walking tour, guided by Pepe, of upper town. It was raining. He charged us each 15$. Carla was free luckily. One of the landmarks was a cannon ball in a tree that a tree had grown over. Then we went to the silos grain and watched the largest projection in the world. It is projected onto the silos. I took plenty of pictures and some video. By that time it was 10:20 pm so we returned to the hotel, and had dinner at the little Bistro in the lobby. Finally we got to bed at 11:30. Good NIGHT!!

by: Sydney

Canada Trip Day 2

Our Tour guide

This morning I woke up to the wonderful face of Carla smiling at me. We placed her crib next to my bed! I took a took a shower, checked my e-mail, and played the viola. I wonder what we will have fro breakfast? It is only 8:09 am. More LATER! See more about walking tour in the Study Pig notebook. Before the tour I changed my money at the bank. Not only was the Canadian dollar stronger, but they wouldn't change 2 dollar bills!! P.T.N. I am OUTRAGED because of that. Back to the Journal.........I thought that was strange so about 10 min. later we were on this boardwalk, and I spotted a kiosk that changed money. Go figure they also changed 2 dollar bills. After the walking tour we ate lunch and on our way back to the hotel we spotted a candy shop. That is where Dever and Juju are getting their presents. At the hotel Carla took forever to go to sleep, and just now, at 6:20, Rossana, Carla, and I woke up. Pepe just taught me how to prepare Carla's formula. We are going to go on a walk, bye. We had dinner at a nice restaurant, however the service was really slow. We were there until 10:30 PM. Pepe used the extra time to teach me how to properly how to hold my knife and fork. Good Night!!

Canada Trip Day 1

Pepe and Carla at the restaurant were we ate dinner.

Pepe feeding Carla at the airport.

Rossana and Carla fooling around in the hotel room.

Our wonderful hotel room!

Pepe, Rossana, Carla and I had a quick breakfast this morning with my family. We finally left the hotel at 8:30 am. Arriving at the airport we turned in the car and got into the check-in line. When we were nearly to the front Pepe and Rossana PRETENDED that they didn't have my passport. Honestly if they didn't I would have strangled SOMEBODY!! After we got through security we walked to the G3 gate which is where we are now. Rossana and I went to the restroom and then she took me to a book store. There she bought me a history book. Pap will love it. P.T.N (post trip note) I absolutely LOVED that book. It is called "A little history of the world" if any of you feel like reading a good book! Back to the story..... I will write more later if I have time. Later... Our hotel room is absolutely amazing!! It has a balcony and the inside is like what you would see in "Little House on the Prairie" We are currently eating at a very nice restaurant. P.T.N. The restaurant is part of the hotel. We are seated at a booth table, but instead of a booth there is a couch!! With PILLOWS, IN A RESTAURANT. Carla won't eat, and is dropping spoons everywhere. Horrendous! Pepe just told me that the restaurant that we are in used to be a boathouse. That is why it is so tall. There is a movie theater in the hotel. We are going to see if there are any movies playing. P.T.N. At the hotel they had a selection of movies that you could choose from in English and French. Then you could watch them either in the movie theater or in your hotel room. Our food just came! French mushrooms with sauce is great! This is the end of this journal entry. Tomorrow I will try and post day 2. Enjoy the pictures.

By: Sydney

Summer Grocery Shopping

This is probably a strange topic to blog about, but none the less I have a very funny story that happened this morning. As I was leaving the house to go to Wildcat my mom gave me some money and asked me to go and buy some sausage at Pio's after my game. Since I was going to the library anyway I agreed. I got to my game, and about half way through my mom called Addison's dad to talk to me. She also wanted me to pick up a 1/4 pound of Fetta Cheese and 10 pieces of bacon. I rode to the store and entered a little bit before another family. Of course even after the family left everyone assumed that I was part of the family. So as a result it took about 5 min. for them to understand that I wanted some meat my self. I got the 10 pieces of bacon and ordered a pound of sausage. Then I decided that a pound was too much so I asked for just a 1/2 lb. They were VERY nice and changed it for me. Buying the 1/4 lb. of Fetta and some candy I quickly rode to the library. On the way I remembered that there is a pay phone in the lobby so I decided that I would use it and call my mom. For those of you that don't know this it is one of my life long dreams to use a pay phone. I returned the books and inserted a nickle into the slot. Before I go any farther in my defense they do NOT say how much money to insert. The nickle however didn't work. SO I inserted a quarter. No luck. I was, needless to say, EXTREMELY disappointed. I rode BACK to pio's and ordered another 1/2 pound of sausage. That is my shopping experience!!

Sydney

REALLY good Book + Saddening Fact

I know that this is really random, but I just finished reading a book that I absolutely LOVED. The book was titled "Things We Couldn't Say" and it was a book about Holocaust. The book was written by a Christian girl who was about 20 at the time of Holocaust. Her and her boyfriend both hid Jews for the entire occupation of Netherlands. One of the facts that I learned from the book was that the Netherlands was liberated on April 20. That date is also Hitler's birthday. Nice birthday present!! The book is really good, because it describes Holocaust from a different angle than a book such as "Anne Frank" The really saddening fact is that 6 million Jews died. The back of the book had a facts sheet, and one of the facts was that 22 percent of Americans DO NOT believe that holocaust ever happened. For me this is probably one of the worst things that I have ever heard in my 11 years of living. We need to know what has happened so that we will NEVER repeat it. Around 11 million people died because of what Hitler did. People died and others from my time don't believe Holocaust happened. It happened and we need to remember that.

by:sydney

Its a GIRL!!!

For those of you who live on mars my mother was pregnant for the last 9 months and just last Friday the baby was born. She is a lovely girl named Sarah Grace. She was born within a day of her due date and weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces. We all love her VERY much and look forward to watching her grow. Pictures will follow when I get home and load them up. I know this is sorta late, bet even though she is 3 days old she is still a lot of work!!

Sydney

SPAIN WINS THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!

Many many, people will tell you that it was a dirty game, that there were bad calls. BUT in the end the only thing that mattered was Iniesta's goal!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spain won the award for least goals scored to win a world cup. They only scored 8 goals total to win. Also they were the first ever team to win a world cup after losing their first game! They also won the award for most enthusiastic fans!

The Spanish team was also at a disadvantage because the Dutch have been to the World Cup Finals 2 other times. Both times they have been playing the home team. They've never won:( The game was dirty even from the get go. At 14 min. and 30 sec. the first yellow card was given to the Dutch player Van Percy against Spanish player number 11 Capdervila. Another strange call was when the Dutch player De Jong put his foot into the Spanish player Xabi Alonso's chest. Somehow he avoided a red card???

However the game stretched on and on. At the end of the regulation time neither team had scored. That all changed when Andres Iniesta scored the winning goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOAL!!!!!!! Of course I was planning on writing more, I even took notes on the game! BUT I am going to save that for the World Wide World Cup Coverage!! Maria knows what I mean:) Here are some links you can read for more info:http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/11/holland-spain-world-cup-final-live

http://www.fifa.com/Live/Competitions/worldcup/matchday=25/day=1/match=300061509/index.html

This is one of my favorite quotes "HALF TIME: Holland 0-0 Spain. Oh dear. If it wasn't for the fouls, there'd have been nothing there. Classic, please! It's not too late, now."

Your soccer fan,

Sydney

Fun Facts About 1961

Hello everyone, this is Sydney and Maria, here to tell you some fun facts about 1961. We noticed that there are many important, fun, and cool things that happened in 1961. Here's a list of some of them that we really like.

• Barack Obama was born.
• Wayne Gretzky was born.
• Wildcat baseball started.
• Concordia Language villages were founded.
• The Berlin Wall was built.
• Year of the Ox.
• Blackhawks won Stanley Cup!!!!
• Gallon of gas costed 27 cents.
• John F. Kennedy is inaugurated.
• Peace Corps established.
• First disposable diaper introduced.
• Fidel Castro declares Cuba a communist country.
• 101 Dalmations.
• West Side Story.
• Michael J. Fox is born.
• George Clooney is born.
• Peter Jackson is born.
• Parent Trap.
• Eggs per dozen 30 cents.
• Average cost of house is $12,500.
• First man in space by Soviets.

We hope you've enjoyed learning about 1961!!!!

Maria y Sydney

El Lago Del Bosque, Better known as Sydney's language camp!!

Hello Fort Wayne!! I am back in town from an AWESOME two weeks at camp. I am going to post a few pictures of the first day and some captions!

This is Sabrina and Kika. They were pretty much in charge of the camp. Scratch, they were!

This is the entire camp doing an activity together in el comedor.

This is Selena, one of my cabin mates, and me doing the activity!

This is my whole casa. From right Clara, Delia, Mariana, Pili (me), and Selena.