Our Final School Project

Hello future readers,

Every year around this time, the 4th grade teachers give us a "final project". We have to choose a partner, pick a topic, make something, and write a report on it. This year, Sunny and I are partners, and we chose sharks for our project. It's due next week, so on Wednesday afternoon, I walked over to Sunny's house with some old "National Geographic" magazines with some cool pictures of sharks in them

We decided to do a diorama, so Sunny laid out everything we would need to make one, along with an encyclopedia to look up facts about sharks.

I got one of the magazines to look for some good shark and ocean pictures...

...while Sunny drew a groovy picture of a shark and cut it out.

We covered the inside of the box with blue construction paper.

I cut out my pictures and glued them into the box, and cut out some coral from construction paper.

Sunny drew another fish and tied them up with string to the top of the box. It made it look like the fish were swimming!

It looked super and we were really proud of it! Now it was time to work on the report. We decided that since I had really good penmanship, I'd write out the report, while Sunny looked up the facts in the encyclopedia.

We'd never copy the facts right out of the book, (that would be cheating!), but we did write it in our own words. It took about half an hour, but I think we did a pretty good job.

 After we were finished with the report, Mrs. Albright invited me to stay for dinner. She called my mom to make sure it was OK. We had fish sticks, macaroni and cheese and green beans. YUMMY!

Sunny's mom said if we cleaned our plates we could have a really special dessert... flan. Flan is an egg custard in caramel sauce, and Sunny's mom put raspberries on it. I don't think I've ever had anything sooooo good! I'll have to tell my mom about this!

Wow, what a great dinner! I thanked Mrs. Albright for inviting me to stay. Since it was a school night, I had to leave after dinner. Sunny and I agreed to meet before school so we could bring the diorama, the report, and our books to class. I was glad we got the report done early. I hope we get a good grade. Do kids still do homework in the future? I'm glad summer will be here soon, so I won't have to do any over the vacation!

Until next time future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman

It's School Photo Time Again!

Hello future readers!

Well, it's that time of year again...school photos! We just got them back on Friday. I think everyone's photos came out really super! Danny was happy 'cos he didn't have to wear a suit this year. I'm happy 'cos I think my picture came out better than last year. Here are the pictures:

The top row starting from the left is Lisa, Cheryl and Raychel. Bottom row starting from the left is Miss LaSalle, Kim, Danny, me, Sunny and Robyn. I think we make a pretty groovy looking group! Now here are the shots of each of us:

Here I am. I like this picture much better than the one last year. I think my mom does too.

Here is Cheryl. I really like her smile. She's so pretty. Everybody thinks so.

Lisa took a good picture, but I think she looks more serious than last year.

I really like this shirt on Danny. It's his favorite color, too.

Kim loves to take pictures. Her eyes always sparkle whenever she sees a camera.

Raychel has such beautiful red hair. She also looks great in green.

Sunny is wearing her new dress. I think it makes her look like Marcia Brady!

Robyn always looks dynamite in her swirly, curly hair!

And here's Mrs. Johnson's class:

Top row: April, Crissy and Stephanie. Bottom row: Mrs. Johnson, Jennifer, Susan, Melody and Wendy. Here are their photos:

I just love that tie-dye dress on Stephanie!

Melody has the warmest grey eyes. You can definitely tell that she and Stephanie are related.

Here's Susan. She doesn't mind taking snapshots, but she gets really shy around photographers.

Here's my good friend Crissy. Since she's a catalog model, taking groovy pictures for her is nothing new.

Jennifer reminds me of that Beach Boys song, "California Girls". Even though she's from Indiana, she looks like she was born here with that blonde hair, blue eyes and far out tan!

April's got such "puppy dog" brown eyes. She's just too cute!

And of course Wendy wouldn't be seen anywhere without her pigtails. It's her favorite way to wear her hair!

Their mom paid the photographer extra to take a photo of both of them together. I love that they're wearing the same outfits, but in different colors.

Well, that's it! I just love photo day, and trading the wallet size photos with my friends. Danny think's that future kids take photos called holograms, (he loves science fiction!), and they will trade them with their computers. I don't even know what that means, but I know I like to have pictures of my friends, even though I see them every day.

Until next time, future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman

My Easy Bake Oven Doll Party!

Hello future readers!

Today when I came home from school, I went into the kitchen to get my snack. There was a big box on the counter with my name on it. I asked my mom what it was. She said that since I was working so hard at catching up in school after being sick, getting all my homework done, keeping my room clean and not griping about eating my vegetables,  she got me a surprise. It was supposed to be here by Easter, but I guess the mail has been sorta slow. I opened the box, and there was an Easy Bake Oven! I couldn't believe it! I hugged and kissed my mom and took all the pieces out of the box.

It came with 3 little baking pans, 3 mixes for yellow cake, frosting and brownies, and a spatula to push the pans in and out of the oven. It isn't a real gas oven like you have in your kitchen. It's just a toy that bakes little cakes, cookies and brownies with the heat from a 100 watt light bulb. My mom has to watch me use it, because even though it's a toy, it can get really hot.

I decided to give Stephanie and Melody a call to see if they wanted to come over and have a doll party. I ran to my room to get my Blythe doll, but then I saw my Dawn doll in the corner. I had been playing with Blythe since Easter, but I hadn't played with Dawn for awhile, so I grabbed her instead. Melody brought her Sweet April doll and Stephanie brought Emerald the Witch doll.

We put them on a kitchen chair so they wouldn't get dirty while we were baking.

We  decided to make the yellow cake first. I mixed the batter while Stephanie mixed the chocolate frosting.

Melody carefully put the pan on the spatula and slid it into the oven.

I could hardly wait til it came out!

Once the cake was done, Stephanie took it out of the oven and let it cool a bit. Then she put the frosting on.

I decided we needed more than just that little cake, so I mixed the batter for some brownies, too!

When they were done , I cut them into squares and put them on a plate.

Yay! Now it was time to start the party! I got some plates, and some Kool-Aid out of the fridge. We each had 1 small piece of the cake and 1 small brownie square. They were delicious, but much too small. We all pretended to feed our dolls some food too. It was a groove!

I wonder if they are cooking toys in the future? Maybe you don't need to cook. Maybe your food computers give you everything you need to eat. But it's still fun for me to able to bake my own goodies in my oven the way my mom does in the real oven. I hope she'll get me some more mixes soon. I'd like to be able to invite my other friends over some time for another doll party! Heck, I'll bet even Danny would like to come over, (not to play dolls, but he sure likes to eat!).  Well that's all for now.

Until next time, future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman