A Surprise for Easter Vacation!

Hello again, future readers!

Remember in my last entry, I told you I had some exciting news? Well, check this out!

On Friday after St. Patrick's Day I came home from school, and yelled "Hi Mom, I'm home", like I always did. Only she didn't answer. Not only that, I could hear cartoons coming from the television in the T.V. room. I know my mom doesn't watch cartoons, so I went in there to see who would be watching them. I walked in and who do you think I saw? My pen pal Vivienne from West Virginia!

Wow, was I ever surprised! I dropped my book bag and went to give her a big hug!

I had so many questions! How long have you been here? How long are you staying? Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Vivienne just stood there laughing, because I was so excited, I was talking a mile a minute!

Vivienne told me my mom called her mom last week. My mom told Mrs. Walton that I had such a great time in WV and that she was so nice to my during my visit, that she wanted to do the same thing for Vivienne and invite her to stay with us for Easter vacation. They both made Vivienne promise to keep it a secret, so she didn't write or call about her trip here. She told me that she felt like she was gonna bust all last week, because she couldn't tell ANYBODY. Not Betta, not Evelyn, not the guys...nobody. I looked over to the doorway, and my mom was standing there with this big grin on her face. I gave her a big bear hug and told her she most the most grooviest, most dynamite mom in the whole world! (which she is!)

So we went up to my room, 'cos I wanted to show Vivienne all my cool stuff. She sat down on my beanbag, and Boomer jumped off my bed and walked over to her, wanting to be patted on the head.

Of course Boomer had already met Vivienne in the T.V. room. He always wanders in there when he hears cartoons, because he knows I'm sitting in there. I guess seeing Vivienne instead of me confused him a little 'cos he just sat there until I came home. Vivienne patted Boomer on the head, and told him he was a sweet puppy. She brought her doll with her that looked just like the one she sent me! Except Vivienne's doll has a blue skirt and blue shoes and mine has a pink skirt and pink shoes. She named her doll Betty Bloomer! Isn't that the funniest name?

We played with those dolls for a while, but then I wanted to show Vivienne the other neat doll I got for Christmas, My Real Baby (Lucy).

Vivienne really liked her so I let her hold Lucy and pretend to give her a bottle.

Next I showed Vivienne my View-Master. She said I had a lot of super cool toys!

Then Vivienne got my tape recorder down from my shelf. She told me she's been wanting one like mine for a while, and hoped she would get one next Christmas.

I went to my toybox and pulled out my box of tapes. I don't have any store bought ones, just the ones I record from my radio and off the T.V. , but I have a lot of them.

I scattered my tapes all over my bed, and Vivienne and I had a groovy time playing the different songs and singing super loud to the ones we both liked the best.  Normally when I do that, my mom tells me to turn down the music and stop singing so loud,  but not this time. This time was special, Vivienne was here!

My mom stuck her head in the door and told us to go wash up for dinner. The house smelled so good from Mom's cooking, and I'd been so excited about Vivienne being here, I forgot how hungry I was. We had steak, baked potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner. YUMMY!

We had ice-cream for dessert. I had strawberry and Vivienne had peach. She was telling me about how some boy in Kevin's class started a food fight in the lunchroom during the first lunch period and how the 4th-6th graders had lunch almost 20 minutes late, 'cos they had to clean up the lunchroom. The boy, whose name was Peter got sent to the principal's office and had to miss recess for a whole week while he helped the janitor clean up after lunch everyday. Wow!

Am I glad my whole school has the same lunch period, and that no one has ever tried to start a food fight in our lunchroom!

Vivienne was getting tired. Where she lives it was almost 10 o'clock! So instead of watching "The Brady Bunch" and "The Partridge Family" we got ready for bed. We put on our jammies and went to the bathroom to wash our hands and brush our teeth.

Vivienne's mom made her the cutest pair of snuggly bunny pajamas for Easter. I loaned her my sleeping bag, and told her a bedtime story. I'm glad she doesn't think she's too old for them, like some of my friends do.

I didn't realize how tired I was, until I began to yawn between the sentences I read. I guess it was just all the excitement of the day catching up with me. My mom told us she's got a fun day planned for Saturday, so I'll be back to tell you all about it! *Yawn* Good night, future readers!

Until next time,
Your friend,
Julie Newman