Hansel and Gretel

Well, this weekend I was a cotton-candy in Hansel and Gretel. We've been rehearsing for weeks, months even, so it feels strange to have that all done. It went well for the most part. The dressing room got kinda crowded, though. It took forever to get my makeup and hair done, and even more time to get it off. The costumes were super cute. They were all pink and sparkly and pretty. We got to carry these bunches of cotton on sticks with pink ribbons tied around the stick, and it looked a lot like real cotton-candy. The only problem was, people kept pretending to eat them. It was funny at first, but then it started to get annoying. The stage lights were really bright and hot! Standing next to them in the wings was like landing on the sun. I can't wait for the next performance!

Recent Events

Well, what do you know. We just got locked out of our own house. My grandparents are away in California, so they took the key with them, and we don't have a key ourselves, and the garage door got locked, so we were completely locked out. Good thing my little brother Big leaves the window open slightly sometimes, so we were able to break in, with the help of a screwdriver and my dad. We sent Bud through the window, and he unlocked the door. Oh, and I also got a haircut! I now have side bangs and layers. I'll post a picture soon.

Beavers

Well, today we went to the river to see what the beavers had done (a.k.a. made dams). It wasn't very much of a drive, just 10 minutes or so, so we were there in no time. To get to the part of the river where the beavers were, we had to walk through a thicket of sticks that some beavers had gnawed on. We got to the water and saw some logs that the beavers chewed up. We didn't expect to see beavers, but then my dad spotted two! They fought for a second over who would investigate us, and then one swam off and the other swam slowly towards us. We could see the water glistening off it's thick, coarse brown fur. It got within a 10-foot range before diving under!

S-P-E-L-L Results

Well, for the most part, the regional went well. There were 56 kids from 4 counties, and it was actually easier than I thought. Sadly, we had to face the audience, which made it worse, but oh, well. I got to the place early, so we had to wait for a while for the sign-in place to set up. Well, I got number 34, which was interesting. Then I walked into the room after a short break. It didn't look too fun, with the cold metal chairs and the cracked paint, but I walked in anyway. It was 8:00, and the bee started at 9:00, so I had an hour of time to fill, so I played Scrabble on my dad's phone. At 8:45 I began wishing I hadn't had oatmeal for breakfast. 15 minutes later I was glad it was time to go onstage, because I had the worst letters ever. But once I got onstage I thought otherwise. I sat down and then there was a brief review of the rules, and then we had to get used to the microphone, so we went up and said our names and our schools. Then..... the first round began. It started out easy enough, with interrupt, which the boy actually missed. It went on until it was my turn. I got up, walked to the podium like a normal person, and then the lady spoke. "Croquette," was the first thing out of her mouth. I asked for the definition, just to make sure, and then I spelled. "Correct," she said. I heard someone in the audience whistle. I had just gotten started. The round progressed, with people getting out left and right, and then it was the second round. Well, there were some instances with unspecified homonyms, and they had to listen to the tape once, but it went smoothly. I spelled aristocracy correctly, no biggie, and then it was time for the third round. Hedonism was the word thrown at me, which I spelled, and then in the fourth round there was a big fuss over how a girl spelled allegory. There were several arguments about whether she spelled it with a u or an e or an i because she spoke so fast you could hardly tell, and the judges conferred with the tape a lot, but she was allowed to stay in, but really she spelled it with a u, or at least that's what I heard. The other rounds progressed with me in them, but when we got to round eight, the lady had me spell obelisk. I, thinking it had a French origin, spelled it 'obilisque'. It was incorrect. But, however, I did get into the top fourteen. It just so happened that the one word I didn't know how to spell that had been assigned that day was given to me. I'll never forget it again in my life! Good thing I have another chance next year.

Whoo-hooooo!!!!!!!

I had the best time at ballet on Thursday! For one thing, some girls from Level 7 (the highest level, in case you were wondering) were warming up for Hansel and Gretel rehearsals in our class, so Miss Demi made the combinations extra hard, and it was so fun! Plus, it felt like I was more challenged with those combinations, instead of our usual slow "Tendu, plie, tendu, tendu." Then, for another thing, once we got to rehearsals, we got to the end of the choreography, and Smiley (a friend), Gretel, and I get to push the witch into the "oven"!!!!! And then, after class, we got to try on our costumes! They were pink, sparkly, and completely gorgeous. And, might I add, they were comfortable, and I looked good! Not to mention the fact that I popped the big pointe shoe question to Miss Demi...... Here is how it went:
Me: (super excited) Miss Demi, when do you think I'll get pointe shoes?

Miss Demi: (looking thoughtful) Wellllll........ I haven't handed the pointe shoe evaluation out yet, but definitely in the summer.

Me: Wow!!!!!!!!!!

And so I went to tell Smiley and Patience (another friend, so called because she has been waiting for her pointe shoes for a long, long, long time). They were super excited for me, and Patience said that Miss Demi had said the same thing to her! Smiley had asked a while ago, and she had gotten the same answer, too. So it looks like the three of us will be going on pointe together. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just one thing to say: Never get pets on your blog. I got one that carried a TROJAN HORSE. Now that's just scary, isn't it? I had no idea these supposedly harmless little animals could carry viruses! And you don't want anyone getting your personal information, now do you?

Medieval Feast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the medieval feast! I had been awaiting this day ever since first grade, so it was a big, HUGE event. My grandma had helped me make my dress the night before (it was purple, with a floral panel down the middle), so I was all set. First was the coronation of the kings and queens of our grade. They had to take some oaths about ruling their 'kingdoms' well. Then was the catapult contest. There were awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, and lots of launched marshmallows. After that we went back to class to watch a movie. Finally, it was time for the feast. Everyone filed into the gym, which was decked out in traditional medieval flair. The kings and queens sat up on the stage. Table by table got food. There was cheesy bread, rolls, pumpkin bread, scones, grapes, chicken, cantaloupe, bananas, cheese, crackers, more scones, ginger ale and fruit juice, etc. We were supposed to be the entertainment for the king and queen, so we ate while expecting to be chosen. If some came unprepared or had a performance that did not please the royals or nobility (which some did) they had to do a certain amount of push-ups. I was doing a dance with some friends (ballet) so I waited and waited for our group to be called. I waited through a guy beat-boxing while humming through his nose and several piano performances, until finally we were called. It just so happened that two of my friends were in the bathroom washing off sticky hands, so we had to wait while a guy sang 'Don't Stop Believing' until my friends came back. The performance went well for the most part, though I messed up badly. Everyone still told us we did good, and no one noticed that I messed up. Too bad it's over!

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can probably tell from the title that this post is interesting. Well, anyway, there was a fire across the street from where I live, luckily no one's house got burned down, there's just a lot of charred grass. There were plenty of flashing lights on the ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, etc., enough to last a life time. People poked their heads out and wondered what was going on, because we didn't have a clue why the trucks were there at all, all we knew was we smelled smoke. I thought someone was having a barbecue, but when my dad came home he confirmed my mom's guess that there was a fire across the street, and no one was hurt. Then we heard the sound of a fire hydrant going, and the next thing we knew the trucks were gone. And we can smell smoke yet.

Pets

In case you hadn't noticed, I got some pets for my blog. The more tab is so you can feed them. You can explore some more and see what they do. The hamsters are especially cute. They can run on their wheels and everything! Enjoy!

S-P-E-L-L

Today was the school spelling bee! I had made it into the class top 6, then the grade top 6, so of course I got into the school spelling bee. After what seemed like an eternity (which was spent wishing I could disappear) it was my turn. (I was second to last.) After eight intense rounds, it was down to the final three, which was me and two other people. One person spelled squawking s-q-u-a-k-i-n-g, and the other spelled antonym a-n-t-o-n-y-h-m, so I won. The winning word: medicate. And the best part is, I get to go to the Utah Valley spelling bee, and I'm now extremely popular.

Excited

I'm really excited for the 6th grade to start the Middle Ages unit in Social Studies! We're having a feast and dressing up as various people, such as kings, queens, princesses, knights, ladies, counts, dukes, duchesses, and such like. There are various other things I'm excited about, (not including the Maturation Program (groan)) such as when the whole grade goes Classic Skating on February 11, especially since I've discovered that I'm actually good at roller-skating. I'm also really glad that they aren't doing a Snowball there!