Happy Birthday!

Date: 4/ /10

Time: 5:00 - 7:00

Location: My back

This week I observed a sign of spring when it was my father's Birthday. Almost every year my family celebrates my dad's birthday by eating outside on our porch enjoying freshly cooked lobster, my dads favorite food. We prepare dinner by opening our white umbrella shade and taking out the outdoor tables. My cats, Minnie and Mika, love it when we eat lobster outside because they get to eat with us and get the leftovers from the lobster. Mika always sits in my lap and happily licks off the leftover butter and lobster off of my plate while Minnie is jumping on the table trying to eat as much as she can. After my family eats, we go inside to have cake and dessert. This year's cake was vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and mousse filling. Then we bring all of my dads presents to him, and this year my dad got lots of books, home depot gift cards, lots of man soap (-; ( I always laugh because he loves soap and hair products!) , and my family gave him a cat flower pot that my sisters and I picked out.

This year my dad loved all of his presents, and especially the cat flower pot we gave him. In the cat flower pot, he put in an exotic plant called an air plant. These different species of air plants don't need soil to grow, because they have little filters in their leaves that pick up little particles and water that the plant uses to survive. The plant does have roots, but the plant only uses the roots for staying stuck to the ground. They live in very humid tropical islands in South America, so every week you have to soak them in water, and they quickly grow rapidly. My dad got the plants from one of his friends from work and got all kinds of different colors, shapes, and sizes. the one he put into the cat pot is one of his largest and is called a Tillandsia, and was the perfect size for the flower pot! Overall my dad had a great Birthday!

Minnie relaxing while we were setting the table

The roots of the air plant, called Tillandsia

The Great Bay

A pond at the Great Bay

Date: 4/10/10

Time: 4:00pm/9:00pm

Location: Newmarket NH, on the Great Bay

This week I observed a sign of spring when my family and I went to my relative’s house for an Easter party on the Great Bay. Every year my family goes to the Easter party where we love to play with cousins, play on the beach, go on pretty nature walks, and best of all see fireworks! My family loves to play on the beach, although its still too cold for swimming we still explore the shore, make sand castles, hunt for star fish and crabs, walk along the beach, and just relax! The beach is very pretty when the sun sets, the sand is a perfect golden yellow color, the rocks are dark and round, the sea gulls are chirping their last songs of the day, the waves are crashing on the shore, water still and gleaming in the sun light, sky is painting with colors of pink, rosey red, bright yellow, and orange, and the sun is slowly creeping behind the ocean.

Another favorite thing to do while we are at my relatives house is when we go on calm, nice nature walks. My relatives live on a private nature preserve/sanctuary so there are so many wild animals! When we went on the nature walk I new sssssssoooooo many birds!!! Almost every one I saw I could name! I saw Tufted Titmice, Black Capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, Mourning Doves, American Crows, Northern Mocking Birds, American Gold Finches, House Sparrows, Mallard Ducks, American Robins, and I got a great video of Red–Winged Black Bird! While on the nature walk I even heard a Great Horned Owl, but could not see it. As we were coming back, it was already a dark warm night, and believe it or not, but there were so many mosquitoes and bugs out! As we were crossing a pond, I even heard a frog chirping! At the pond I also observed that the cattail plants had seeds coming off and floating in the air! Always half way back from the nature trail, we stop to see my cousins fire works! My older cousin Eric loves fire works and puts on a huge show for us over the Great Bay. This year he had over 45 firework packs he lit! I got great videos on the show too! Overall, I loved this years Easter Party!

Easter eggs we arranged at the party

Fireworks during the show

Easter

Date: 3/4/10

Time: 10:00am/4:30pm

Location: My house

This week I observed a "sign of spring” when family had our annual Easter celebration. Every year my family and I celebrate Easter by painting eggs, baking an Easter cake, eating a fancy dinner, and best of all have an Easter egg hunt! Every Easter morning my sisters and I run out side and try to get as much eggs as possible. This year we got lots of candy including peeps, sees candy boxes which comes with two chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and assorted chocolates, chocolate carrots, Lindtt chocolate, bubble gum, jelly beans Reeses peanut butter cups, pixie sticks, crunch candy bars, and my favorite caramel chocolate eggs!!! After the Easter egg hunt, we always bake an eater cake with pink frosting, lots of sprinkles, and vanilla cake. This year’s cake turned out the best because last year’s cake fell off the table, and year before that, mysisters put on way too much frosting.

The greatest part of Easter for me is painting the Easter eggs. We have been painting eggs every since I was 5 years old. I love painting eggs because we put on Easter music, and my moms is in the kitchen making dinner. My sisters always make about 24 eggs each. This year we made 83 eggs and only dropped 4 of them, which is a huge improvement from last year. As soon as we finish cleaning up the egg painting we go and set up the dinner table with fancy plates and napkins, pretty flowers, and lilac smelling candles. This year my mom and dad made mashed potatoes, string beans, rib roast, salad, cauliflower, coleslaw, and deviled eggs. Yum!