Mommio: Word Challenge

Write a sentence for each word.  

Anyone who can come up with a complete sentence that makes sense for each word gets a dollar!

 

chagrin- (noun) shame, embarrassment, humiliation
No doubt, the president felt a good deal of chagrin after forgetting the name of the prime minister 

at the state banquet.

charlatan- (noun) quack, fake, fraud
"That charlatan of a doctor prescribed the wrong medicine for me!" complained the patient.

clandestine- (adjective) secretive, concealed for a darker purpose
The double agent paid many clandestine visits to the president's office in the dead of night.


*all words, definitions and sentences are from the Kaplan SAT Vocabulary Prep Level 1 book

Connor: Blog Of The Day

The euro is the national currency of Europe.  They are used in Germany, Ireland, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg, France,  The Netherlands, Italy, Austria, and Finland.  The coins are worth 1 euro cent to 50 euro cents.  The bills are worth up to 500 euros.  There are coins equal to a euro bill or two euro bills kind of like the dollar coins we have in America.  The coins can be called by the names of the country's old currency.  That can get a bit confusing.  In the United Kingdom they don't use euros, but the euros are treated like foreign currency.  the exchange rate is 0.7009 euros is equal to one dollar here.  Sadly I have no idea what 0.7009 euros is in coins and have tried looking it up.

Gabe: Blog Of The Day

A euro is money that is used in European countries.  It comes in bills and coins like our US dollars and cents.  A euro is worth $1.48 in US money.  Euros  have been around since 1999. Euros are used in Italy, France and Spain there are eight more countries that they are used in.  It would cost 700 euros to buy an IPhone in the Netherlands.

Marney: Blog Of The Day

The euro price can change all the time. Right now in the US a euro is worth $1.48.  The countries that use the euro are Austria, Gelignite, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. The euro was introduced to the world in 1999.  They started using it in January 2002.  If you wanted to buy something in euros and know the price it can change all the time. It can change if you are in different places.  If you were in Finland and buy something there and then go to Netherlands and you buy the same thing but with euro then you would see they are not the same price.

Avery: Blog Of The Day

Euros are used in 12 different countries like, Spain, Luxembourg, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Austria, and Finland. The name "euro" was introduced in 1995. People voted between 8 different symbols. They voted for this symbol-

It comes in 8 different coins and 7 different bills. The bills come in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 euro denominations. Here is a picture of a 20 euro cent coin-

If I wanted to buy a soda in euros it would cost 50 euro cents.

Kiki: Blog Of The Day

Euros are used by twelve countries.  Those countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.  They have bills and coins.

Mason: Blog Of The Day

Jack's Time Traveling Adventure
By Mason

One day in Marble Falls a boy named  Jack had just turned three. He was playing a game with his brother Max. Suddenly a big hole opened then Jack from the future jumped out of the hole. And asked Jack to help him stop the aliens from taking over the world. Jack said yes and they went to the future to stop the aliens. But the alien had set a timed trap so when they got there the cage would fall on them and trap them. When they got there they got trapped by the aliens. The aliens took them to the mother ship. The aliens took them to their leader. The leader told his minions to kill Jack from the past. Then Jack from the future broke the cage and killed one of the aliens. Jack from the past accidentally pressed the self destruct button. Both of the Jack's ran out of the ship and closed the exit and got far away from the ship and it exploded. Jack from the past went back to the past. When he got there Marble Falls was empty. To Be Continued.        

Marney: Blog Of The Day

Jack Is The Hero
By Marney

One day there was a kid who was 3 and his name was Jack.  When he was two he thought that aliens were real and that when he is a grownup he will get killed by them and that they will take him to this weird place. But then he said to his mom that he wanted on the computer and his mom said to ask someone else.  So then he went to Ava and asked her to put him on the computer. Then Ava put Jack on the computer and Jack typed in on Google "What do aliens do?"  Then he read something that said aliens do stuff that people do they play tag and they buy food but their food was things like rocks and stuff. Then he said in his mind, What? That makes no sense and don't they kill people and take them to this place? Then he read the rest of it and one more thing he saw was a picture and the picture had an alien eating  a person.  Then he said in his mind, OMG! I did not know they eat people!  Then he typed in "Are aliens real?" Then he found something.  And it said that aliens were not real and that if they were they would not hurt you.  Then he found out all on his own that he had two things telling him both the opposite things. Then he had to go on a big journey. Then he had to eat lunch. Then he went back and saw a bunch of other things that had things about how aliens are not real. Then he went back to the other one and he saw at the way end that it said that they were real before people were alive.  Then he went to mom and said "Mom, do you know when I said aliens were real? Well now that I went on the computer I figured out that they were not real at all and that they had been real when people were not alive."

Daddio: 5/19/11 Blog of the Day

What the heck is a euro?  I know you guys are studying world geography and Europe, and that got me thinking about the euro.  All I know is that its some kind of European money.  How much is it worth?  How long has it been around?  What countries use euros? If you wanted to buy things in euros, how much would it cost? Research all these things using google and then tell me everything I need to know about euros.

Avery: Krause Springs!

Yesterday, Mom, Marney, Kiki, and I all went to Krause Springs to meet up with the Shaws! Lilly, Ella and Rebecca were the only ones that came. First we played down in the springs. The water was very cold, but we still swam a lot. Lilly and I went on the rope swing. We were a little scared at first, but then we got over our fears and went on it a few times! Also we took a lot of pictures! When we were in the flower garden I had Marney model and then we took pictures of flowers and butterflies. We also played in the pool!

Connor: Blog Of The Day

The Historic End

By  Connor M. Jones

In the year 3400 Jack awakens from a frozen slumber.  He became a scientist before his death 2110 and worked on a high tech time machine.  The time machine at the time of invention was just a plan, a simple blue print.  Although in the futuristic time 3110 a measly thousand years after his death, the time machine was built completely.  Later in 3400 the time machine was perfected, yet all credit went to Jack.  He was the only member of the group of scientists to request that his body be frozen until people had the science to cease death.  Jack wandered around the lab for a while and stared at the new technology when suddenly he met a man named Robbert Munch.  Robbert said "Welcome to our city.  It was founded two hundred years ago by my great grandfather.  As to the time machine in front of you, I'm sure you remember the design."    Jack walked up to the time machine and studied it.  Robbert said "We tried to get the machine to work with your time's outdated power sources.  Sadly none of the power sources got it to work."   Finally Jack realized that it wouldn't work because he had forgotten to include the main power source in the instructions.  He turned toward Robbert and said "Well of course it isn't running, it gets power from lightning.  If the lightning hits the top perfectly I'll be able to travel time."  Robbert replied "Great.  So, you mean to say that the power source is natural not artificial.  To think we had tried plugging it into the electrical outlet years ago!"  Finally Jack looked at the building he thought was a museum, and asked what it contained.  Robbert replied "It has the greatest inventions from all of time.  It also has the greatest works of art and exhibits on extinct animals, like sharks.  By that I mean we found some of your time's museums and took the artifacts."  Jack was amazed and thus asked "How many items do you have from ancient countries?"  Robbert replied "About twenty.  That is why we need you to go back in time.  You have to collect everything that can be counted as an artifact."       .Jack said " You've got it, I'll be going right now.  See you in the future or past, I don't really remember.  I 'm out of here."  as he climbed into the time machine.  Robbert said "If you come across aliens they don't mean any harm.  Jack said "Okay." and Robbert added "The aliens have time traveling abilities to so don't make them mad.  You will no doubt find a benevolent Atlantian who would gladly help you and convince the ancients to give you certain artifacts."    Jack said "I promise I will not annoy any aliens at all.  If anything I will help them."  With that Jack traveled to ancient Egypt.  There he met the great kings: Tut, Ramses, and Ramses the second.  He also met the queens: Cleopatra, Nefertiti and the rest.  There were also Atlantians there helping build the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.  Suddenly the Atlantians asked if they could give Jack a ride to the rest of the countries and time periods he needed to visit. Jack said yes and went aboard their ship.  Jack spent all of time, up until the point where he'd give the artifacts to Robbert, traveling with the Atlantians and they, in turn, made him a god in the eyes of mortal men.  The End 

Gabe: Blog Of The Day

 Super Jack

By Gabe

One day there was a boy who lived in the year 4022. The boy was named Jack. There were a lot of hover cars on the earth that a mechanic named Elder made. Jack wanted to have some type of super hero robot power. So Jack went to a scientist who injected a virus into him called the t-viurs. The t-viurs blended with his blood so he became super Jack who had to kill monsters like zombies. One day he found a really big zombie so he went up to it to kill it and he tricked it.   He said "Oooo, I am a zombie." Then super Jack cut its head off and said "Take that zombie butt." Then Jack became a super hero.

 THE END

Avery: Blog Of The Day

The Scientist Jack

By Avery

One day there was a boy named Jack who lived in a science lab with his father Greg. Greg was a scientist. Later Greg died from drinking water with a chemical in it. Later Jack took over the lab and started creating things. He made unicorns by taking the horns of of narwhals and using surgery to put the on horses. He created the first robot with actual emotions. It could cry, love, be happy, be mad and eat anything! It runs on guinea pigs. In the stomach it has hamsters and guinea pig on those spinning things. He also created a teleporting ray gun. If you shoot anything it will teleport 100 feet away from you. He has been working on making dogs talk. One day his wife, who is also his assistant at the lab, came in and told him what everyone in the U.S has asked him to try to create. It was a cure for cancer. He worked a whole year looking and researching for an answer. Then he spent a whole year without sleeping, trying to make the cure. Suddenly he got a rabbit with skin cancer. He tested it on the rabbit to see if it worked. He waited a week to see how the rabbit was doing. After a week he tested the rabbit to see if it's cancer was completely gone. And it was! He finally created the cure for cancer! He gave it to hospitals and emergency centers. He practically saved the world. The next thing he had to do to save the world was to create the anti-virus!

Kiki: A Story

Once there was a squirrel.  The squirrel could fly. 

But it could not fly when there was wind.  And then he saw a dog.  So he tried to fly but it was windy so he couldn't fly until the wind stopped.  The dog was very close to him so he started to fly.  He flew past the clouds and into space until he didn't get air.  So he went back and saw the dog under him so he went to his home in a tall, tall tree. He was very scared of the dog because the dog would eat him.  That dog is his arch enemy.  So he was very, very scared of the dog.  He thought that he couldn't stay alive but he did.  He was very happy about that.  He went back in his tree and climbed up past the sky into space.  His tree was taller than the space!  He was very, very scared of that dog coming back but he didn't think the dog would come back.  So he was very, very, very happy.  When he got back to his tree he went to get nuts and when he got those nuts he split them in half with a knife and then gave some to the dog.

Kiki: Blog Of The Day

The Alien War

By Kiki

Once there was a little boy named Jack.  He was so happy that he just turned three.  So now he thinks he's so old he can even drive.  But he does not need to drive because he can fly.  And when he is flying he also gets some acorns when he flies in trees.  So when he went to the store he went to the vegetable aisle and he saw an outfit with a vegetable on it.  So when he bought it he went home and he put it on and then he wrote down his name on his outfit and it said "Jack Vegetable".  When he did all of that he was so excited that he was three so when he was at the store he remembered that he had to go to the park to go and stop an alien.  But he forgot when he went home.  Then the next day he remembered that there was an alien that he had to stop.  So he got his outfit on, the Jack Vegetable outfit, and went to the park to stop the alien. But there was not just one alien, it was a whole group of aliens so then he decided to call some of his friends.  Which was Kiki and Max.  When they got to the park they didn't have outfits on, they had swimsuits on.  So they had to go have a whole big war in swimsuits.  They killed all the aliens and Jack was the hero because he killed all of them.  Kiki and Max were just sitting down on the park bench eating a bunch of chocolate.

The End

Daddio: 5/18/11 Blog of the Day

Jack just turned three!  So for today's blog of the day post, in honor of Jack's birthday, I want you to write a science fiction story that has Jack as the hero/protagonist. Remember that science fiction stories often tell about science and technology of the future. It can involve aliens, time-travel, cool futuristic technology, etc.

Mommio: Spring Garden

We planted our Spring garden pretty late this year because of our trip to the Grand Canyon, but after a lot of weeding this past weekend it is finally starting to look like a garden again and Pedro (our tortoise) even got the first taste of our new crop of spinach and lettuce this morning.

Here is what's in our garden this Spring:

And here are a few shots of the garden this morning.  The beans are climbing their poles and there are flowers on all of the squash and cucumber plants. Starting to look good!

Mommio: Last Day Of Joan's Academy!

Today was the final day at Joan's Academy for our four oldest toes and the school celebrated it by inviting the family to an afternoon of food, programs, displays and fun.  We are all very proud of Connor, Mason, Avery and Gabe and it was exciting to see what they have been doing with their Mondays over the last eight months.

First, Avery and Gabe were both awarded certificates from 4-H for being members of the student leadership group this year.  Avery was the Vice President and Gabe was the Treasurer.

 Connor and Gabe both received participation medals from their chess club.  They didn't come in the top three for the chess tournament but they had lots of fun in this class.

 We watched Avery and Mason do a really cool Kung Fu demonstration.

The science class presented their own Rube Goldberg device called FrankenPickle, led by their instructor Mr. Maverick.  Unfortunately it didn't go as planned but it was fun to watch and the pickle did glow in the end!

We watched two films that all four kids participated in making from beginning to end in their film class this year.  One was about killer stuffed animals (Avery, Gabe and Mason worked on this one) and Connor's group did a funny one about how to talk to girls.  When we figure out how to format them to post online we'll share those too.

 Avery's choir class did a great job...here is their entire performance in pieces.

On display we also saw artwork from Mason and Gabe.

 The Lewis and Clark class that Avery,Gabe and Mason were in had a table set up with the things they had studied this year and the kids all made leather covered journals to bring home.

 And Gabe's English class displayed the comics they created this year based on books they read.  Gabe's was about The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  Here's a sample of his comic:

 Finally the kids ended it with a Market Day where the kids made and sold their own products to each other.  This was probably the kids favorite part of the day.  Mason made/sold M&M Peanut Butter Cookies, Avery made/sold really pretty rock necklaces and Gabe made/sold the very popular Slime. 

 They all came home exhausted from a fun day with a little extra cash in their pockets. 
It was a great afternoon!

Daddio: Someone liked my book!

I sent my book info out to a bunch of agents this weekend and got my first favorable response today!  I sent this particular agency my query letter, synopsis and first five pages.  They liked what they saw and asked for me to send hard copies of the synopsis, first three chapters and my bio.

A positive response?  Maybe I'm doing something right!

Exciting!

Mommio: Jack Is Three!