5 Facts About Snow

Since there is so much snow on the ground, I decided to look up some facts about snow.

1. Snow is made up of tiny ice crystals

2. Snow falls on every continent in the world

3. The record snowfall during one storm in Iowa is 31 inches, in Cedar Rapids

4.  A cubic foot of snow can contain 1 billion snowflakes

5. The largest snowflake on record was 15 inches wide.

What Should I Do Next?

Hi everyone! If you have been reading my blog posts, you will see that I have started a story. I have decided to delete this story and start on something else. But I need your opinion. Should I write another story with many parts? If you have any ideas, please comment below.

Final Part of My LA Story

"I don't know how to thank you enough. I'm finally free!" He explained that, eight years ago, the evil enemy of his kingdom had kidnapped him from his bedroom at the palace and had brought the young boy to this abandoned factory. Every day he had been given bread and water through a magic box. He used empty bottles and his magic throwing arm to send help messages to the area around the factory, but us girls were the first to answer a message and come to his aid.

Then the prince had an idea. "How would you girls like to come back home with me?" Arthur asked hopefully. "You could live in the palace, never go to school, and have fun all day. I also have two sisters that you could be friends with. What do you think?"

I considered it for a minute, all of the possibilities swirling through my head. "That would be fun," I agreed. "But I want to be with my family.

"I do too," said Reagan reluctantly. This was a big decision because I knew that she wanted to play sports all day and never go to school.

"And me,"  decided Elsie.

"Then I think that it's time for us to part ways," said Prince Arthur. "But I'll never forget how you saved my life. Goodbye, newfound friends!"

5 months later, a letter exchange is going on between us girls and Arthur. This time it is by envelopes and the post office, though, and not Gatorade bottles!  And we have a visit planned to his castle during the upcoming summer break. Now I realize that staying home is better than traveling, and adventures can be found in your own area.

LA Story Part 3

Then, a Gatorade bottle appeared out of nowhere, and it dropped on the ground right by my feet. As usual, there was a message inside. It read "Don't be surprised if the factory disappears. It is still there, just camouflaged. Keep moving, you're almost there. -Prince Arthur"  Encouraged by the note, we kept walking.

A few minutes later, Reagan, who was in front, hit her head on what appeared to be just air. "Ouch," she said, laughing. "But I think we found the factory!"

Just then, the factory reappeared right in front of us. We laughed because my hand was just inches away from a doorknob on the tall building. I glanced at my friends, suddenly unsure about the whole adventure. What was lurking inside this building? Elsie looked as nervous as I did, but Reagan said: "Let's go!" I opened the door cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

Whatever I was expecting, I didn't find it. We stepped into a giant room. It must have once been the main room of the factory. At first, the dusty old room looked empty, but then I spotted something. In the far back corner, there was a surprisingly large cage, with metal bars around it. Nervously, I tiptoed over, Reagan and Elsie right behind me. Inside the cage were a bed, a small desk and chair, and a young man who looked just a few years older than me. The man looked up at us from the desk where he was sitting, and at once I knew that he must be the prince. His face had a sad look to it, but still a brave face, like I had always imagined a king should look.

"My rescuers!" he exclaimed, clearly happy to see us. "But you must move fast. Five minutes after the outside door is opened, the locks close on my dismal prison for five weeks before opening again. You must act now, or never save me."

I looked quickly at the locks and then spoke to my dependable team, who was waiting for instructions. "There are three locks. Elsie, try to open this one. Reagan, the second one, and I'll take the third one. Quick!"

Reagan was the first to open her lock. Three sports-related questions had to be answered correctly.  Elsie opened hers next by reciting five lines of a song from memory. "One minute," cautioned the prince, who was timing us.

"I got it!" I called. To open my lock, I had to correctly name all of the capitals of the South American countries. All of my reading and dreaming about travel helped, I guess. The prince pushed open the door to his cell, with tears of joy in his eyes.

LA Story Part 2

This is part of the middle of my LA story. It should be the second of 4 parts.


Three days later, we were ready to go. All three of us had packed backpacks, stuffed with food, water, and clothes, hidden in our closets. That night, Reagan and I climbed into our bunk beds earlier than normal. Even so, I could barely sleep because of excitement.

At midnight, a soft alarm woke me. Always-energetic Reagan handed me my backpack and tennis shoes with a smile on her face. After putting them on, I silently climbed out of our first-floor window, with Reagan following. We had left a note on the bottom bunk to explain our disappearance to our parents, but I still was sure that we would get in trouble when we got back, probably by being grounded for life. Still, we were traveling!

The message in the bottle had told us to set off from Riverside Park, about 2 blocks from our house. As we neared the park, I saw the play equipment, where I had found the message. It seemed to be sleeping, getting ready for another day of young visitors. Elsie was already waiting, her dark hair dancing in the light breeze. True to his word, the prince had arranged for a boat to be left at the dock; it was a sleek silver canoe with paddles already inside. After climbing inside, we were off! I started in the front, with Elsie behind me, and Reagan in the back. We had agreed to switch spots every two hours, because the person in the back has the hardest job since they are in charge of steering.

As the sun began to light the sky, we traveled on, but slower than before. Even super-athlete Reagan was looking tired."My arms hurt," she groaned.

Elsie agreed, "My back aches."

They were right. One hour of canoeing may not seem that bad, but eight hours is very exhausting. "Why can't we just go home, Summer? We don't even know if there is a real prince. What if this is all for nothing?" asked Reagan. Elsie agreed.

"Why would we do that?" I asked. "We're almost there, and what do we have to lose by continuing? Today would just be the same old day if we stayed home. Even if this doesn't turn out, we'll have memories to last us for a long time. Don't you want adventure?"

"When you put it that way, I guess you're right," said Reagan reluctantly.

"If only I wasn't so sore, I'd be having the time of my life," admitted Elsie.

"Let's keep going, then," I said, happily.

Twenty minutes later, we tied the canoe to a rickety dock and jumped out, happy to be on land again. The prince had sent us another letter that night via a Gatorade bottle, telling us where to land, but even without the help, I think that we could have found it. The Gatorade factory loomed like a giant grey concrete monster up ahead. We decided to have a quick breakfast break, eating some snacks we had packed, before continuing. Ten minutes later, we began the walk to the factory. But right as we approached it, the factory disappeared into thin air, as if it were a mirage.

"How can a factory just disappear?" asked Reagan.

We just stood there for a minute, wondering what to do. Was this whole plan a trick? Elsie looked ready to turn back.

LA Story Part 1

This is the beginning of my Language Arts Story. I will post a new section every Friday for 3-5 more weeks.

"Landon, come back!" I ran to catch my two-year-old cousin before he fell off the colorful playground equipment. Our small town may not have many things, but it does have great parks, including Riverside Park, where we are now. I love to bring my cousin here on sunny days.

I had agreed to babysit this energetic boy for the summer, but I would have rather been at home doing nothing, reading about faraway places, or off traveling on exciting trips. I love to travel, but my family just doesn't have the time or money for vacations. Speaking of money, there were two reasons why I took this job. One, for money to buy school supplies, and two, because no one else wanted to, and I felt bad about that. There were two other people who might have taken the job, but they both could not. My 12-year-old cousin Elsie would have to be gone at music camps or on family vacations for half of the summer, and Reagan, my 13-year-old twin sister, was always at practice for one sport or another, or playing games in the yard with her friends.

Snapping out of my daydream, I saw that Landon was toddling towards me with an old Gatorade bottle in his hand. "Summer, look," he said, with excitement in his baby voice. I gently took it from his chubby hand and was about to throw it away when I noticed a piece of paper inside. I was curious, so I opened the lid. Inside was a message that read, "Help me!" I turned it over to see if there was anything written on the back. There was another note, but I couldn't read it; it was in some type of code. Then, I had an idea; in many of the mystery books I had read, the characters used mirror message codes. I was eager for the morning to end quickly so that I could find out if this was a coded message.

Two hours later, after bringing Landon home, I checked the message in my mirror. It was a coded message! It told me about a prince stuck in an abandoned Gatorade factory, who needed to be rescued. Directions were listed, and I was told to bring friends along. Right away, I was set on going, and I already knew my companions, Reagan and Elsie. Finally, an excuse to travel!

Game For Milton Bradley

If I were to make a game for Milton Bradley, it would be a game similar to Monopoly. It would be similar to Monopoly in that there would be many things to do on the way to winning, this will be in the form of many different things to achieve to get each token. In a few ways, though, this game would be different. One, this game would be a lot shorter than Monopoly. This is so that if you only have time for a quick game, you can play it, while competitive people can play multiple rounds. It would be a multi-player game, probably allowing around 4-8 players to play, but there will also be instructions for a two-player modified version.  The object of the game will be to collect some sort of tokens from around the board. Each person will have to go to different locations and try to collect all of the tokens before the other players can. The game will have a theme, such as a famous city or other places, but there will be many versions of the game available. The game will be somewhat challenging so that it is fun to play multiple times, but there will be a modified version stated in the rules. There will be no point system, because sometimes I feel that that takes over the game.

That is all of the rules that I can think of right now. I cannot come up with a name for the game, though. If you think of a name, you can comment below. I know that was a lot of words packed into a little space. Sorry!

A Night Divided Beginning

Yesterday we started to read A Night Divided. The main character is a girl living in East Berlin during the Cold War. Her name is Gerta. So far, the story is telling about the first four years after the wall went up. The night the wall went up, Gerta's father and brother were on the other side of the wall, looking for work, and later, they planned for the rest of the family to join them. Now, the family is separated by the wall. I think that the problem in the book might be that Gerta and her mom and brother try to find a way to get over the wall to join her father on the American side of Berlin. I am excited to see what will happen in the rest of the book.

Cross Country Meet

As some of you may know, there is a Cross Country meet today after school. It will be our first one of the season, so it is only 1 mile. Most other meets will be two miles. I am excited. If you are in a sport, please tell me in the comments how you feel about a game/meet. 

New School Year

Hi everyone! Are you glad to be back for another school year? I am! Aside from learning, some of my favorite things about school are getting to see my friends every day, and (this year) school sports.

As you may have already guessed, I have Miss Anderson again. Otherwise, I probably would not be writing this in the middle of the school day. I am glad that I am in her class, because she is nice and because we get to do fun things like write on our blogs.

As I said above, I am excited about school sports this year. I am in Cross Country. When some people hear that, they say things like "It's too hard." and "I would never do that", but I think differently. Mrs. Puffet is a nice coach, and there are a lot of my friends in XC. Yes, I am sort of sore and tired, but it is really fun.

Have a good new school year!