My Elf on the Shelf returned!!

Black Friday morning, I walked down the stairs still half-asleep, and sat on the couch. Eureka! I had remembered that my elf would be coming back soon. Then, I looked to the left, and... my elf scout was sitting on our nook next to the heater!! YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now Jolly would be hiding places until Christmas morning. If you don't know what an Elf on the Shelf is, well I'll explain. You can buy them, or sometimes they just arrive at your house, and they return on Christmas morning to go back to Santa. They move almost every night to a different spot in your house, and they usually hide on high things. You can even write your elf a note, and sometimes they write back. They sit still all day, and then only move at night. I encourage you to but one if you like elves, and if you like little company.

The Soccer Ghost

                                                The Soccer Ghost

By Nuala Rodgers

One day a girl named Jenny was playing right forward in a soccer game. The other girls on Jenny’s team thought she had been acting a little suspicious. Like when she would be shooting on their goalie and BAM!  She would be gone. Well, it was getting closer to Halloween, but the girls just thought they were seeing something.

This suspiciousness had been in their minds for a couple of weeks.  Jenny’s mom or dad might have been in on this. It would only happen when she would be playing soccer, and her mom or dad were watching.

But on Thursday, they had a game. Jenny was so psyched!!!! When she got on the field, and she was playing, she seemed to magically disappear from the field to the bench, and then the coach started yelling and screaming “WHERE’S JENNY?? WE NEED HER!! GOSH!! WHERE COULD SHE BE??!!” And sure enough you couldn’t see Jenny on the field which made them think she was a GHOST! But the coach was too focused on the game that she was still in shock of where Jenny went.

And, if you were listening closely, you could hear Jenny speaking in a very low voice saying “How am I weird?”

And the girls on her team now thought that Jenny was half-girl, half-ghost, but they still acted like it was so normal, and everything was cool.

But, the girls on Jenny’s team panicked so much when they were at home. At night they panicked, at mealtimes, and at school. And then their next game came around…..

And the same ghost thing happened again!! But this time the girls knew something was up. So, at the end of the game the girls asked Jenny “Why were you turning into a ghost in different times at the game?” “What are you talking about,” said Jenny.

After the game Jenny told her parents about this ghost problem. Jenny said “The-e-ey-y we-er-re ask-k-ing m-e-e-, as though she were on the verge of tears, but her dad stopped her and said, “Oh honey, we just put a fog machine with a foggy ghost on the bench. We really didn’t mean to scare you and you friends.”

“You never even told me that,” said Jenny. “No, we didn’t”, said her parents. “We just thought that because Halloween was coming up, we thought we would try to like seeing a foggy ghost on the sidelines during the game.” “Wow! now I won’t have any friends”, said Jenny. “Oh yes you will said her father”.  “But how did you make me invisible on the field”, Jenny asked.  “Oh with a shadow casting projector, it didn’t make you disappear, it just made you look really dark and hard to see”, her mom added.

Jenny couldn’t wait to tell her friends, or wait she wondered, maybe she should keep the secret until after Halloween?

What do you think she should do?

The   End.

About the Author

Nuala Rodgers is 8 years old.  She plays soccer on the B travel team and loves it. She lives in Dedham, Massachusetts, and goes to the Avery school. Nuala enjoys traveling, and thrives on school, and soccer. Nuala has a dog named Sunny, and a cat named Benny, and loves hanging out with them. And she has a family with whom she laughs a lot.

Sadly, soccer is ending

Sadly, soccer is ending. It has been a great season, and I only have 1 more game in Milton  at Houghtons Pond/Blue Hills Reservation.

I made a lot of new friends, and we've only lost 1 game against Mansfield 2-1. Yesterday we beat the Mansfield team that we previously lost to 2-1. I had both assists, and this girl whom is really good on my team scored both goals. But, in the first half, I let in 1 goal playing goalie. I was about half of a second behind it, but it slipped of the grass and into the net. Since we won, we clinched 1st place in our age group for Dedham. We were all jumping on the girl who scored both goals for us. WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the girls on my team I had already known, but some I hadn't so it was fun to still have close relationships with the friends I knew, but also meet new girls. But since most of my team were in town before, we knew each other. And some of us were even on the same team.

What was sad was you had to leave some of your friends from your team, and from school (etc.), because there are an A, B, and C team. For example, I had a best friend Sarah, and we were in 2nd grade together, and now she is not in my 3rd grade class, she's not on my soccer team. She's on the A team, and I'm on the B team.

I can't forget my soccer COACH!!!!! My coach was my coach in town, and now in travel. He is a very nice guy, and I feel he teaches us a lot of things that help us improve on our soccer skills. What's also funny is that my coach gave us nick names, like I'm Nualr, theres Mace face, T, and a lot of other names. Well, at least I'll be with my same team in the spring!!!!!

A New Start, A New Chance to Learn

Second grade brought many new changes to my life. I got a new home in a new town. I got a new school, a new teacher, and all new friends. Although at first I was nervous leaving the Cape the only home Id ever known, I quickly realized that I might actually fit in. The biggest surprise was how awesome my teacher was. We started emailing together, she inspired me to write, and be the best student I could be. When I had to say goodbye to her at the end of second grade I felt gloomy. It's always sad to leave behind good memories, a whole lot of fun, and a place where I felt special. But a girl has to grow up. And now, I'm in 3rd grade!!

My new teacher is named Ms.Merrit. She is very different from my old teacher, but I think I'm going to enjoy it. I have lots of new classmates, new rules to learn, and even some new opportunities. One of these is a chance to take violin lessons. Another one is to participate in this thing called girls on the run (I'm in it!). Finally, there's travel soccer. There's gonna be a lot of good material for blog posts. So stay tuned.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I encourage you to take the ALS challenge. I did it!!!
Once you have done it, send me the video.

Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon was SOOOOO FUN because it was my first time watching it, (etc). But I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for my Mom and my Uncle. We were at my cousin's house for Easter, and my cousin and I had to do a lot of convincing. Sylvia (My cousin) kept the notes we wrote to them for Thanksgiving! And on the note my Mom wrote to us maybe in the Spring of 2014 we could have a sleepover. So that proved to my Mom that she had wrote it, and we could have a sleepover. When my family left my Mom said to me "Dad and Flynn will meet you guys at the marathon." I responded "Okay!"

 So I slept over Easter night, and in the morning we got dressed, and we watched part of a movie we had started the  last night, and soon it was time to go to the marathon. We packed sunscreen, LOTS of food, a game, and blankets. They lived in Maynard, and we had go to Newton, so it took a little while, but not too long.

When we got there we unpacked everything, and their Grammy and Grandpy  there on the other side were there, and 2 other cousins. Everybody set stuff out, and we just talked with family members. It was VERY fun!!! First, there were just army women and men walking, and police with their motorcycles, and cars. We cheered them on. Then I noticed that my Dad and my brother were right behind me. I was shocked for a second. They had brought a lot of stuff like food, and coats. Finally, the marathon began.

YYYYYYAAAAAYYYYY!!!!! Some runners came through. I heard screams from all around. I was so EXCITED! First, the wheelchair athletes came through. They were sweating, and really tired, and working very hard. We cheered so much for them! Second, the women runners came through. I remember the first 2 women: The first girl was Rita Jeptoo, and the second girl was Shalane Flanagan. Shalane was actually from Marblehead! Rita was a 33 year old women from Kenya. They were so fast! I could tell that they were working so hard also. Third, all of the men were running past us. Zoom! They also were running very fast. I remember the first guy: His name was Meb Keflezighi. Meb was 38. The whole group of men were very fast. After, other men and other women were running. That's when we started giving out waters.

Sometimes they were running so fast that when they got the water out of somebody's hand, and it would just drop. And sometimes the people would tell you to splash/throw the water on them. We brought 10 gallons of water, and we ran out! So then we started giving out oranges. And that went good too. Some of my cousins put them on a plate, but I didn't. Eventually, we ran out of those! After that, my Dad told me that after my aunt came by, we would leave. I said "Okay" in kind of a sad voice, because we were going to leave all of the fun! Soon enough, my aunt came by. We both said "Hi" to each other. P.S. I'm the girl who's wearing a hat in the picture.

Then we started packing our stuff up, saying good bye, and walking to the car. My Dad really wanted a drink so he said we would have to go to a store to buy him a drink on the way home, but there was a lemonade stand, and the lemonade was only $.50. So we bought that.

When we got home I found out the winners: 1st place winner for the men was Meb Keflezighi who finished in 2:08:37, the first place winner for the women was Rita Jeptoo who finished in 2:18:57, but Shalane Flanagan came in 7th place. For the wheelchair athletes the 1st place winner for the women was Tatyana McFadden who finished in 1:35:06, and 1st place winner for the wheelchair athletes for the men was Ernst Van Dyk who finished in 1:20:36. They all did really good!

And that was the time of my life.

Movie Review 5: RIO2

RIO2 was a way better movie than RIO, the first one. I'll tell you 4 of my favorite parts. One was when the some of the blue birds played a soccer game with some of the red birds. We wanted the blue birds to win, but unfortunately they lost. But it was so cool because I love soccer and there was a scene on it, and they made the birds ave so much talent in the "bird soccer game." Another one of my favorite parts was when the husband blue bird was on his GPS trying to find Linda and Tolio which were his old owners, and the lady said searching for dinner in Tokyo! My 3rd  favorite part was when they moved to the Amazon Rainforest, and they met this other blue bird. Their family thought that they were the only blue birds in the world. The bird they met had the voice of Bruno Mars. (Really good singer). He showed them his house that he made last minute for them. It was pretty good though. My last favorite part was when they got in a house, and they were pretty much acting like people! They were making pancakes, watching T.V., and sitting at a table eating breakfeast! They had no shelter so that's

where they went. So as you can tell, this was a very good movie. Kids will like it a lot, and adults will like it to!