the dinosaur in the backyard

I woke up, and saw a T . Rex in the back yard. I donned my Armour, picked up my mighty battle sword, and went out to do battle. I ran out, roaring: EULALIAAAAA! We clashed together! Bloodwrath was upon me! Wounded in a dozen places, I fought on. The battle ended when my sword flashed and the monstrous beast was without a head. Putting my foot on the beast, I raised my blood covered face to the sky, and once more shouted my battle cry: EULALIAAAAA! The battle was over.                                                                   George

The Dinosaur of the Samber of Checrets

One morning I got out of bed and went to my backyard. There was a portal. I went in it and found myself at a magic drinking fountain. I leaned over to get a drink when it disappeared and in it's place there was a big hole. I got sucked in and I saw that I was in a strange dark room. There were glowing red words on the wall that read "HELLO! WELCOME TO THE SAMBER OF CHECRETS. BEWARE OF DINOSAUR." The lights came on and I saw my sister laying on the floor. The strange thing was, she had dyed her hair flaming red today. Suddenly, a dinosaur came out. He was wearing a leash and a boy named Tom Rorvalo Middle was leading him. "Go kill the girl, Puffball. Go kill the girl" he said. Suddenly, a parrot came flying in. He was carrying a baseball cap. I put on my head and something landed on my head with a heavy thud. I took off the hat and out came a sword that said on it's hilt: Give me an S, give me and A, give me an M, give me an A, give me an N, give me a THA. SAMANTHA! I stood in a particular place, held up the sword, lifted my elbow, and BAM! I whacked that dinosaur's head clean of it's neck! The parrot yelled "out of the Park!" I ran around the room, grabbed my sister, grabbed the parrot's tail and the parrot brought us home. THE END.
by Samantha

The Pterosaur in the yard

One morning, I woke up and got out of bed. I went outside and got in my little play house. I looked out of my playhouse window and I saw a pterosaur. I got down as down as I could. I saw sparkles beside me. I stood up where none of the windows were so the pterosaur couldn't see me. The sparkles went away and something appeared. It was a magic drinking fountain and I got a drink from it. The drinking fountain was so magical that I looked in it and disappeared. I came out in the pterosaur world. I saw different types of pterosaurs. I came out sitting on dry sand of the pterosaur world. I got up and walked around trying not to be seen. I thought to myself, "I must be like a mouse to them". When I was seen, I ran to where the fountain was, got a drink and left the pterosaur world. But when I was noticed the pterosaurs followed me but they were tiny when they came out. I came out of my playhouse. I wondered how the first one was so big while the others were so small. I went inside my house and the pterosaurs followed me. I went to one of the bathrooms, looked in a drinking fountain. The pterosaurs thought I had gone back into their world, so they jumped into the fountain. I had slipped away fast. I went to tell my brother and sister and they never believed me. I was very tired, but it was the best day of my life.
By Rebecca

The Sail of the Mustang

Hello, I am at the beach. It is night. Someone is sailing at night. I went to get a closer look. It was Pirates! I was captured. I found out that the captain had died, but when the ship started sinking in a storm all the pirates jumped off the ship and into the lifeboats. Secretly, I jumped on to one of the lifeboats and sailed back to the beach. It was daytime. Samantha, Kati, George, Johan were all there except got seasick when I took them on a ride. I got married and everybody else went to the beach afterwards. I was in a hotel. Everybody else went swimming at the beach. The Ghost of the sunken ship called the Mustang was still sailing on the seas. And we all lived happily ever after.
The End
Rebecca

My Journey on a Pirate Ship

Once I was at the beach with Johan, Kati and Megan. We saw a ship. It had a Jolly Roger flag on it. We got captured, but we got to be part of the crew. Two months later, Captain Davies died. I became Captain. Ten years later, the ship arrived on the same beach from the beginning of the story. I suddenly remembered it and told my friends. We all went to our houses. I found out that George had found his own pirate ship, sailed off and  is now living like a king in England. Rebecca went on a mission in France and was enjoying it very much. Soon I got married, had some kids, and me and my family went to live a life on the seas.
by Samantha

Snow

Today we are getting a lot of snow. Maybe over a foot! In the early winter, I made a cage for the turtles to try and escape from. It could hold in the General but could not hold in Frodoricka at all. Now the snow has covered the cage in about two hours. We put out a bucket to measure how much snow we got, and it's almost covered the entire bucket! We also took a picture at 8'o clock and another at 9. We plan on taking a picture every hour through out the day. When it's a bit warmer and the snow slows down a bit, I plan to build a snow Jabba the Hutt and probably a snow fort or house. I can't wait!                                                                          George

MineCraft

I like to play minecraft because it's fun. I like to make TNT with sand and gunpowder. I also make my pack of wolfs mate by feeding two some meat and then hearts start rising from their heads, to show their ready to mate. I happen to live in a dessert fortress. I also like to stay outside at night and fight monsters.                                               George

Rambles

Today I played the Oregon Trail on the computer. Two of my kids died, but I made it to Oregon! My children's names were Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Harry. Ron was my favorite child, but he ended up dieing, along with Harry. At least Ginny and Hermione lived. And me. I have my yearly check up soon and we all have a dentist appointment sometime after that. The family obsession is currently a game called Minecraft. You can call me to learn more about the game. This is Samantha Lambert, signing off.

Food: It's a learning experience

George was in charge for meatless this week and he cooked out of the Redwall Cookbook. I don't remember what it was called in the book, but it was savory vegetable pancakes. Made with potatoes, parsnips, carrots, onions and binding agents. First time for parsnips, they added a little sharp/sweet taste. George started out hand shredding the veggies, but soon went with the food processor. He said hand shredding would build muscles and was good for you. I suggested eating in a reasonable amount of time was good for you too. I fried them up because I figured it would be faster. After the first batch, I made one big pancake in the pan and then cut it like hash-browns to flip. Dropping by tablespoons took to long. Samantha and I loved them, Rebecca immediately declared never again and George and Eric were on the fence. Definitely not the best main dish, but a yummy side in place of hash-browns or fries, I think.

George also made sugarless banana cake from his Star Wars Cookbook. Great breakfast cake, but I think next time we'll drizzle a little glaze over the top. Just to add a bit of sweet.

We went over the last few months of food experiments and for breakfast highly recommend Baked Oatmeal.  French Toast Strata and Caramel French Toast are good, but not for every day. (all Taste of Home recipes) For dinner we didn't like most of the meatless ideas. I'm thinking to try black bean burgers again, but with a different bread crumb. I think I used rye last time. Vegetable strata was nothing exciting. Potato soup was yummy and baked potato bar worked too. We'll keep on trying new things and expanding our horizons.

Book recommendation -
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart. Absolutely fascinating reading. Non-fiction usually is slow going for me. Not this book. I will be on the lookout for a cheap copy of my own. Borrowed this one from the library. 

My Birthday: What I got, What I did, What I ate.

On my birthday, I woke up and went into the living room for presents. First, Rebecca's was a book and dinosaur shaped chalk. George's was a Plush Turtle, which I named Tom Riddle. From Mommy and Daddy, I go a 1D book (One Direction - music group) and an alarm clock. The night before I had gone to Culver's with Daddy. On my birthday night, I had cupcake cheesecake for my birthday cake and that night I went ice skating with Megan McCann. It turns out I am really good at ice skating!

by Samantha

Things I have cooked

I have cooked pizza, cakes, pancakes, cheese, and lots of other things.I think they all taste good. like my blackberry and apple cake, and my cucumber bread. I meant to make zucchini bread but accidentally used cucumbers instead and it still tasted good.  I have also made dandelion salad. It tasted very bitter and nobody like it, including me, even drowned in salad dressing.                                                                                                                                                                                                  george  

Reading

So I was home sick today (I know Mom, I'm sick all the time) and I spent the time reading. Finishing a book I'd been working on all week, Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler. Starting and finishing two books George had wanted me to read, Theodore Boone the Accused by John Grisham and How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. And I read two kids books to Rebecca, one of which was Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo. I like Clive Cussler books, even though I'm not much on ocean going technology or old cars and planes. It's the whole adventure idea. And I like most of the books that George reads, likely because I taught him to read and have greatly influenced his reading selections by picking out books that look interesting to me and giving them to him to read. Theodore Boone is not bad because it's Grisham with less violence and no language. As for the other one, I liked the movie better. It's not a bad book, just not as enjoyable as the movie, which really had none of the same elements as the book other than names, so I shouldn't compare. Still, if I had to recommend, I'd say skip the book and just watch the movie. As for the chicken book, most amusing. Read it if you have the chance.