Performathon

Hey,
Thanks to everyone that gave donations to us for our music school.
It was fun playing. I played "Glass Slipper" by Gillock and Seppo played "Juggler".
We played twice since my mom asked if we could play again because a lot of people were running late and everyone that came to watch us play came like 1 minute after we played the first time.

Hey,
I just cut my hair.
Its really short.I saved the rest I think I might sell it.

Yugioh

Hey everybody!
One of my friends started sending me yugioh cards that he made on the internet.
One is a hamster with a machine gun, a chimp and me!

Summertime!

Hey everybody!
Can't what til summer.Since I'm graduating to middle school this year I get to go to Connecticut for a few days in June.I'm so excited.Me and Terai will be going to a new school next year.Terai would be going to the school me and Seppo are at right now and I would be going to a school our school shares the building with or a middle school that's a few blocks away.I'm so excited.Here are pics of the schools.

Old and in the Day!

Well I got a virus on the computer last week, nothing too serious, but required a lot of time and has been a pain. But looking on the bright side, I had to go through all the old files and transfer them around to various locations, and in so doing, went through lots of old photos. This is a minute sampling of them, all from long before the blog was created, so I thought I should upload some. Rather than making a huge line of photos down the blog, I created a space saving slide show, set to Grateful Dawg. Enjoy!

Late christmas

This video was my school choir. I am in it. There are about 35 kids singing Christmas carols in English, Spanish and Swahili. I sang this just before I came to Utah.115 kids tried out for the school choir but only 35 got in. I was one of them! Also The choir is split up into harmony and melody. I'm in the melody section. Hope you like this video.

SLEDDING!

Of course we had to make sure we got in some quality sledding time while we were in Utah. Here are just a few highlights...

Here is Noa and Tatjana after a run down a small hill. Seppo is in the background, in the same position he stayed in for about an hour and a half.

Here is Chaela right before getting some big air, too bad we didn't get a picture at the high point, she shot off this jump.


Here is Noa and then Tatjana going off the same jump, in different positions, Noa on her knees, Tatjana about to land on her side.



Anthony and Terai went off this jump, good thing he held on to the tube and to Terai. There was a safe landing here, even though it may not look like it was going to be. Yes, that is Terai floating just off to the side of Anthony's left knee.


And a series of other extreme sledders going off the same jump.

Galloping at the Park

During a recent parent/teacher conference, Terai's teachers mentioned how funny he was. Here is a great example of where the teachers told the children to ride on horses. As you can see pretty much everyone quickly reverted back to a regular run, but there is Terai, staying on the horse.
Terai says, "And also Leon said ready, set , go, then we went on our horses. Then I whacked my horse and it went so fast. Then I was on and then I was still on. Then we went all the way to the play garden. Then we were there and we were playing." "I like horses and I don't have a real horse. Then I wanted a horse, because they don't belong on Earth. Actually I want a boy pony."

Santa Sighting in NYC

It's not too often you get to see what Santa is up to just before the holidays. Here is a rare glimpse.
An amazing sideway's sit down, not an easy task.


Actually, this was the most fantastic, or at least one of the funnest, youngmen's activity that I have been involved in. Here are just four of us that participated among the roughly 25 other Santa's (and a couple elves) that went longboarding down Broadway on a busy NYC Friday night.


We passed through a number of fun landmarks, here is Radio City Music Hall. On our way back to finish about 12 miles of boarding through the city.


Gotta love it!


And one of the many highlights was cruising right through Times Square and hearing the festive cheer and random shouts by the crowds on the streets, passing cars, and the lovely ever present Taxi horns. A great experience to be part of a bunch of Santa's taking up three lanes of traffic (only for short periods).

Cat as a Hat, or a Prop!

Only in NY...Whilst walking home today, I ran into this man, with his cat, sitting on his head, like a hat. Here is the link:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/the-cat-as-a-hat-or-a-prop/

Outings

Terai and Pop went cruising around in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in a canoe. The water was super cold, but we were able to find loads of wild cranberries. We paddled for roughly four solid hours.
Terai says "When I went on a trip with Vinson, Papa and Vinson went in a boat. I wanted to paddle. Then I went to sleep and there was no bathroom. And we went in the boat again then we went in the car and I wore my dragon shoes with rips in them and we went home."
Well Terai had it easy. "I laid down and went to bed."
Seppo says "I run really slow in the grass. Somebody kicked me in the pee with the soccer ball."
Seppo says, "I had fun picking leaves with Belen and Terai. My papa found a click beetle. Papa flipped the click beetle on the back. Then we found this little tee pee in Central park."
Seppo says, "I jumped, I laid down on my belly and I jumped like Spiderman!"

Kurt, Chamaine and Ansley came to visit us in NYC.The kids were able to play a little welcome noise.
Kurt and I went to an interesting art exhibit in a pet store. Great social commentary by Banksy.
Here are the fish sticks. All of these were animatronic so the fish really did swim around in the bowl.
A chicken nugget. They also had sausages, salami, and hotdogs, all able to move around in little cages.
And here is a worn out, locked up Tweety. I was wondering what happened to him.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun. I was Hermione Granger ,Seppo was Bummblebee from transformers ,Terai was Batman and my papa was a fly. I was trick or treating with my friend
from school and Seppo and Terai were at my brothers friends house then went trick or treating. Later we went to Jeremiah and Breanne's house. We ate a lot of candy. I got the most.

Hiking in Fahnestock State Park

Right before leaving for Puerto Rico, we were able to get out of the city and go for a nice day hike.  Thanks to plenty of rain the previous two days, the fungi were out in full force (and luckily we had a mycologist along with us).  There were also many little frogs and toads, a few salamanders, and other fun organisms.

Tatjana with a purple mushroom.

If you ever thought mushrooms should not be called toadstools, think again. 
One of the many five inch long millipedes, the contrast between the colors just doesn't come out quite as well in the picture.
Not sure why, but Seppo did wear his TMNT mask the entire day.  
Can't really see too well in the picture, but this is actually a cyclops salamander.  Well it wasn't in the middle of its head, but the left eye simply did not develop.  These too are a very brilliant color, which the picture cannot do justice.
For part of the hike we went along the Appalachian Trail, maybe only half a mile of the over 2000 mile trail, but a great section none-the-less.  The trail was completely elevated here, on the rock wall, with about an 8 foot drop on either side, haven't seen that too often.
This is a huge slug scooting and sliming across my hand.
Terai sitting inside a hollowed out tree trunk.
Tatjana, Seppo and Terai at the edge of a stream where they were trying to catch the frogs that were hanging out on the rocks.  

Times that past without a post

Tatjana dancing at the Japanese festival, Obon dance in Bryant Park.

Jeremiah and Breanne came to join in the fun.

Grandma and Grandpa Simpson came out to visit NYC.  It was great to have them out, and I think they had a fantastic time.  

And just a nice day out in the park.