Pawley's Island

This summer for our vacation we went to Pawley's Island. We had an awesome time. We stayed there a whole week. Every day we went to the beach and played in the sand and water at all times. My sisters and I boogie-boarded a LOT. Almost the whole time we were at the beach, we boogie-boarded. We also caught and found hermit crabs, jelly fish, starfish, sea urchins, conch shells and tons of other cool sea creatures. I caught some ghost crabs (out of the water). Almost every morning we went to the beach early in the morning to collect shells before the tide started to rise and before other people got to them. We got up before the sun started to rise which was about 5:00 AM. We had an awesome time at the beach, and I hope you had a really fun summer, too.

A Messy Game

On Saturday I had my soccer game. It was really muddy; I slipped three times. You can probably guess that I was pretty muddy, I was. We won our soccer game three to zero. I scored two of those three goals. It was fun to get all muddy and wet (by the way, it was still raining during my game). I had lots of fun. When the game was over, I had mud all over my side, socks, cleats, shirt (both sides), legs, and arms (including my hands). It was really fun. By the time I got home, the mud had already started to dry up.

I was pretty messy.

My shin guards are still a little muddy.

I spent two hours cleaning my cleats. 

I took a shower as soon as possible. After that I sat down and took a nap.

Puppy fun

     Today Sadie was trying to itch under her collar. When Ellie and I had some free time we took off her collar and started to scratch her neck. We knew that was her favorite spot to be scratched. Every time we did scratch her neck she would always smile.

Isn't she adorable when she smiles!

   
The next day Renn got into some string she wasn't supposed to have, so I gave her some of my old string. She had a really fun time playing with it. She played with it for more than two hours. After that she was too tired to even notice me when I came into the room.

Snowed In

When I woke up this morning I found that there was a lot of snow, about one foot and three inches so far, because it was still snowing.

Look at all the snow!

 I got my snow clothes on as fast as I could after I ate breakfast. When I went outside, I was so excited. It hadn't snowed like this since we were at our old house, and it snowed about two feet. I thought I would first try and move around just to get used to it. Then all of a sudden Renn came out from under the porch and started to run towards me, but since the snow was so deep she  went slower so that that gave me a chance to try and get away (she still caught up with me no matter what). Then I went sledding with Lucy and Ellie. It was really fun, scary, exciting, and funny to watch the others going down a really fast slope. We had to make our slopes in certain places because there were so many trees in the way. By the way, most of the time we go sledding in the woods. My mom and dad came after a little bit to take some pictures and to see the slopes we made.

Ellie and I helped Renn get into the tree house.
(Renn got up the first three steps)

Renn was so excited when she got to the top.
(this was her first time in the tree house)

When we came back from the sledding I went to the back porch to see if there would be snow on it, and there was. It was a whole big pile of snow that was about three to four feet high. I instantly started to dig it out. When I was done it looked pretty good. I had made three entrances to come in and out of the igloo. Then I went inside to have some hot cocoa and warm up. The next day the snow was still there, but my igloo wasn't, it had fallen down over night because it snowed just enough to make it fall over. After I had been waiting outside I didn't know what I should do, then Ellie came out and asked me if I wanted to help her build an igloo. I said, "Yes."  When we finished it looked better than the one I made on the back porch. I guess because two people made it instead of one. 

This was very fun to play in.

We went into it when we were done and admired it. We took a little nap in it after a little while. Then when it started to get dark, we went inside and got into our pajamas and watched a movie. We had a blast and hope that it snows like this next year.

Critters

In the past few months we had been finding lots of critters. When I was going down the stairs, I saw a really pretty moth. The moth looked like he had yellow and black for the background.

A few days later my dad called me and said to come fast and bring a net. I ran and got a net. Then I went to go see what my dad was so anxious about. Then I saw it. It was a big lizard. He started to go up a wall, but I was too fast for him, I swooped my net, and there he was. We took a few pictures of him because he was the biggest lizard we had ever caught.

The next few days we were seeing butterflies left and right. A month later when Ellie and I were shooting soccer balls in the goal, I went in the woods to get a soccer ball that had gone in there. When I picked up the ball, I saw a leaf with bird stuff, but then it moved, so I looked closer and found that it was a caterpillar. I went inside to go get my mom. We looked it up, and it was a tiger swallowtail.

Tiger swallowtail starting its larva stage.

Tiger swallowtail in the middle of larva stage.

Tiger swallowtail also in the middle of larva stage.

Tiger swallow tail near the end of larva stage.

These past few days we've been keeping updates on him. A few days after the finding of our new friend, I was looking all over Poplar leaves. I was looking high and low until I spotted something little and black. It was another tiger swallowtail. I took a few pictures of it. When I was done, I realized that it was getting dark so I went inside. Every day I check on them and see if they're at their next stage.

Hair Cut

Today I am getting my hair cut. First I have to wait until my mom gets the comb, hair ties, and the scissors. I need hair ties because I am going to donate my hair to Locks of Love. We usually get our hair cut outside so I help my mom by getting a chair. She has a blanket and all of the stuff she needs.

Before!

When she was finished cutting my hair she had cut off about 9 to 10 inches. It was a big difference getting that much hair cut off. My mom got some pictures of my hair before and after my haircut.

After!