A Close Call...

These past seven days have been super-exciting and also very sad, starting with a dreadful Monday. It really is dreadful when you have to go back to school after 9 days of glory. It was like this for 4 more days until Nana came over for the weekend. That patched all the holes in my heart from the week!

Nana and I played a game of Scrabble that we never finished due to boredom. The next day, which was Saturday, we had a lot of stuff to do.

Dad and I did a Boy Scout service project. We spray painted the storm drains in our neighborhood. The stencil said "NO DUMPING - LEADS TO STREAM" with a picture of a fish between "DUMPING" and "LEADS".

Then Dad and I took down the Christmas trees and decorations from the attic. The boxes were REALLY heavy! We didn't put up the Christmas tree until Sunday though because Miss Cindy was sick.

Later that day was the SEC Championship. Alabama won, but it was a really close game with Georgia.

I had a fun week.

What did you do that was fun this week?

Bond and Hockey

This week I saw the new James Bond movie called Skyfall and I went to a hockey game. The James Bond movie was good but there was some mushy stuff in it. There were also lots of explosions and shooting which was awesome! There were also some funny parts.

On Saturday, I went to see the hockey game with Crawford and Aunt Heidi. It was the Gladiators vs. The Warriors. It was tied until the Warriors scored in the last 5 seconds and the Gladiators lost. That stunk! But it really stunk when Crawford kept farting all the way home in the car. I had a fun time.

What did you do that was fun this week?

A Play

This week I went to a play called "Beauty and the Beast."  I never really knew the story till yesterday. I only knew that a Disney princess danced with a hairy monster.  I thought it was a good play, but in the play someone turned the mics up really loud and it made an awful noise.  I wish I can see another play sometime soon.

What did you do that was fun this week?

Camping

This week I had a lot going on.  I went camping last weekend.  I built a fire, shot BB guns, did a sling shot and a bow and arrow.  I shot the bottom of a shot gun shell!!  I never missed on cans and other things either.  I had a lot of fun at my Boy Scout camping trip.  Did you know that was my first camping trip?

Today and yesterday I went to Nana's RV.  They are leaving tomorrow, but at least I got to see them.  I whittled my first stick last night and we looked at meteors.  We only saw one but it was pretty cool.

What did you do that was fun this week?

A Lot Going On

This week I had a lot going on like Suwanne Day parade and a Boy Scout meeting.   I marched in the parade holding a flag and after that I ate a yummy beef patty and a funnel cake.  During the Pack meeting I got my Bobcat badge.  It is the first badge I ever got!  It looks like Miss Cindy has a lot of sewing to do!

What did you do that was fun this week?

POPCORN

Dear family and friends,
I am now selling popcorn and pretzels for Boy Scouts.  The pretzels are wrapped in candy, cheese or chocolate.  70% of the proceeds go to my Boy Scout Pack.  Don't like or can't eat popcorn?   You can buy some for our troops -you will still be supporting my scouting and the troops - what a deal!  Please reply to my blog if you would like to buy any popcorn.  I have to turn the order in by Oct 15.  Thank you for supporting me!
Max

Check out the link here.


A note from Miss Cindy:
Popcorn will be delivered the beginning of November.  If you are an out of town buyer we will deliver it to you so you don't have to pay the shipping fee from the online ordering.  Please call or email me too if you are placing an order with Max.
Thanks!

The First Week of School

This week was the first week of school.  I'm liking 5th grade a lot.  We had to take a lot of tests this week.  Otherwise I had fun.

Also this week I went to see Ice Age.  The movie was ok.

What did you do that was fun this week?

Another Party?

I had a very fun week this week. A ton of stuff happened.  On Friday, Crawford came over around noon. We played games and then we went to Danny's (my Dad's friend) pool.  We had fun there.  We did cannonballs and splashed each other.  It was very fun. On Saturday we went up to BePaw's house for another birthday party.  We swam and played around in the pool.  We had hot dogs and hamburgers.  Also we had some super yummy ice cream pie.  Then we went home. 

Also this week I saw a hawk attack.  It looked really cool. The hawk came down with its wings closed.  Then right before it hit the ground it opened its wings and picked up the chipmunk.

What did you do that was fun this week?

Yellowstone--Part 4 -- Guest Blogger Carly

Yellowstone River - White Water Rafting

Hi, I'm Carly, Max's cousin.  It has been an extremely exciting week in Montana but I think Tuesday and Wednesday were the best.  Tuesday afternoon we all went to a place called the Flying Pig.  There we got geared up to go white water rafting on the Yellowstone River.  After getting into the gigantic raft which held about ten people, it was a three mile journey to the campsite for the night.  When we arrived at camp there were three tents one was a tepee and the other two were wall tents that had a wooden base. Each tent had four wood beds that were very uncomfortable. The kids slept in the tepee and the adults shared one of the tents.  While waiting for dinner that night Max, Ella, and I played several tether ball games.  What fun!  For dinner we had lasagna then shortly after all of us crashed! 

The next morning we had Rancher's Scramble which consisted of eggs, potatoes, peppers, onions, and sausage.  Then around 10:30 we set out on a 15 mile trip down the big level 1 rapids.  Don't worry we did have lunch about three miles into our journey!

After we had lunch we put helmets on for protection against the rocks.  That's when we knew the real fun was going to start!  Sure enought the rapids were fierce and fun.  Once we got to the take out dock we got onto a school bus which transported everyone back to the Flying Pig.  All in all it was a pretty fun and exciting two days white water rafting on the Yellowstone River.

Yellowstone -- part 3 --Guest Blogger - Ella

Hi, I'm Ella.

It's been an exciting two days.   Me and my family went horse back riding up in the mountains.  We got at the camp that we were staying at.  We were showed our rooms and then we went outside to the horses.  My horse's name was Joseph - "the most famous horse on the farm".  When riding a horse you pull back on the reigns to stop and you move the reigns left or right to go to that side.  I was scared at first but then it statred to get fun.  Our guides names' were Sean and Riley.  I learned that my house was 24 years old and they usually only live until 25.  We saw some cool wildlife on our ride. 

When we got back we went into our tents and hung out until dinner.  I ate a hot dog with beans on it -- what could be better!  Also I had some butter bread and some pork chops.  After we ate the cowboys sang a couple of songs.  I think they sounded pretty good.  I slept pretty well at night. 

We ate breakfast at 8:00.  I had Apple Jacks, grapes, and an apple danish.  AFter we ate we packed up and then we got on our horses.  This time my horse was named Soda Pop.  We went o a different path. It was more deserty and it was two hours long this time.  My horse kept eating and Joseph never really ate.  I liked Joseph more than Soda Pop.  There was a marmoth on a rock on this trip.  When we got back from the ride we got a group picture on the horses.  My horse wasn't cooperating.  That was the best time I had on a horse ranch.

Yellowstone --Part 2

This was a fun week with lots of cool animals.  We went hiking too.  On Tuesday we went for a five mile hike.  We came to a beaver pond but there were no beavers.  So we went on a five mile hike for nothing.


Today we saw eight bears.  One of them was a grizzly bear walking on the rode!    It was ten feet away! Earlier in the day we saw a black bear being all peaceful but when he saw all the people he jumped up and zoomed across the street.  After that we saw a coyote.  We were whistling a lot to get its attention but it wasn't like a dog - he just ignored us. 


We were coming home on Thursday when we saw a bison by a restaurant eating grass which was really funny.    Now we just have to see a moose to complete our list of animals we'd like to see. 


We have seen tols of elk but we only saw one bull (male elk).  It had huge antlers.  Also while we were riding horses the other day we saw some marmoths enjoying the sun while resting on a rock.  We also saw a family of weasels. 

Yellowstone --Part 1

Sunday, July 8 and Monday, July 9


Today and yesterday was both fun and not fun at the same time.  Yesterday we went on two flights and had 3 hours in between.  We ate lunch at a taco place in the airport.  It had a "patio".  We reached Bozeman finally!  Aunt Sherri, Carly, Ella, and Joel were already at the hotel.  We stayed in a hotel, swam at the pool and ate dinner.  I had steak for dinner. 


The next morning we packed up and went to the Lewis and Clark cave.  There were really cool rocks in there.  One looked like Big Foot's foot and another one looked like Babe Ruth's baseball bat -it was a stalagmite. 


When we left the cave we went to the Moose Creek Inn, ate pizza and then drove to see Old Faithful.  On our way we saw bison, elk and lots of geysers.

Hilton Head

This week I went to Hilton Head.  I stayed at Aunt Nancy's house.  We went to the beach all week.  I had fun on my body board.  One day we ate Mexican food on the beach.  Now that is pretty weird!  By the way this is a never ending car trip that I'm stuck on because of a big thunderstorm. 

What didyou do that was fun this week?

The 73rd Blog

This week I went to the pool at the YMCA.  I rode the water slide there and dove on the diving board.  I went with Miss Cindy after Camp Invention. Camp Invention was fun too!  In one of the classes my team and I had to make a machine that would pop a water  balloon and we were successful!

This is a robot I made at Camp.

This is our Balloon Popper!

What did you do that was fun this week?

The First FULL Week of Summer!

Hello!
I've had a fun week.  Do you know why this was a fun week?  It was my first full week of summer.  I've been hanging around the house all week.  The most exciting thing I did this week was go to the Lake on Wednesday with Dad and Miss Cindy.  Do you know what I just realized?  I've called her Miss Cindy for 7 years even though she is married.  Oh well!  Anyway I had a good time at the lake.  Dad and I had a splashing war (of course I lost).  We were there for about 2 1/2 hours then we left.  I had a fun week and so far a great summer. 
How about you?

Max

I'm Becoming a Cub Scout

Yesterday I went to Spencer's Eagle Scout ceremony.  He was becoming an Eagle Scout which is a very hard task.  I'm thinking about joining the Webelos.  I might become an Eagle Scout one day!  When I join I'm going to have to do some catching up.  Everyone is going to have a bunch of stuff on their uniforms while mine is blank.  I'm excited to join the Cub Scouts.

Spencer's Eagle Scout Ceremony

Rocket launching at Cub Scout Event

 

 

 

 

 

Rocket after landing

(Note from Dad: The rocket pictures and activity were done after the blog was written. This was from a Cub Scout Advancement and Recruitment Ceremony that we learned about while we were at Spencer's Eagle Scout Award ceremony.)

The Oregon Trail

This week in school I went on the "Oregon Trail".  It wasn't really the Oregon Trail.  It was just Settles Bridge Park.  Part of the 4th grade went.  Our class was divided into families.  We made wagons with covers on them.  We untwisted clothes hangers, bent them, and then duck taped them to the wagons.  After that we put a bed sheet over them to make a cover.  I got a full workout on the trail.  I hauled the wagon the whole time.  It was tiring.  We got down to the river, ate lunch, and headed back up the trail.

What did you do that was fun this week?

Big Tests

Next week in school, I'm taking the CRCT. I am very nervous because I have to pass all 5 tests to go to 5th grade. In 3rd grade, I had to only pass teh reading test of the CRCT. Reading is the easiest test so it was pretty easy to pass. So 4th is a whole lot harder. Monday is ready, Tuesday is Grammar, Wednesday is math Thursday is Science and Friday is Social Studies! The good thing is that is it easier than the benchmarks. The benchmarks are tests that you take every nine weeks to show what you already know. I've already took the benchmarks over the school year. Wish me luck!

I'm building a really cool wind mill out of K'nex.

(Note from Dad - Here is a video of the wind mill in action and Max's ideas on who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election.)

Windmill Video

Spring Break on Hilton Head Island

This spring break I went to visit Aunt Nancy in Hilton Head.  The trip was fun and I did lots of cool things. It took five hours for us to drive there.  It wasn't that bad though. Now I am writing this on the way home.

When I went to the beach I didn't swim much, but I built cool things in the sand. I built a pond out of a tide pool on the beach.  It had a canal connecting to a moat going around two islands with a volcano on one end and the other end had two mountains with a valley in between them.  It was sad when the tide came up.  It washed all my hard work away for that day.  Did I say that I did most of that by hand?  At the end of the day I went on a little scavenger hunt.  I searched the beach for anything people left behind.  I found two white towels and a multicolored beach towel.  I also found two shovels, a soccer ball, and two pails.  Man, people don't pay attention to their belongings!

Also at Hilton Head we rode bikes across the island.  While we were riding we found two gators!  I think we're really, really lucky to find that many.  We had to cross the street a couple of times which was a little weary  We ate pizza at the Salty Dog Cafe.  Aunt Nancy noticed that the pizza box was a checker board and that the box also had punch out checker pieces on the sides.  We rode back and returned our rental bikes.  I had a blast this spring break!  How about you?

Big Bucks

 Today I went to the Federal Reserve.  It's a place in Atlanta where they sort money.  At first I thought they made the money.  Inside they have a whole system to sort and shred money.  The people who work there wrap the bills into stacks and the stacks into bundles.  100 bills make a stack and 10 stacks make a bundle.  They load the money on a cart.  A computerized robot takes the cart and puts it on a truck.  The truck then delivers the money to the bank.  After the tour I got shredded money which was cool.  I liked going to the museum.  You should go there sometime.

The Lorax

This week I saw The Lorax.  The movie was great and I want you to see it. The Lorax is about when a boy likes a girl and the girl wants a living tree because in their world they have no mother nature.  The boy's granny told him about a man who has the last seed.  The boy goes to him and listens to a story.  I don't want to give away the story or the rest of the movie so you're going to have to see it for yourself.  I was wondering if you have been doing anything exciting lately.  If you want to tell me you can comment.  See ya!
Max

Star Wars and Other Science Fiction Movies

This week I went to the movies. I saw Star Wars episode I, the Phantom Menace, in 3D. It was really cool when the lightsabers were popping out at you. Dad said that it was his least favorite of the Star Wars movies but I thought it was cool. I recommend the movie.

I also saw Green Lantern on Bluray at home. It was kind of funny watching the hero get beaten up. It was definitely worth $2 at the Blockbuster machine or $1.50 on Redbox.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

Hockey

Yesterday, I went to a hockey game. Miss Cindy gave Dad and me a boys night out for Christmas. We ate pizza at the stadium. Our team, the Gwinnett Gladiators won against the Chicago Express. It was a good game because Gwinnett won 3 to 1. They scored two points on power play where they had 5 men and the other team had 3 or 4. It was exciting because it all happened in the last 5 minutes of the game. I almost snapped my vocals cords from cheering and yelling but they are better today. I hope you had a great time this week. If you did something cool this week, comment to let me know about it!