Thankgiving... and Braces

I haven't posted in a while so before I get into a book post I've decided to do a "catch up" post. For Thanksgiving we went to Utah. We had been hoping it was going to snow and... it did! While we were there we went skiing. We got there on Saturday night and on Monday we went to to the Brighton Ski Resort. Maddie, Taylor, Braiden, and I all had never skied before so we all took lessons. In the two hour lesson we all had we all picked it up and got pretty good. On Tuesday we were supposed to have a giant storm, we were told we might be snowed in. We didn't leave the house so we went out to lunch, played in the snow a lot, went sledding and waited. It was really windy but not much snow. On Wednesday we went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the movie with our friends Ben, Carter, and Ann. Thursday was Thanksgiving and we went to my grandparents house, it was a lot of fun. Last but not least we went skiing again at Wolf Mountain on Friday. Unfortunately, we had to leave the next day, we were glad to get back to some warmer weather.

Also last Monday I got braces. For now I only have them on the top teeth and in nine months I'll get the bottom too. I wasn't very excited to get them but my mom was for me. She insisted on taking pictures...unfortunately.

Before

After

Sprouting Wings

A little while ago I read the book "Wings" by Aprilynne Pike. Now although this involves faeries it isn't your typical fairytale. It adds several twists in the plot and is a really exciting book.

Laurel has been home schooled her entire life, but after her and her adopted parents move she finds herself in public school for her sophomore year. But Laurel is different than other kids in a couple ways that lead up to her having a baseball sized bump on her back from which sprouts a long wing-shaped flower petal kind of thing. With help from her friend David, who loves science, she figures out she's a plant, or more specifically a faerie.

As she goes back to her old house, which is in the woods, she meets Tamani, a boy faerie. She soon gets dragged into an ancient battle between faeries and trolls, and everything ends up depending on her.

I really liked this book. It starts out a little slow but once you get into it, it really draws you in. I thought that the story line was good and that the book overall was very well-written. After this book there is also a second book in the series called Spells, which also  is very good.

The Good, the Bad, and the Uglies...

Well actually it was all good...

Imagine a world where everybody is actually divided into groups: those who are ugly, those who are pretty, and those who are special. The uglies spend their days dreaming about their sixteenth birthday and staring at Pretty Town. The pretties are who everybody wants to be, and the specials are only called in on special circumstances. No, I'm not talking about high school; it's a book called Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

Tally Youngblood is only a couple months away from turning sixteen, and she can't wait. On the day of her birthday she'll get an operation that turns her into a pretty. Then she'll be swept off to Pretty Town where nothing matters but what she's going to wear to the next party.

But in the months before her birthday she becomes friends with Shay, an ugly who, unlike others, does not want to become pretty. Right before her birthday Shay runs away, and Tally has a choice: betray her friend or stay ugly for the rest of her life.

I loved this book! Although the setting was in the future it was easy to understand and keep up with. The book was very well written and it draws you in after the first couple chapters. There are 3 others books in the series that I would also recommend: Pretties, Specials, and Extras.

Talent Show

My school had a talent show last week and usually I would play the piano but this year I sang "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift with a couple of friends. If any of you have ever seen the music video you know that there is a dorky girl and a cooler girl. Well in this case we had two dorky girls and one cooler girl. I was one of the dorky girls along with my friend, Kianna, and Valaree was the cooler girl. Out of 27 the acts we were last but we did good. It was really fun and we all had a good time performing.

Bran Hambric and Maximum Ride

I've been reading so much lately that I'm a little behind in posting. First of all a new one by a new author, Bran Hambric and the Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation. He's a new member in my ward and I really liked his book.

Bran Hambric was found in a bank vault as a six year old. He lives with the Wilomases in Dunce, where magic is forbidden. At a festival though he discovers he's a mage. With the help of a secret society he finds out more about his past. But people are waiting till the moments right to use Bran.

Another very good series I read were the Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson. These books are quick reads but very good.


This series is about 7 kids constantly running for their lives. They were born with wings in a scientist lab called the School. They have escaped but now erasers, half Wolf and half human that are used as guards', are after them. They must run for their lives and along the way they develop new powers, meet accomplices, and learn more about what they are meant to do.



There are are six books that I know of out right now and I love these books. I read most of them in about one day each. They are full of suspense,adventure, and action. I am sure any reader will fall in love with these books.

My dad recommended that I read The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill because it was a book he read as a kid. I didn't expect it to be that good but I read it and I actually liked it.

In New York City the pushcarts are always in the way of the trucks. The trucks are in the way of everyone and they are getting too big for everyone else. So when one of the trucks intentionally runs over Frank the Flower's cart the pushcart's decide to fight back...with pea pins. (A pea with a pin stuck through it)

This book was really good. This book is so well written that I thought it was real, in fact I had to ask my dad if it was. It also was funny. This book is kind of short but I think adults might like it too even though it is more of a kids book.

The Lightning Thief Steals my Heart...

Percy Jackson and the Olympians has stole my heart. This new series by Rick Riordan has 5 books out so far. This is one of the only series that even comes close to Harry Potter.

Percy Jackson has never been completely normal but when one of his teachers turns into a monster his mom takes him to a camp where his dad wanted him to go. It's a camp for half bloods, half Olympian and half human but there things get worse. It's supposed to make him safe but when he gets there he fights a minotaur with his bare hands. How could things get worse? They do.

I would recommend these books for any one who loves adventure books. Not only are they well written and exciting but they are also funny. These series will captivate any reader, children or adults.


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Happy Happy Birthday Katie Dear!

Well, I hope that you don't mind, Kate...but Mom has hijacked your blog to wish you a Happy Birthday! I cannot believe that 11 years has flown by so quickly... but here you are...on your way to becoming a "tiny" teenager.

This February 24th started out, like every birthday morning, with the traditional Grasteit song "Today is Katie's birthday, wake her up, wake her up!" Repeated over and over again. I know we should come up with some better lyrics, but I think the kids might be disappointed if we did. They so look forward to it. Then, Taylor made banana pancakes for breakfast and we were off to school, with cupcakes in hand. Tonight Kate has ordered pasta with shrimp, asparagus and mushrooms, for dinner, and crepes with strawberries and cream for dessert. (Not a traditional birthday cake...but better, maybe.) The rest of us will have chocolate drizzled over them as well, but Kate doesn't like chocolate. (She doesn't know what she is missing.) And we will have presents, too, of course. I will be off to finish shopping, as soon as this is done.

Although I am not a blogger, I have seen enough cute blogs to make an attempt at a little birthday tribute. So here we go...

K is for Kind. I don't think I have ever seen her be unkind to anyone...except maybe her siblings, occasionally, but that doesn't count!
A is for Avid Reader. Kate is always reading....early in the morning...late at night...in the car. We cannot get her to stop!
T is for Talk, Talk, Talk...another thing we can't get her to stop doing!
E is for Example, which she is to everyone around her, especially her family.

Kate, I think I got the best present of all, on your birthday...YOU! I am so lucky to get to be your mother. I love you and hope you have a wonderful day!

Books to take your breath away

I have to tell you about a new favorite series of mine. It's called The Dreamhouse Kings Series by Robert Liparulo. They are young adult books but I bet even grown ups will love them.

The King family has just moved from Pasadena to Pinedale, California, and they've found a great house. It is a big old Victorian style house secluded in the woods. Even better it's got secret rooms - a whole hallway full of them. And even better, these rooms are portals to take you to all kinds of places. Want to see France during WW II? Or how about the Roman Coliseum during the days of the Gladiators? Maybe the great Civil War battlefields? But exploring these places is no fun for brothers Alexander (Xander) and David. Because each of the worlds is a very dangerous place, and they wouldn't even bother except for a family member that was kidnapped and taken into one of them.

I don't want to give too much away but these books are really good. I read the first four in about a weeks time - and each was about 300 pages long, so that was no small feat. Book 1 is House of Dark Shadows, book 2 is Watcher in the Woods, book 3 is Gatekeepers, and book 4 is Timescape. I can't wait to get Book 5 ,Whirlwind, and book 6, Frenzy, that comes out in a couple of months. This series is very exciting, I just couldn't put it down. It is a good thing I had all four of them together so I could read them without stopping in between. So if you get book 1 I recommend you have book 2 on hand before you finish because you are going to want to start it right away.

What a name for a book!

Since I am "the girl with her nose in a book" I decided to write about some of my favorite books. Except this time, it wasn't my nose in the book, it was my ears. We listened to it on CDs in the car, and it's not even really a kid's book, but we all liked it a lot.
The book was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Marry Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This book is a collection of letters from Juliet Ashton, an author in 1946 who after the war is looking for a subject for a book. She gets a letter from a man on an island called Guernsey and finds out about their lives during the war and also about their literary society with a very strange name.
I liked this book because it was interesting how it was all told through letters back and forth between the different people. I couldn't listen to all of it because my mom loved it so much that she couldn't stop listening to it even after she dropped us off at school. She always told us about what we missed but I am going to go back and listen to it again.

Christmas

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" I'm sure it's snowing somewhere...but not here, and I wish it was. We celebrated a sunny Southern California Christmas, and we had a lot of fun...even without the snow. For Christmas, I got Ipod speakers, clothes, a kayak (for Rincon), Wii Fit (from Uncle Johnny), pajamas, a new barbie doll and a barbie car. Later in the day, we were a little bored, so we went down to Hollywood and saw "A Christmas Carol" at the Disney El Capitan Theatre. We also saw a lot of interesting people. Hollywood is NOT my favorite place! Merry Christmas!

The Best Halloween Ever!

I know, I know...Halloween was more than two months ago... but I have been busy and am catching up. This year we spent a long weekend at the beach house, in Carpinteria, and celebrated Halloween with friends there. We played games, swam, went down to the tide pools, watched the sunset and then we went down to the edge of the water and told spooky stories. My crazy brothers, and their friends, wrapped themselves in foil and went trick or treating as robots. It was so funny! I didn't get to trick or treat this year, but I didn't even miss it. This was the best Halloween ever!

By the way... at our school Halloween parade, I won the award for "Most Original Costume" for my bunch of grapes! It was a lot of fun!