Can I Have Some Ketchup, Please?

I have not posted here for a really, really long time, so it's time for a..... Ketchup Post! I haven't been posting because of (duh duh duh...) BOOK REPORTS! (Enter Toccata in Fugue and lightning streaks....) OK, it wasn't that bad. So, here's the recap, starting with our trip to Maryland.....

Before we left Maryland, Cousin Studios got a great new section of movies: Webcam! Our cousins have an awesome webcam with all these cool effects like avatars, snow, and the ability to draw on videos. We started a new movie series called The M Show where we disscuss the arts, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, balloon fights, and mysterious indoor blizzards. (Don't ask.) Plus, when we were about to leave, I got loaned Mario Kart! Only the most awesome video game ever! Then we drove home and school started up again......

Although we were pressured with 9 Weeks Tests, quizzes, Book Reports, reading logs, and more, we still found time to start new fads. Eraser City and The Lays Boycott Club died down (stay tuned for the rest of the story!), and in their place sprang up....

The JBBC (Justin Bieber Boycott Club). We all hated this music "star" so much that we decided to boycott him! In between talking about his awfulness, we make up song parodies about him (Justin Bieber has rabies, rabies, rabies, OH!).

Paper Skateboarding. Laney's friend K loves real skateboarding, but after playing with a Post-It in math class, he got an idea to make paper skateboards. We fold Post-Its, draw cool designs on them, and then use everyday objects as half pipes, railings, and obstacle courses. K even has a popular bartering business where he trades skateboards for Mentos, and he is thinking about selling skateboards through the school store.

Flipbooks. Yet another fad involving Post-Its, flipbook making has become an art. It all started with K's friend D, the Post-It guru, and began circling its way around other GT classmates. I have made several, including ones about a marathoner, people crushing Lays bags, and archery practice.

Comics. I wrote a graphic novel about the Lays Boycott Club (the sequel is coming soon!), and this fad was born! Before long, there were comics about everything, from erasers to a typical day at middle school.


Then, there was the GA fundraiser. At the end of the month, I had 7 duckies (not counting the X-Ray duck I lost) and 11 subscriptions- enough to go to the Mega Party and get VIP status! Thank you Mom and Dad for doing Christmas shopping to help our school! Everybody claimed it was a ripoff- but they were wrong. There were 6 inflatables, including an obstacle course, jousting ring, giant-scale game involving a wrecking ball(again,don't ask), and the "sticky wall." Not to mention soda and the opportunity for VIPs to beat the crowds and arrive 25 MINUTES EARLY! WOO WOO!

Also, some good news... I'm going to a forensics competition! I am in the category Serious Poetry and I am  looking forward to competing.

So, that concludes yet another..... Ketchup Post!

Blog Ya Later!

P.S. Thank you, Laney, for spreading the word and getting your friends to read. It was getting quiet around here!

Mini Vacation

HOORAY! :):):) Mom just told me that we're heading up to the house of M, L, and S, blogger for Wii Little Movies for L's birthday! I'm excited because 1.I love traveling 2.I love relatives 3. Traveling is an excuse to chew gum. ;) I hope we will stay off the computer, play lots of Phase Ten (fun card game) and Monopoly, and hopefully make some Cousin Studios films. Speaking of Cousin Studios films, here are some highlights from The Ten Day Road Trip Of Awesomeness. :^)----[---{

Dwarf Hairstyling. J did pink, K did purple. I love the purple one's hair, don't you?

And, finally, the Music Club commercial. This is the second take; during the first one K threw a ball at J's head and yelled at her for using the Rock Band guitar. Ahh...good times.;);)

BLOG YA LATER!

Intresting Islands and Honey Badger Madness

Eraser City, as you may know, has two major islands outside the mainland. I have never gone into them in depth, so here goes....

Badger Island is the perfect getaway when searching for a warm, sunny spot to live out your vacation dreams. There are bamboo cabins, a smoothie and souvenir shack, and awesome party spaces on the docks! If you like studying the science of the ocean rather than surfing in it, there is an observation deck, underwater museum, and a field full of honey badgers to study. Unfortunately, as convicts leaving the jail in Chaotic County using the secret passage found out, there's an underwater prison, too. Spy Bob often heads here for relaxation after chasing down erasers who rap about anchovies (hint, hint).
Frosty Phillip's Island is where you should go if you're searching for something that is the exact opposite of Badger Island! It is FREEZING and snows every day year round. The population is ten: erasers one, polar bears nine. That doesn't mean you can't have fun, though! Frosty Phillip is happy to let tourists into his home to hold sledding contests, make snowmen, and buy snow globes. If you want to buy hot chocolate and other groceries or chow down on a lemon-lime icee, make sure to check the convenience store and slushie shack. If your feet are sinking in snow, you can get snowshoes for free at the local shop. And if you just want to get out before you become an ice cube, stop by Freezin' Flights Travel Agency!

Each island also has mini islands. Badger Island has Little Badger Island and Mini Badger Island, and Frosty Phillip's Island has The Island Of The Wild Polar Bears.

Now......on to the honey badgers.

When Eraser City was still springing up, all of the buildings were being named after stuff Laney, K, and I were obsessed with. Laney and I are crazy about zebras, and K loves honey badgers. It's very random, but what can I say, he loves honey badgers! If you counted how many things in Eraser City were named after honey badgers, you'd be surprised....
*The Honey Badger Blast at the amusement park.
*Honey Island at the water park.
*Badger Island.
*Honey Badger resturant.
*The Honey Badger Hotel.
*Annnnnd....there was that dance Laney and I made up about Lays bags, zebras, and slow dancing that had honey badgers in it........
So, in other words, a lot, not counting the stuff I missed! I guess this is going to be another one of our quirks this year.

BLOG YA LATER!

Next Time, On Claire's Creative Days....Jean-Claude moves to International County! Reasons why Keyboarding should be illegal! Plus, the story of the Lays Boycott Club! All this and more in the next few posts....

Eraser Invasion!

6th grade not only brings new friends(like L, who may be reading my blog. Hi!), more homework (groan), and another year of Destination Imagination (YESSSSS! *dances around the room in sheer joy**dreams about challenge*), but certain "fads from the past". Such as eraser buddies.

Introducing our new erasers!

Zeke and Zoey Zebra. These two were created on opposite sides of a Pink Pearl eraser by me and are brother and sister. They were inspired by L's love for zebras. As you can probably tell by their last name, Zeke and Zoey love zebras, too. They wear stripey clothing, own a house called "Zebra Mansion" and teach at the Zebra School in Eraser City. Zeke and Zoey love rapping and often get arrested for singing about anchovies and disturbing the peace. (????)

Spy Bob. Spy Bob was made by L's friend K. He was drawn on the eraser at the top of a pen cap (K has an erasable pen!) and patrols the city, often arresting Zeke and Zoey for anchovy related crimes. Spy Bob owns several buildings in Eraser City, including his house, the air base, and "Area 51." He likes flying over to Badger Island (K likes honey badgers) and renting a hut for vacationing.

Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim is tiny. He was made by L out of a broken eraser from a pencil. He loves hanging out around his tiny house and visiting Badger Island's underwater aquarium. Tiny Tim has a sister named Miniscule Millie and is friends with Zeke and Zoey.

Frosty Phillip. Also created by L, Frosty Phillip doesn't live in Eraser City. He lives in an igloo in the middle of nowhere, complete with a garden of icicles and sled slopes, snowglobe rooms, and Christmas rooms! His friends have not visited yet....it's very cold up there.....

I will be updating on the chaos of middle school soon (if I can survive Keyboarding first....). So, BLOG YA LATER!

Time Flies.....

it was
a hot November afternoon
my neighbors and i were hiking by the creek
i was being tour guide
showing the landmarks
of the woods
that one of them had never seen before
because it wasn't in his yard.

then
we heard a cry
from somewhere else around the bend
yelling
"h2o!"

it was the boy
who hid among the various trees
letting his anger
sizzle away.

we kept hiking
and figured out why he had
yelled his cry. there was
a new river
that we had never seen before
curling toward the trees
and branching away.

and he was stuck on the other side.

so we built a bridge
with a huge big stick
and just as he was about to walk across
my mom called my name.

my mom didn't know where i was
but she knew i was in the woods
but that wasn't enough.

i raced home
dragging my pants in the mud on the way
and bogging my shoes down
and rescuing them later
while running by the huge tree
then to the log pile
then to the driveway
then up to my own back porch.

my mom let my shoes sit outside
and threw my clothes in the wash
just like she did when we had that water fight.
and when i showed her the map i drew
of the new terrain
she thought it was quite amazing
but thought we weren't on the boundary line
like when we discovered what the environmentally protected area is.

and to think it happened
at least
two weeks ago.

CJ's Highly Unusual Thanksgiving

MORNING
1.Eat breakfast
2.Brush teeth
3. Get dressed
4. Watch the parade! Lots of cool floats and bands and a new Santa float this year!
5.Eat lunch
AFTERNOON
1. Watch football
2.Walk around the block
3.Watch some more football
4. Play with my sister
5.Shower
6.Change
NIGHT
1. Eat the annual Crazy J Dinner, which includes bacon, berries, bagels, spaghetti, green beans, sweet potato somethings, bread, and pork.
2. Do the annual "What we are thankful for" round around the table.
3.CHOCOLATE PIE!
4. Watch Electric Company
5.Brush teeth, change
6.Play in my fort
7. Watch Iron Chef America
8. Bedtime!

The Rocky Tower

Today at recess, my friends Soso, S, and I went over to the far corner of the playground by the woods when we got a surprise. Somebody had been there before us, and they had raised all the playground rocks in the area to make a giant raised platform! It looked exactly like a tower! We kept looking around, and we saw 2 more in the area. Before sitting down, I dug pathways from one island to the next, and S made footbridges to connect the island towers. Then we all sat down to watch the football game. I spy something to FINALLY do at recess!

Quick Poll

QUESTION: How many Thanksgiving advertisements have you seen so far?
How many Christmas advertisements?
I've seen about 5 Christmas and 0 Thanksgiving.
Post your answer on the comments page!

The reason that I'm asking this is that I'm surprised that none of those giant stores are talking about their big Thanksgiving sale.
And speaking of ads, here's a Cousin Studios one about a school called Kentucky University.

The Fads Return

Ah, 5th grade is here and everybody is trying to make the most of it with some FADS! Here are some of the clubs, media, fake products, etc. so far...

1. Paper Punch World. Paper Punch World was a land of notebook paper folded shops, where paper punched people, animals, and food lived. There were tourist signs that decked our desks, encouraging kids classwide to be creative!
2. Eraser Hotels. It has become a very popular trend in Mrs. C's class for kids to organize their desks and decorate them with beads, posters, bottle caps, and paper accessories so they look like hotels. And on Fridays, if your erasers are taking up space in your desk, you can send them to these hotels for a weekend stay and they'll get returned on Monday!
3. Magical Llama Beans. This product was fake, but it raised a lot of attention! Two girls made up a fake product that turned you into a llama, and before long, the class went crazy! A few kids made up their own products, like Taco Balls and Magic Fries.
4. The Secret Spy Society. My friends Soso, J, and I made a club that took place at the top of the playground slide, where we watched the happenings of recess. If there was too much gossip or a dodge ball fight, the Secret Spies would investigate!
5. The Playground Olympics. During the last week of September, lots of kids got together to sign up for unique, crazy, invented sports contests. If you didn't want to play sports, you could always broadcast the game!
6. The Home Run Derby. We have invented a new sport. It's kind of like a home run derby. L and C shag balls, E and S pitch, S also catches, and I keep score!
7. The C Chronicle. Our class started a student- run class newspaper. Anyone can drop an article in the box hanging from my desk as long as it's appropriate. So far we have an advice column, games, sports, class news, comics, Soso's Local column, and just plain stories! I can't wait for it to come out!
So anyways,
(in newspaper font...)
Blog Ya Later!

Dusty Jorunals

For our contest, the winner who got the closest to the actual answer was.... Chatty Kelly!
Here were the actual answers....
Green House: Nobody! Just the plants.
White House: The President!

And now, back to the post.

Help! I can't get out of this font! I guess I'll have to type the rest of the post in it!
Unless I can think of something while in the bathroom.
One second, please...
...
OK. I'm done using the toilet. I didn't come up with any ideas of how to get this font off except to click the button over and over.
1.Didn't work.
2. Didn't work.

3. Sorry, more technical difficulties! It didn't work.

So let's just continue.....

Despite my computer's craziness...

I haven't been blogging lately because I have the dreaded Writer's Block. Even the stuff that might be interesting to you suddenly isn't to me! Here's what suddenly became boring before I blogged (Aak! Too many B's!):
1. I've been doing a report on sea stars.
2.I'm entering a poster about drug and alcohol abuse into our school contest.
3. Our class is having a contest to see who can think of the most baby names.
4. E and N beat S and L in our fake World Series baseball tournament at recess.
5. I just turned our Cousin Studios videos into 8 and 9 minute movies on Imovie.
6. Our entire trip to Maryland just got stuck in my sketchbook.
7. Everything else!
Darn, now I have to go downstairs and eat. Please be patient......
...
I'm back from breakfast.
So anyways, today I knew the only way I was going to be able to post today was if I copied something from one of the dusty journals in my closet. Mom says I have more than a college graduate! I thought I'd share a poem with you from my 3rd grade journal called Wind's Blow.

Wind's Blow
The wind blows when the
clothes are wet. It blows
the leaves of trees off
and sometimes branches.We
have to hold onProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

o
our hats.
Sometimes the wind is
angry and it's a
tornado! The trees fall
down and houses rip
apart. The plants and animals
are scared until the
storm's over.
The kids are wearing jackets
and the air is getting
chilly. The forecast
says it's going to rain
down
down
down
all because
of the
wind.

Well, that post was more than I expected.....

Movie Madness!

Here is one of the videos we shot at the W house. This one's called Zip line International!
(S is working the controls, I'm holding the camera and narrating.)

I'm Back!!!!

Finally- back from Maryland! I shall now present to you the top 3 Maryland activities:
1. MOVIE MAKING. While we were in Maryland, we made two new movie series called The Great Webkinz Camp-Out and Classroom Girls. We also shot several little videos including, but not limited to: The Ship Takes Off, The Thing, Cameras, Polly World Fashion Shoot, Mr. Jones.
2. FORT BUILDING. We built 2 tents. The one M slept in had a secret tunnel and plenty of storage, and L and I's had an electronics shelf and a "closet". On the last night, we all got together and had a sleepover in S's room!
3. SPYING. We did a lot of spying in the W house, but it wasn't for revenge, it was just for fun. L and M stayed hidden upstairs in our forts while S and I went downstairs to shoot pictures of evidence. We used walkie-talkies, too!
Some other activities we did were playing in the computer, playing with dolls, reading graphic novels, having sleepovers, going to church, and celebrating L's 11th birthday!
As soon as I get them downloaded, I'll be sharing some videos with you!
What did YOU do this weekend?

An Update

There are so many things to blog about, I think I need to use this post to cover them all!
1. The Playground Olympics. Here are the explanations for our Mystery Games:
Snakepole is a game in which you twist around poles like snakes. Crash into your competitors and you are eliminated!
Hoop Roll is a game where you must roll the hoop to the other team. If they miss it, they earn a miss. Whoever has less misses at the end of the game wins!
Jump Roping was just a simple game of who can go the longest without tripping up on the rope.
Running was a simple race with a few obstacles.
2. This weekend, Mom, my sister and I went to the pumpkin patch and picked out five pumpkins in their enormous field, which had scattered scarecrows and old sheds surrounding it. Then we headed back to their little shop and bought 4 more. We got a good deal on them, too: they were only 20.00 all together! Next we went to Cici's Pizza and had a pizza lunch before driving to our church to set up for Mom's bell choir. I like spending weekends with family.
3. I'm visiting my cousins in Maryland for L's birthday! I made her a neat gift and card (but I won't drop any hints about it in case my aunt is visiting the blog). I also am bringing my video camera so S and I can do some serious shooting. He enjoys making Lego Star Wars movies. Check out his blog, Wii Little Movies! And there is no need to worry about bringing princess dolls for M to play with with the amount they have at their house....

What are YOU doing?

Grandparent Visit

My grandparents came for a visit! The were stopping at our house for a day after driving to Tennessee for a vacation. While they were at our house, we went out to a pizza parlor for dinner and looked at photos of their trip to Elvis's house. Then we looked at videos from my cousin's film company, Cousin Studios. I'm going to share one of our many advertisements.
Hey! That makes this post my first video post! YAY!
Anyways, here's the ad:



This ad is for an insurance company called Jonson and Jonson. You might have to turn the volume up to hear my husky voice, and the "insurance agent" (it's really my cousin J) isn't as serious as you'd think......


Blog ya later!

It Must Be Fall....

When the posts are longer,
the wind is stronger.
When the posts begin to lengthen,
the cold begins to strengthen.
And when blogs are awesome,
there's not a single blossom.