It’s me again, Joshua. Now I’m here to tell you about a piece of plastic that will give us annual entry to one of California’s most famous landmarks and theme parks Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. We were always hoping that Dad actually meant it when he said “We will probably get Disneyland passes because we will be moving right near it.” After we got here Dad started to look into prices for annual passes. We forgot about it for a while until school holidays came around and dad started looking at buying some. But in the first week of the holidays Mara went to Knotts Berry Farm.Which as you can see is a very cool theme park with very intense rides. Mara thought that Disneyland was for little kids and would not have any cool rides. Dad then showed her the Disneyland website, Mara thought that it would still be boring. She then went about convincing mum and dad that we would find Knott’s Berry Farm a lot more fun. Eventually Dad gets the e-tickets printed and we organize to go to Disneyland on the 8th of November after a 40 minute car ride we get to Disneyland we pay for parking and catch the tram to the front entrance we show the entrance clerk our e-tickets and to the bank of Disneyland to get our annual passes. We then found a Disneyland replica of a very old car that would take us up to the princess castle. Bryna who had just got her head cut open was breathless she was just pointing at the castle and saying “there lives Cindergrilla”. WE walked through the castle and went on the merry-go-round (which Bryna thoroughly enjoyed) We then went to the all famous teacup ride yay w00t!! (it’s over rated). We walked around for a while until we found a ride where there wasn’t much of a cue. We decided on MATAHORN MOUNTAIN dadadada. which is very fun but you get of with a rather sore bottom and after the second time with a verry rather sore bottom. Mum decided to take us on the Disneyland Railroad so we could see the rest of Disneyland the railroad was pretty cool we went through Splash Mountain and the Grand Canyon. When we arrived back at the station it was time for Princess Story Reading which Bryna loved and listened to every word that Sleeping Beauty said. Ten it was time for lunch, so we went down to Toon Town to eat a bagels. They had cheese on them they were a bit tough, but we managed them. We next went on the Toon Town Roller Coaster, the GO COASTER, it went round and round. We went on several other rides in Toon Town. After some fun in Toon Town we went to California adventure park, Where we first went on the G.R.R. (Grizzly Rapid Run). Luckily we didn’t get too wet, but we had some fun laughing at other who did. Next it was nime for the “BIG BOY RIDES”. The first of the “BIG BOY RIDES” was the Golden Zeffer, a bunch of space ships flying in a circle (they were not really flying they were on poles). Then we had fun, I mean “FUN” on the Malholland Madness ( or what ever it is called). Sun wheel was kinda hot ….. bum bum bum. (if you know what I mean, there were two different gondolas, swinging or not swinging, Ari being Ari……….FREAKED OUT ……. Bryna of course being tough as she is went in the normal gondola and DIDN’T freak out. Next we wanted some fun, so while Bryna , Mum , and Ari went on the Merry-Go-Round, which Bryna throughly enjoyed, The BIG boys and girl, went on the ……………. rollers coaster, CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN’. That was soooooooooooo cool ot had a loop dips hills and all at 90 kmh. (Mara said she had been on better).
That concludes our first visit to Disneyland.

Since we shifted to the new house which until very recently contained no television set, there has been a veritable explosion of reading by the children. Part of this has been the discovery of a very decent town library and not so much to distract them. Our children really do love to read, though sometimes television helps them forget it. So here is a list, supplied by each child, of what they have read recently.

Joshua

• Stormbreaker, Point Blank, Scorpia and The Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz
• Series of Unfortunate Events, Nos 1-8 by Lemony Snicket
• Black Duck
• By the Monkey’s Tail
• Small Steps by Louis Sachaf

Elijah

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azskaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
• Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda

Mara

• Into the Wild by Sara Beth Durst
• By the Monkey’s Tail by Kerrie O’Connor
• Dexter the Tough
• Series of Unfortunate Events, Nos 1-8 by Lemony Snicket
• The Unseen, Spyhole Secrets and The Magic Nation Thing by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• Junie B. Jones, First Grade (At Last)
• Inky the Indigo Fairy
• The Lake of Tears by Emily Rodda

Ariana

• Inky the Indigo Fairy
• The Lake of Tears by Emily Rodda
• Junie B. Jones

Bryna

• Clifford Saves the Day and various other Clifford books.
• Barbar’s Birthday
• A couple of Clarice Beans
• A couple of Charlie and Lolas

2nd of August: My Birthday I woke up about eight o’clock, changed he calenders in the kitchen.Then went and woke up everyone else (a bit anoying realy for them), it was time for presents yeah… but no Dad had to go to work and sort out some stuff (how unfair I don’t work or I could spoil his birthday too). And it got worse we didn’t just wait we had to tidy no x box, no gameboy or computor :(. After a promise of 1 hour dad came back after 2 hours. And finaly i could open my presents. (it was a bit hard to open them since as they were all in bags). I got: A didle pen ( didle is big in germany look on their web site if you want.),didle necklace, an “A” necklace, some chocolate (kinder), some pencils and a didle diary. We had a borthday dinner in Frankfurt with our great aunt Shirly at a italiano restaurent. But Dad did not want to buy desert (5 euro each). So we went across the raod and got some icecream at a ice café and all got a ice cream and mara did some fake candles for me (which i blew out in one:))
By Ariana with help from Elijah

Bryna recently learnt a new poem at kindergarten about a mouse family. She even has some actions that go with it.

If your German (or at least your Bryna German) isn’t up to scratch, the translation is roughly:

This is Sister Mouse
She has such big ears,
Such a big, pointy nose
And such a long tail

The verses repeat mentioning Brother, Father and Mother Mouse. The final verse, spoken in the tiny, soft voice is:

This is Baby Mouse
Has such little baby ears,
Has such a little pointy nose
And such a little tail
But then! *clapping* such a long tail!

It did remind us of a character popular with the children …

Ariana underwent day surgery at a nearby hospital after our family doctor verified a small hernia on her lower left-side abdomen. The whole process was very quick and (as an outsider tends to sometimes think of Germans) efficient. Her doctor’s appointment was a Thursday afternoon, immediately after which the doctor called his surgical colleague at the hospital and set up an appointment for the next day. Gaynor took her along — since her German is better and the surgeon’s English wasn’t so great — and the operation was scheduled for the following Wednesday, very much to Gaynor’s surprise.

The surgery went fine with Ari recovering quickly. Unfortunately the hospital was a little short on rooms and she spent some of her post-op period on a bed behind a screen in the hallway. She was ready to go home by 4pm, having arrived at 7am, and, naturally, was quiet tired and sore.

About an hour after returning home, and much to our surprise and chagrin, Ari noticed another tell-tale hernia bulge on her right-side lower abodomen! Talk about timing, total lack of. She has an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss options and while she hasn’t complained about it, she is a little anxious and has asked that both parents be there for this one.

This school year I have started some new subjects (Latin, geography & chemistry) and my classes have changed from last year. I’ve not done much study because I am too busy playing Runescape online. I have Latin with my old history teacher and he’s as blind as a bat and he reads a book the same way archaeologists examine old papyrus rolls. (Really really closely). he was absent for the 1st week of school for an eye operation and now he can see a lot better but he still looks like an archaeologist examining something very carefully. My other new teachers are all the same boring lecture giving people as most teachers usually are.

We have had two sick people in the last week me and Ariana. I’m still sick so I get to stay home from school. It realy hurts. At scool I’ve got three new subjects History,physik and French. French is cool.
Elijah